Various tips on new aquarium.

Question
Hello Tyler,
I have recently set up a new 180 litre marine coral aquarium, and at the moment most things are running smoothly. There are a few concerns I have and so I would like your advice please.

Protein Skimmer.
I have purchased a standard Red Sea Protein Skimmer. Does this need to be on 24/7 as the noise can be a bit distracting when in the living room? Are there any better more quiet ones on the market?
The skimmer produces a wet bubble substance. If I increase the water/air intake this causes the bubbles to rise and the collection department at the top fills with water, and begins to seep out of the top. Due to this I decrease the intake and this produces the substance to sit bubbling just above the 'O' ring. I thought that the skimmer would produce dry sticky bubbles which overflow and collect in the chamber at the top. Does mine sound correct?

Thankyou for your time.

Brad

Answer
Hey Brad

Is the skimmer the red sea prizm skimmer? Those have a bad reputation, and i never knew why. i bought one myself, and now i see. lol. You basically dont want bad skimmers like seaclones and weipros that are loud, and need constant adjustments. I have tried lots of skimmers, and my personal favorite are Coralife skimmers. I got the 65g needle wheel version for $180 from big als, and its dead silent and needs little fine tuning.

Youre right, your skimmer should produce wet sticky bubbles, ideally the skimmer junk in the cup should look like a Wendy's frosty that sat out overnight (gross i know. lol). Thats one of the things that are bad with Red Seas, you either get too much flow, and you get water in the cup (which you dont want), or you get too little flow and nothing happens, this is notorious on weipros, red seas, and seaclones.

To be honest, youre best off getting a good skimmer like a coralife or Aqua-C. They require little tuning and always skim good. However, if you want to keep using the red sea, you can do a few mods on it to help fix the problems.

http://www.reefland.com/forum/diy/16105-totw-8-23-05-prism-skimmer-mods.html