What is the best foam to have on your skimmer?

[btacker]

I just got an Aqua C Remora and put it on my tank. This is my first skimmer ever so I would like to know how to set the height of the skim cup.

Which is better:

Higher up, the less foam, but it is dryer and darker.

Lower, more, but whiter and wetter.

Which is better? Is it better to get all I can out of the tank, or go for the darker stuff?

[scuba_steveo]

I am hoping someone will answer this so I will know too. I have mine set as low as it will go which produces alot of liquid skim.

[StephenA]

If you keep it whiter and wetter you will be pulling to much water out. I prefer Thick Nasty foam in mine.

[Joe]

I have to set my skimmate cup all of the way down for it skim anything. If it is raised up, it won't skim properly for me. BTW, I have the skimmer box. If this skimmer is not kept clean it will not work properly. I think this is a pain in the *****. I'm talking about removing and cleaning below the white set screw on top of the downtube. Hope this helps.

[matt]

The great foam debate... I certainly would not worry about the remora pulling too much water out of your tank. I'd probably set it low unless doing so results in clean water flooding your skimmer cup; unlikely with that skimmer.

In general, my skimmer mostly removes sludge and kind of a organic paste first, which coats the inside of the neck, and then a dark, but water thick, skimmate. You can see dirty foam being pushed over the neck into the cup. I have never seen a skimmer remove skimmate the thickness of oil. It's either solid waste and/or watery liquid which can be pretty dark in color. Now, I think the way people get the "motor oil" stuff is that the skimmer removes liquid which then evaporates pretty quickly; remember you've got a lot of air swirling around in the collection cup, and pretty soon the watery liquid is thick like oil.

A good but very unscientific test is to smell the stuff. If it's really nasty smelling, I imagine you've removed a lot of waste products, not so much uneaten food. The smellier the better, I guess. At least when I get a wiff of the stuff in my collection cup, I'm REALLY glad it's not still in my tank.

[StephenA]

I hate the smell test. I keep mine on gag mode.

[wkopplin]

My skimmer (made by Matt), gets some very nasty green skimmate in it. That stuff is very bad smelling stuff. If any of my friends ever really irritate me, I am sticking a cup of the stuff under their car seat on a hot August day. The foam is a pretty dry foam.