skimmate color

Most likely you need to adjust the water level down, which will dry up the foam and produce less.  And there is nothing really wrong with a green skimate.  Also, when first skimmed out there is no smell, the smell comes after it has sat for a while and bacteria start to break down the organics.

I like mine green and wet...  it seems to me that the skimmer works better and I don't get as much film algae.  I try to get atleast one cup (skimmer cup) of skimmate per-week. 

Along the same line of questioning, I have 2 of the biggest Berlin Skimmers and they both seem to be "working" at skimming sometimes and not other times.  It seems like when the water level is too low they don't bubble high enough to produce skimmate, but at other times when I would think everything should be fine this also seems to be the case. 

So, do big skimmers skim off everything they can and nothing happens again until there is more to be done at which time more skimmate is produced?  Or to ask another way, can all the protiens be skimmed off at a given time so that there are no more to be removed right now?

Update:
After some experimentation it APPEARS that proteins are
produced/ trapped in the water column at a constant rate but
escape into the collection cup at a rate dependent upon the
water line. Hence, lowering the water line produces skimmate
that is more concentrated (coffee colored) but at a slower rate.

Rate of skimmate production also changes according to the
water line in the sump (assuming that is the location of your
skimmer).   The rate limiting step seems to be production of the
protein rather than escape into the collection cup. Given these
observations it would seem there is no advantage in producing
coffee colored material to green colored stuff.

These observations are consistent with what must be a myth
regarding 'break-in' period for a new or just cleaned out
skimmer- what's probably happening is that protein is slowly
building up to the critical level that allows formation of the
bubbles necessary for exit into the collection cup.

My suggestion would be to raise the water line to the level that
suits the frequency you want to empty the cup as theoretically
very high concentrations of proteins in the column could allow
leakage back into the sump.

All you experts already know a lot about this, I thought I might
share it with newbies like myself. Of course I could be totally
wrong- I've only had the skimmer a few days !

jglover wrote: Hey here is a question.  Does the coffee color contain less friendlies then the green or in other words does having high water flow and green skimmate filter out a higher percentage of good stuff?

jglover, my *guess* is that since the water line in the skimmer is
very sensitive to a small change in water flow through the
skimmer, and small changes in water line significantly change
the skimmate color and rate of skimmate production, I expect
the proteins coming out are the same, ie. the coffee is just
concentrated green stuff. This is a guess- I dont know for sure.

Nope but it does make sense why you would.  $11 a quart