Yuk in the cup ???

[Boovey]

Right today's question is : my 250 been running about two years , I read and see a lot of you guys go about thick yuk stuff in skimmer cup ,,, on mine I get a lot in funnel leading up to top but little drops into cup ,, is this ok ? Am I doing something wrong ?? I'm well stocked and run ozone
Thanks mark

 

[goma]

Sounds like you are dry skimming so you have little skimmate. If you are being successful, I wouldn't worry about it.

If you want to, adjust the air flow to get the bubbles breaking higher in the neck and you'll skim wetter.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Is the water level about 1/4 - 1/3 way up the neck?

 

[BigAl07]

Depending on your bioload and other factors you may not "need" to skim as heavily as others do.

On the other hand you really should be getting a good amount of "yuk" in the cup even with a light bioload. Maybe you're skimming to dry or your skimmer level (in relation to water level) needs to be adjusted down some. The foam should be spilling over into the cup and then congregating as a smelly tasty dark liquid. The wetter you skim the more you have to empty the cup.

 

[Steve L]

I find that as tanks mature they tend to skim dryer. I know this isn't the case for everybody, but as my 3 tanks get older and more mature I find that it's almost impossible to skim wet. I get the heavy dark sludge build-up in the neck of the skimmer but it only goes over the top at night and leaves very little liquid in the bottom of the cup. This is true even when I drop the collection cups to their lowest setting. My skimmers work great and all of my tanks are very healthy, it's just kind of odd.

 

[Boovey]

Thanks guys I have cup high with bubbles reaching the top most of the time ,, I will try lowering the cup first
Thanks mark

 

[DaveK]

While the others make correct points, I'd be looking for some sort of skimmer problem. According to the fish list in your signatue, you 6 fish plus other livestock. That should be producing plenty of waste products for the skimmer to remove.

You may need to clean the skimmer, especially thr pump and any air injection stuff. Sometimes they get clogged. You must have some of them because your using ozone.