Do you ever smell your skimmer and does it stink?

[Double monti 61]

I have started using a protein skimmer about 8 months ago and have never had any foul orders although I do a complete cleaning every 2 months or so and it seems to preform well.

 

[reeftivo]

mine will clear the house when disturbed. only time i smell it though is when i bump the skimmer and when i bring the cup out to clean it. My guess is that there is a fine layer of oils on the surface of the liquid in the skimmer cup and somehow (like poo pourri) it holds the stench down unless it is disturbed LOL. Kinda makes sense.

 

[Rmckoy]

Simple QOTD today!

Does your skimmer ever stink? Like do you ever smell it coming from your sump or wherever your skimmer is housed?

image via @reeftivo

Why …..

I have years ago when I first started reefing but the septic smell is well known and remembered .
I empty mine in the toilet and hear complaints every time I do .

 

[bwp]

Doesn’t smell too much while closed since my skimmer recirculates the air.

but it would stink up the entire house when I changed it even when my exhaust fan was on.

I installed a fan with carbon filter in my fish room (one of those ones used for grow tents) and this seems to help considerably.

 

[Hermie]

my cabinet has an exhaust fan so any ambient smells from the skimmer get dissipated throughout the day... It's also a nano tank so less food in (and less skimmate out).

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics Verified Sponsor]

I'll just leave this right here....

 

[reefsaver]

I have smelled the absolute worst skimmate you could imagine, the kind that stains your breath for hours after just getting a whiff. And then you have my little Tunze 9001 that has never accumulated that smell in it's life.

 

[Nathan Peel]

You gotta make sure the skimmer is working lol. If it doesn't smell, I'd say that's a sign it may not be working. I never smell the skimmer unless I take the cup off. It always smells.

 

[GoBlue923]

I selected other. I unintentionally smell it when cleaning. It’s what I imagine a decaying body might smell like. For the ~18% that said YES! what the heck is wrong with you?! Why would you?

 

[Enderg60]

My fish room is in the basement, I have an exhaust fan in there. My wife still complains about the smell in the house when I clean the skimmer.

Its also a good indication of your own health. If you fart and it smells like skimmer your probably sick.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

The LifeReef Skimmer, pulls it’s air from the cup, so no smells when it’s running. I can usually get the cup out without disturbing the lid, a quick wipe of the throat, then all goes outside, in my cleaning dish pan. During the Winter, I wait till everyone is out of the house, and open the cup under running water, in the laundry sink.

 

[KrisReef]

My skimmer never stinks one bit. The tank is in the garage and after a couple of months the skimmate will produce a life threatening odor. I clean the cup whenever the neighbors start to complain.

 

[blaxsun]

Exactly what got me thinking about this question. I’m wondering if people smell their skimmers. I’ve only ever really smelled mine if it overflowed or when I emptied it.

The only thing worse than the smell of skim mate is possibly that of a dead snail that's been fermenting for a day or two...

 

[Totlxtc]

I only smell mine when i empty it or overflows but anyone who doesn't live in the house can when there's some in the collection cup.

 

[Dabcrusher]

it smells like success . the success is getting a skimmer that works. and the stuff it gets out smells like rancid rotten poo.
what's worse is closing you cheato reactor ball valve and not realizing it for 3 weeks of it rotting it stagnant water

 

[fryman]

Skimmers pull organics out of the water and then we leave them in a stagnant container (skimmer collection cup) for several days. Of course this will smell bad.

"Fresh" skimmate ime does not smell too bad, basically similar to coral/fish food. Skimmate that's been sitting for days will smell pretty bad, same as any coral/fish food that was heated and then left out.

This is actually one reason I used to be skeptical of skimmers. Fresh skimmate looks and smells pretty much the same as particulate foods marketed for feeding coral.

 

[Reefjockey]

I actually don’t think it smells that bad at all. Kind of an earthy/ nitrogen/ sea foam smell….always smelled that way for the past 20 years.

Agreed. Go to any beach and then visit the back bay. Same exact smell.

 

[Reefjockey]

mine gets upset when I bring the cups up to fertilize her orchids on the kitchen window sill... can't understand somethings sometimes

Great idea. I believed I was the only one doing this until now.

 

[Reefjockey]

The only thing worse than the smell of skim mate is possibly that of a dead snail that's been fermenting for a day or two...

Disagree. That is the epitome of worse I’ve ever smelled. Puked in my mouth trying to clean that mess up every time it happened.

 

[Gobi-Wan]

Never. I have always had a cat door into the laundry room where the cat's litterbox is. I built my new tank over the old cat door and made a new cat door elsewhere... now there are two lol. I left the old cat door with a fan evacuating air from behind the tank. Helps keep it from getting too humid inside the stand also which is wood. I never smell it inside the laundry room either, but that room is also evacuated by a fan over the litter box which uses an old dryer vent location. Lots of holes in my house...