Protein Skimmers: How to Tune a Protein Skimmer
Protein Skimmers play a vital role in any reef aquarium. Ensuring they are properly tuned and dialed in is critical to any reef keeper’s success. Check out these tips to ensure your aquarium skimmer performs at its best.
How Frequently Should You Check Your Protein Skimmer Performance
We recommend checking the performance of your skimmer at least once a week.
When to Tune a Protein Skimmer
Always tune your skimmer before adding any of the following, as they can significantly impact bubble formation:
- Foods
- Medications
- Additives
- Chemicals
- Other Supplements
Some of these items prevent average bubble production. In contrast, others significantly increase bubble production, so it is generally never a good idea to tune your skimmer right after adding anything to the water.
Challenges of a Brand New System and Brand New Skimmer
Nearly every protein skimmer requires significant tuning directly out of the box to help tailor its performance to your particular system. Furthermore, many new aquariums have their ebbs and flows, which require additional tuning. Knowing how best to dial in your skimmer makes it easy to be prepared for whatever your aquarium throws at it. On the other hand, more settled systems will often just require one initial tuning and will be set for months on end.
How to Tune a Skimmer
The following procedure applies to needle-wheel skimmers, which are by far the most common type of skimmer currently sold on the market. Needle-wheel skimmers feature an impeller with a bunch of pegs or needles on the impeller wheel that chop up the air bubbles being sucked into the pump. Although it may seem counterintuitive, reducing/pinching down the airflow to the pump will generally make it run faster and allow more air to enter the skimmer body.
Step-by-step instructions for fine-tuning the performance of any needle wheel skimmer
1. Open Wedge Pipe or Gate Valve: Set the wedge pipe or gate valve to open fully. For a wedge pipe, this generally means lining up the adjustment knob arrow to arrow, and for a gate valve, this means opening it up as much as it will go.
2. Adjust Pump Speed: If you have a speed-controllable pump, turn it to 100%. (Pump speed control would likely be on a controller)
3. Adjust Air Intake: Completely close the air valve and then slowly open it, keeping a close watch on the level of the foam and bubbles inside the skimmer body. The smaller the air bubble, the better. Continue making minor changes to the air valve until you get the absolute peak height of the bubbles in your skimmer body. This will generally take 5-10 minutes to complete, as you will want to wait at least 30-60 seconds between adjustments.
Although it may seem counter-intuitive, closing the air valve decreases the size of the bubbles and increases the amount of air entering the skimmer’s body. This occurs because the pump speeds up when the airflow is restricted, pulling in more air than when the valve is fully open.
4. Adjust Water Level: Slowly turn the wedge pipe valve or gate valve to reduce the amount of water exiting the skimmer body. This will force the water to rise higher in the skimmer’s body. Stop when the bubbles start to reach the bottom of the collection cup/neck of the skimmer, as shown in the image below.
5. Be Patient: Wait 1-2 minutes, and then, if needed, make an additional adjustment to keep the bubbles near the bottom of the collection cup/neck of the skimmer. After 15-30 minutes, you should begin to see larger bubbles forming at the top of the bubble column/foam head.
6. Monitor: After 1-2 hours, the bubble column should naturally rise so that the bubbles are surging up and over into the collection cup. During regular operation, the bubble column/foam head will surge up and down naturally.
7. Check Skimmate: If the waste in your collection cup is very light-colored, open the wedge pipe or gate valve slightly to lower the water level. However, if you barely collect anything, you will want to close the wedge pipe or gate valve slightly to push more bubbles into the collection cup. The goal is to collect brown waste, similar to that of dark-brewed tea.
Pro’s Tip
If you know of any foods, medications, supplements, or other water additives that will impact your bubble production, it is generally best to turn your skimmer off when adding them to your tank. If you have a controllable skimmer, like our Simplicity DC Skimmers, simply slow the pump down as needed. Doing this will prevent you from re-tuning your skimmer when adding this item to your water.
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