Digi Forest Resurrection

ksfulk · Feb 9, 2016

Electrobes said:
Hey just the person I want to ask some questions to! Out of curiosity does your skimmer cup drain ever get clogged while going to the skimmate locker?

I'm wondering is the swabbie ever gets chunks that floats up and over into the cup.. To eventually clog the drain?

I havent had any issues with the drain becoming clogged at all. Not sure if the CS-1 has a smaller drain port than the CS-3, but I'll snap a picture of my setup when I get home so you can compare. The only real "issue" that I see with the swabbie & skimmate locker combo is that the thicker "tar" can build up in the bottom of the cup and create a ring around the drain hole. This creates a lip that the skimmate has to overcome before going down the drain tube. Which basically equates to having some (very small amount) of skimmate in the cup at all times. If you clean the cup more frequently than I do (about once a month) then you likely wont ever see this issue.

A recommendation I do have if you decide to build your own locker - do what the avast marine guys did and route the "output" of the locker through a container of carbon. My locker is a 5 gallon IO plastic bucket and when its full, I cant smell it in the fish room at all until I take off the lid. The carbon "muffler" for lack of a better term makes a HUGE difference.

Electrobes · Feb 9, 2016

ksfulk said:
I havent had any issues with the drain becoming clogged at all. Not sure if the CS-1 has a smaller drain port than the CS-3, but I'll snap a picture of my setup when I get home so you can compare. The only real "issue" that I see with the swabbie & skimmate locker combo is that the thicker "tar" can build up in the bottom of the cup and create a ring around the drain hole. This creates a lip that the skimmate has to overcome before going down the drain tube. Which basically equates to having some (very small amount) of skimmate in the cup at all times. If you clean the cup more frequently than I do (about once a month) then you likely wont ever see this issue.

A recommendation I do have if you decide to build your own locker - do what the avast marine guys did and route the "output" of the locker through a container of carbon. My locker is a 5 gallon IO plastic bucket and when its full, I cant smell it in the fish room at all until I take off the lid. The carbon "muffler" for lack of a better term makes a HUGE difference.

Will do, thanks! How often do you change the carbon?

ksfulk · Feb 9, 2016

Ive changed it three times in a year of running it. And one of those times the change was only because I slopped skimmate onto the lid and didnt want to chance that the carbon got Yuck in it. Other than that, Ive replaced the carbon with 1.5 -2 cups of ROX 0.8 carbon from BRS - and thats just because its what I happen to have on hand - lower grade would likely work as well.

Electrobes · Feb 9, 2016

Nice! That's what I have as well on hand. (I keep it for filtering medication should I need it).

ngvu1 · Feb 9, 2016

I am following.......
when I first saw your tank from the previous thread, I was like man I am a coral hoarder. The tank does not have to be filled with corals everywhere and still look good ;-)

Cubed Reefer · Feb 9, 2016

Glad to see you still in it Christian!

Electrobes · Feb 9, 2016

Wow I haven't done a FTS in some time:

Well.. The cell camera sucks.. I can't seem to realistically show the tank's actual colors! One of these days I'll use an actual camera...

Electrobes · Feb 9, 2016

And at dusk:

Electrobes · Feb 10, 2016

Good morning tank!

ngvu1 · Feb 10, 2016

Peaceful! I just remember now. You used to have some yellow Fiji leather also right?

Electrobes · Feb 10, 2016

ngvu1 said:
Peaceful! I just remember now. You used to have some yellow Fiji leather also right?

Yes, that's right! Since I wanted to go species only and minimalistic, real estate is at a premium, so I gave it away to a friend of mine with a 600G tank.

I am almost back to walking full time.. I am hoping in about a week I'll be full time in my boot. If that ends up being the case I'd like to finish the tank out with the other two corals (Orange and hopefully a Yellow Digi) and do the Sea Swirl install.

Also need to prep for the skimmer exchange, and make a skimmate locker!

ngvu1 · Feb 10, 2016

I used to have digi fire forest but when I saw the bubble gum digi, I changed my preference

The polyps are orange and the base is neon green sometimes yellow glowing color depending on the light

revhtree · Feb 10, 2016

Looking great man!

aaron23 · Feb 10, 2016

this looks awesome looking good with the fresh restart very clean

Electrobes · Feb 10, 2016

I got my used Avast CS1 skimmer with swabbie, and its going to need some TLC. It's needs a Vinegar bath in several places, the swabbie needs to be repaired aesthetically-speaking, tubes should probably be replaced, and the pump needs to be cleaned out and fiddled with.. The intake on it is waaaay too tight.

Here's what I love about it, the height is pretty dead on for what I need. It should all work out well once I fix it up and make the skimmer locker. It'd be nice to not need to empty the skimmer as often!

Electrobes · Feb 10, 2016

Cleaned out the skimmer with Vinegar and a toothbrush. It looks pretty good!

I also ordered a new pinwheel for the skimmer pump (Didn't come with one as it was split), new wiper blades (It was cheap and I am already ordering), swabbie tabs since one is broken, and a uniseal since this one looks odd.

I may Mod the skimmer cup slightly by allowing the screws holding the swabbie onto the cup to thread into the cup ever so little. It would be a far better hold, plus it would prevent the clips from breaking.

The skimmer pump now smoothly assembles together. I cleaned the heck out of that thing.. But it was pretty clean to begin with.

I am hoping to build my 5G (Way huge but its a good height and I have a ton of stand space) skimmate locker next week. My stuff from Avast should be in by then.