Brand New ETS 800 Skimmer

Pictured to the left is my ETS 800 Gemini Skimmer that I used to use. I've since replaced this skimmer with a beckett based skimmer custom made by Reef Sciences. This skimmer is made by A.E. Technology. The term "ETS" is an acronym for Environmental Tower Scrubber. This style skimmer is called a downdraft skimmer. It does not use any air stones or a venturi to make air bubbles like many common skimmers. Instead ETS skimmers use pressure pumps to force water through a stack of bio-balls. This forced water injection draws in a massive amount of air into the skimmers. Sometimes large ETS skimmers even make a slight whistle sound from the air rushing into the skimmer.

Now some of you may be thinking - "Aren't bio-balls bad for a reef tank?". These bio-balls do not serve the same purpose as bio-balls used in a Trickle filter. It only has a few of them used to break-up water rushing down the mixing stacks.

I've experimented with removing the standard ETS Injectors and instead use a ETS 800 Beckett Modification. The Beckett Injector is a high pressure venturi device that creates massive amounts of small bubbles when tuned correctly.

Read more information on How skimmers work.

Stable Foam Inside Skimmer

To the left is a picture of the inside of the top half of the skimmer. You can see it is a think stiff bubble foam which will not collapse or pop when the skimmer is turned off. This is what is considered a stable dry foam.

On the sides of the skimmer walls I get a thick green tooth paste like buildup which needs to be cleaned out every few days.

About a weeks worth of Skimmate

This is my skimmate container. It shows a little more than 1,600 ml (little less than 1/2 US gallon) of a dark green/brown skimmate.

This is about what I am currently pulling out each week. This picture was taken after 7 days of collection.

The top of this container just pops off and I poor it down the drain. The person who can find a use for this stuff can earn millions of dollars. Many people think they can use this as a fertilizer and try it and wonder why it kills their plants. You can't use this stuff because it also contains a high concentration of salts from the salt water.

This container is actually a bread container that is normally used horizontally with is plastic slide tray the bread sits on. I removed the slide tray and drilled a hole in the top for the skimmate hose from the skimmer to enter and it works great.

Skimmer in need of a cleaning

This picture shows the skimmer turned off for cleaning after running for a few days. You can clearly see the green tooth paste like buildup I talked about above on the side walls of the skimmer.

To clean the skimmer I unbolt the top and rinse out with tap water. I clean the inner parts of the skimmer with a wet sponge and leave wet. Never dry out the inside of the skimmer because it adds to the amount of time it takes the skimmer to start foaming again. I then clean the bottom part of the foam riser tower with a wet sponge.

Every now and then I remove the manifold part of the skimmer (white pipes) and remove any salt buildup from the injectors or air ports.