Cali Kid Corals

Room Smells like Skimmer Cup

magnetar68

magnetar68

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The room i keep my 125G has a smell to it. It gets worse as the skimmer cup fills up during the week. maybe its because i have seahorses and feed a lot of frozen mysids. Maybe its because of the brand of skimmer (ATB). Any tried and true solutions to this (like carbon in the skimmer cup)?
 
That's a real quick way to send the wife acceptance factor to negative numbers!

I only notice the odor when the cup has filled and some 'skimmer tea' has escaped the little vent holes on the cover. Seems to spray all over the place when that happens! :(

I've gone with cleaning the cup more often. I've also used the cup drain to a one gallon milk jug. I'm nervous about this because once in a while the skimmer just goes crazy. The Avast product has a shut off feature, I believe.
 
I was going to suggest a drop of bleach and tablespoon of water into the skimmer cup after cleaning. I am not sure what it would do to the plastic long term though.
 
aqua-nut said:
That's a real quick way to send the wife acceptance factor to negative numbers!
...
I've also used the cup drain to a one gallon milk jug. I'm nervous about this because once in a while the skimmer just goes crazy. The Avast product has a shut off feature, I believe.
Click to expand...

I use the milk gallon in a 5 gallon pail approach. My skimmer has only gone crazy twice and after the second time I figured out why it was happening but still use the bucket. (The cause was Selcon EFA supplement making lots of moist bubbles in the skimmer)
 
+1 on the skimmate locker.
You could also set a small bag of carbon over the skimmer air holes, but
it has to be loose enough to not block air flow.
Be careful of adding things to the cup. If skimmer goes crazy and overflows, what you
added could end up in the tank.
 
Lots of good suggestions already. Not having the skimmer pump connected to a switch that will turn off when the skimmate container reaches a certain point makes me nervous - that just seems like a point of failure bound by Murphy's Law. :eek:

Draining the sump into the floor (regardless of whether it's caused by an overflowing skimmer) always sends SAF into negative numbers territory.

A skimmate locker with a couple float valves, similar to ATO systems, seems like it could be a quick DIY. Has anyone got any tips/thoughts?

Update: Looks like Avast has a replacement pressure switch for the skimmate locker.
 
I get the same thing from time to time. As John stated that doesn't help the wife factor much. Especially when your tank is only a few feet away from your wife's spot at the dinner table :)

I recently acquired a few lbs of coconut carbon and I plan to add on a short (3"-4") section of acrylic tube to the top of the skimmer cub and load that with the coconut carbon. I hear that does help quite a bit with the odor but have yet to try it. The coconut carbon is supposedly well suited for air filtration.

~Charlie
 
I have installed an Avast Skimate Locker and it helps A LOT, but I can still smell a little "off" odor. It seems like most of the smell now is coming from the overflow and not from the skimmer underneath the tank in the cabinet.
 
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