Post your Skimmate Pics and Setup

Hey everyone, I'm new to the forum, but have been on it plenty of times. Through google searches mainly. I've found tons of very helpful information here. This site is just awesome. One thing I would like input on is.... Skimmer Brands/Setups/Adjustments/Skimmate production. Ive found it so time consuming to search all over the web for the right answers. Hopefully this post will help narrow down the searches.
Protein skimmers are just amazingly wonderful beautiful pieces of equipment, that we simply just cant live without. In my opinion. And sometimes, cant live with. What I mean by that is sometimes they can be headaches. And sometimes they can be your secret lover. I've personally been through 3 within 6 months. And let me tell you, figuring out how to dial them in was just a PITA. Until I met my new love.... The SWC 160 Cone Skimmer. My first was the Coralife 65G. Which was just a nightmare. I don't even want to get started with that one. Then I got a cheap "who knows where it was built...doo doo" skimmer...and it amazingly fired up and skimmed twice as fast than my Coralife. Its called a BOYU. Which did a pretty good job and really blew me away. But unsatisfied, feeling that if I just finally suck it up, and dish out the $$$'s, would really and truly get what I pay for.
So I researched and researched and by the way of my bank (wife) I was able to purchase my current SWC Cone Skimmer. And so far, I'm so happy with it, I actually take a pillow, open my stand cabinet, and lay there, on the floor, staring into my sump, watching the skimmer of my life...Skim away like theres no tomorrow. I really do that. I'm not ashamed to admit it :-/ I even ask my wife to lay next to me and just look at it with me.... Of course you can only imagine the look and words I get when I make that kind of a statement. Anyways... What I want to do is post all the info we can about the Setup, Adjustments, and Final Product (skimmate) of our skimmers. To hopefully help make everyone else's life a little easier when entering the wonderful world of skimming. Please pass the word along. I believe after all said and done, pics, numbers, and facts will help ease the anxiety of dialing in our skimmers. Or at least help. Happy tankin!

 

There is already a thread like this...

http://www.3reef.com/forums/protein-skimmers/all-about-skimmers-skimmers-skimmer-85389.html

it has all the skimmer info you could want to know!

 

where are your pics of your love? I have the same one, so it's cheating on me with you!!!:-[

 

And a thread like this too:

http://www.3reef.com/forums/protein-skimmers/show-your-skimmate-125904.html

 

SWC Cone 160 and BOYU DG-2516 Setup

My setup: 150 Gallon DT. 55 Gallon Sump.

Tried 2 Skimmers on this setup. Best results at:
BOYU DG-2516
Water level depth of skimmer- 10 inches.
Water line level(inside skimmer, before foam starts being made)-about 1 inch below cup bottom.
Water outlet adjustment- Adjust both outlet pipes ever so slightly, and evenly, until the water line level stated above is achieved.
Break in time- About 5 days before it produced its first skim.
Air Valve- Wide open.

*These settings were left as is from setup and never adjusted*

SWC 160 Cone
Water level depth of skimmer- 8 inches.
Water line level-Right at the white ring where the bracket that holds the exhaust pipe is held on to.
Water outlet adjustment- about 3/4 way closed. Hard to judge without actually looking into the exhaust pipe to have a good view of the wedge pipe. Whatever it takes to the water line at the white ring is exactly where its set.
Break in Time- To produce first skimmate it took 3 days. Nothing was done right out the box, I just placed it into the tank, plugged it in, and let it go. I cleaned the cup every couple days, and after about 1 week it started skimming on the wetter side. But definitely happy with the skimmer.
Air valve- Wide Open
*Upon setup, everything is left wide open until its broken in. After it broke in, I fed the fish enough food to break the foam head. Cleaned the cup, and set the water line to the white ring.. After the first week it started skimming a little wet (the pic with the brownish watery skim) Then after I cleaned the cup, and adjusted about 1/16th of an inch open (counter clockwise) it began to skim like the last picture. Dark, Nice, Foamy Skimmate. And I've never touched ever since. It consistantly produces consitant skimmate as in the last pic. *
**TIP** TRY TO AVOID PUTTING YOUR HANDS IN THE TANK AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE DURING BREAK IN PROCESS. THIS WILL ONLY PROLONG THE BREAK-IN. FEEDING THE FISH ALREADY DOES ON IT'S OWN.

 

;D LOL I'm sorry. I had to. She's so beautiful. I didn't know.

 

Oh trust me, i've read that entire post. It's AMAZING! It pretty much fully explains the "Hows, What's and Why's about a protein skimmer... But what i'm saying is try to have as much posts of personal setups. So we can have a concentrated thread of setups that are currently stable with descriptions of adjustments that were made to achieve their productivity. So say someone has a certain brand, that is pretty much new to the market, or an off brand, whatever the case may be and they found "the way" to get it working somewhat efficiently at the very least... It would make newbies like me sleep so much better at night. Because in my opinion, seeing is believing, and if someone has it all figured out, with actual numbers and adjustment points for a specific skimmer, then that info could save someone else TONS of searching and trials and error. At the very least it could provide a "known" starting point and can go from there if needed. And of course there are many factors that can have different results, such as tank size vs sump/refugium size and yada yada.. But having a visual and actual working reference point to start with will take alot of the guessing out. Which may actually lead to alot more happy tanks. Faster. I'm speaking from experience of course. If i knew what i knew now, i would have had my setup functioning properly in half the time, and would have saved alot of money from purchasing a couple of less efficient skimmers.
**Also, adding those links to this thread wont hurt at all** That's how I actually stumbled across it on a link in google. From another post that started off on a completely different subject...Kinda funny, but all in all, it will only benefit our knowledge. Thank you.