protien on surface of water

[pham411]

hey guys,
just listened to the new podcast on skimmers and notice that rob mentioned proteins on the surface of the water. i have alot of that. ive been trying to get my surface water clean but nothing seems to work. my overflow return pipe isn't leading straight into my skimmer but it is placed right infront of the pump. i dont think its because of insufficient skimming becase my skimmer sucks out super nasty stuff pretty quick. i have a euro-reef cs180 and the collection cup fills up in less then a week. any suggestions on getting rid of this is very appreciated.

[Rob]

the best thing is to have something that skims the surface of the water...
the overflow "should" do this for you...
doesnt the overflow suck water from the surface??

[pham411]

yah it does for my display tank. the proteins seem to be most abundent after water changes. my overflow seems to skimm the surface water ok, it doesnt catch everyting, my main problem is the protien in my refugium. there is no overflow there and the protiens just seem to build up to a point where bubles form on the surface water in my refugium.

[Rob]

ah.. ok.. yeah, thats would happen...
is there any way you can modify the fuge to overflow into another compartment?

[pham411]

hahaha thats what i was thinking but doesnt look like that will be an easy job.

i guess im stuck with it huh,

[Rob]

with out a surface skimmer of some type, the only option is to manually clean it..
made a post about this a few weeks back, here