A sea K
10/15/2008, 03:12 PM
Generally I never shut my skimmer down while feeding and have always just waited for it to develop foam and pick back up afterwards. These effects are especially bad after feeding PE mysis or using Selcon as an additive and the skimmer usually shuts down for hours till it resumes its normal operation.
For whatever reason I decided to shut down the skimmer before feeding both PE mysis and Selcon today. I left it off for 30 mins after feeding and watching the tank for a bit, when I turned it back on it had resumed normal skimming within 10 mins. To say the least I was very surprised, enough so that I felt it important enough to post my new discovery without testing this method any further before making this announcement. I will try this method again to make sure it wasn't a fluke.
My belief is without the skimmer running when the food is introduced it allows enough time for the food oils to dissapate enough that it doesn't coat the skimmer causing the almost immediate collapse of the foam. Once the oils have dissapated and the skimmer is turned back on it seems to have little if any effect on the skimmer.
I realize many skimmers are adversly effected by feeding and thought some of you may find this technique interesting. If your skimmer shuts down when you feed it won't hurt to try as the skimmer isn't doing anything anyway.
Those of you that suffer from this problem and try it please post a response here for all to see. I hope it works as well for you as it has for me.
For whatever reason I decided to shut down the skimmer before feeding both PE mysis and Selcon today. I left it off for 30 mins after feeding and watching the tank for a bit, when I turned it back on it had resumed normal skimming within 10 mins. To say the least I was very surprised, enough so that I felt it important enough to post my new discovery without testing this method any further before making this announcement. I will try this method again to make sure it wasn't a fluke.
My belief is without the skimmer running when the food is introduced it allows enough time for the food oils to dissapate enough that it doesn't coat the skimmer causing the almost immediate collapse of the foam. Once the oils have dissapated and the skimmer is turned back on it seems to have little if any effect on the skimmer.
I realize many skimmers are adversly effected by feeding and thought some of you may find this technique interesting. If your skimmer shuts down when you feed it won't hurt to try as the skimmer isn't doing anything anyway.
Those of you that suffer from this problem and try it please post a response here for all to see. I hope it works as well for you as it has for me.