diy skimmer

[Rp Marine]

what does it mean "to skimmate collection container. making my own skimmer was woundering what that mean?

[Poseidon]

it means the gunk the skimmer collects going to a container insted of staying at the top in the collection cup.

[IslandReefer]

Just to flesh out what Poseidon said.

Skimmate results from the collapse of the foam the skimmer produces and collects in the "collection" cup. The problem with this is the cup can overfill in just a day or two and very foul green-brown gunk decorates your carpet and air. To prevent this a (usually) barbed fitting tapped into the cup wall (risky...cracks easy)or into the base of the cup. This attaches to any container...1gal milk jug to acrylic sealed tubes with overflow protection and most important a carbon funk filter. A cheep way is the milk jug with a "sock" of carbon stuffed into the top...cuts way down on the smell.The only advantage to a DIY acrylic chamber is that you can make it to seal off in case of overflow.
Here is a commercial example:
http://www.canreef.com/store/index.html
Good Luck
John