Friendly PSA: Clean your skimmer!

[minus9]

Figured with the start of the new year, I would remind everyone to clean your skimmers to keep them in tip-top shape. I usually clean mine about every six months or so. It doesn't take much for build-up and detritus to reduce the efficiency of your skimmer, so having a good maintenance routine helps to prolong the life of your gear/skimmers.
I noticed my air intake reduced drastically in the past couple days, so it was time to give it a nice bath. I prefer to wash it off with tap water to take off the big stuff, then reassemble it and put it in a citric acid bath for an hour or two (running it to overflow into the collection cup and back into the bucket), rinse and reinstall in the sump.
Mine usually takes a day or two to build up bio-film again, then it's back to normal.
Happy New Year and happy reefing!
Cheers!

 

[Dal-Reef]

Figured with the start of the new year, I would remind everyone to clean your skimmers to keep them in tip-top shape. I usually clean mine about every six months or so. It doesn't take much for build-up and detritus to reduce the efficiency of your skimmer, so having a good maintenance routine helps to prolong the life of your gear/skimmers.
I noticed my air intake reduced drastically in the past couple days, so it was time to give it a nice bath. I prefer to wash it off with tap water to take off the big stuff, then reassemble it and put it in a citric acid bath for an hour or two (running it to overflow into the collection cup and back into the bucket), rinse and reinstall in the sump.
Mine usually takes a day or two to build up bio-film again, then it's back to normal.
Happy New Year and happy reefing!
Cheers!

Yep got it on my maintenance schedule for the end of January as well as the return pump.

 

[minus9]

I cleaned my return pump too, figured it was time. It's amazing how much stuff builds up in your sump. Of course, if you feed like me, it's pretty obvious.

 

[Scorpius]

Clean the inside of your return line plumbing. The bacterial film buildup has a noticeable effect on gph efficiency.

 

[MTBake]

Good advice!

Clean the inside of your return line plumbing. The bacterial film buildup has a noticeable effect on gph efficiency.

How often do you clean yours? Is there a brush that has a long reach(30-36") to clean it without disassembling the return line? I was wondering how people go about this.

 

[Scorpius]

Good advice!




How often do you clean yours? Is there a brush that has a long reach(30-36") to clean it without disassembling the return line? I was wondering how people go about this.

I have soft silicone tubing for my return lines. I use a couple wet paper towels and a rod to ram to paper towels through the tubing. I clean mine several times a year when I notice my overflow making more water noise which means reduced water flow.

 

[MTBake]

I have soft silicone tubing for my return lines. I use a couple wet paper towels and a rod to ram to paper towels through the tubing. I clean mine several times a year when I notice my overflow making more water noise which means reduced water flow.

Thanks for the tip

 

[oldbob50]

I clean the skimmer, over flows and overflow section of the sump and wave pumps on a 60 day schedule. The return section of the sump, the return pump and return lines on an alternate 60 day schedule. Refugium gets attention as needed. All of my return and overflow lines were designed to be taken apart and I use brushes on cords to clean then in the sink.

 

[Fishko]

Yesterday i cleaned my skimmer turns out it was not turning on because of salt building up in the air intake. Cleaned it and works like new.

 

[Irene]

Figured with the start of the new year, I would remind everyone to clean your skimmers to keep them in tip-top shape. I usually clean mine about every six months or so. It doesn't take much for build-up and detritus to reduce the efficiency of your skimmer, so having a good maintenance routine helps to prolong the life of your gear/skimmers.
I noticed my air intake reduced drastically in the past couple days, so it was time to give it a nice bath. I prefer to wash it off with tap water to take off the big stuff, then reassemble it and put it in a citric acid bath for an hour or two (running it to overflow into the collection cup and back into the bucket), rinse and reinstall in the sump.
Mine usually takes a day or two to build up bio-film again, then it's back to normal.
Happy New Year and happy reefing!
Cheers!

 

[Irene]

Hi, can you give me a little more info on the citric acid bath ie ingredients and proportions? Thanks.

 

[Seanybaggs123]

Figured with the start of the new year, I would remind everyone to clean your skimmers to keep them in tip-top shape. I usually clean mine about every six months or so. It doesn't take much for build-up and detritus to reduce the efficiency of your skimmer, so having a good maintenance routine helps to prolong the life of your gear/skimmers.
I noticed my air intake reduced drastically in the past couple days, so it was time to give it a nice bath. I prefer to wash it off with tap water to take off the big stuff, then reassemble it and put it in a citric acid bath for an hour or two (running it to overflow into the collection cup and back into the bucket), rinse and reinstall in the sump.
Mine usually takes a day or two to build up bio-film again, then it's back to normal.
Happy New Year and happy reefing!
Cheers!

Do you have a video reference you used to learn your techniques?

 

[minus9]

Do you have a video reference you used to learn your techniques?

No video reference, just under 40 years of experience in this hobby, so I've had a lot of practice.

 

[SuncrestReef]

Hi, can you give me a little more info on the citric acid bath ie ingredients and proportions? Thanks.

I use this: Milliard Citric Acid 10 Pound -...
Mix 1 cup of the powder in 1 gallon of RO/DI water. It works as good as vinegar, but it’s safer on pumps and other items with magnets because it doesn’t react with the plastic housings. Plus it smells much better than vinegar!

 

[minus9]

Hi, can you give me a little more info on the citric acid bath ie ingredients and proportions? Thanks.

Depends on how long you want to soak the items? For short, quick baths, I use about a cup of citric acid powder for every gallon, give or take a little. For longer baths, I use about a half a cup per gallon. I usually buy 5lb bags on Amazon.

 

[thesoulpatch]

I use this: Milliard Citric Acid 10 Pound -...
Mix 1 cup of the powder in 1 gallon of RO/DI water. It works as good as vinegar, but it’s safer on pumps and other items with magnets because it doesn’t react with the plastic housings. Plus it smells much better than vinegar!

Also it's a great disinfectant around the house too!

 

[Seanybaggs123]

No video reference, just under 40 years of experience in this hobby, so I've had a lot of practice.

Haha Fair, I was asking because I only have 3 months of it and I bought a used setup. So, I didn't get the pleasure of setting up and getting to know my skimmer or sump from the ground floor.

 

[minus9]

Haha Fair, I was asking because I only have 3 months of it and I bought a used setup. So, I didn't get the pleasure of setting up and getting to know my skimmer or sump from the ground floor.

Nothing like hands-on to get your experience a kick start. If you haven't watched them yet, I would start watching the BRS series on reefing. They do such a great job explaining almost everything and you can watch them at your own pace. Great stuff!

 

[Seanybaggs123]

Nothing like hands-on to get your experience a kick start. If you haven't watched them yet, I would start watching the BRS series on reefing. They do such a great job explaining almost everything and you can watch them at your own pace. Great stuff!

Oh yeah, I watched it 3 times before I even bought the tank haha! Although, I'm a little annoyed with them right now. I'm not sure they should be recommending GFO to new users. I woke up this morning to dinos, and after preliminary research I think it's largely due to the lack of phosphate and nitrates in my tank...

Was big into freshwater before I switched.

 

[minus9]

Oh yeah, I watched it 3 times before I even bought the tank haha! Although, I'm a little annoyed with them right now. I'm not sure they should be recommending GFO to new users. I woke up this morning to dinos, and after preliminary research I think it's largely due to the lake of phosphate and nitrates in my tank...

Was big into freshwater before I switched.

Yeah, it's not hard to use too much GFO. It can be too aggressive, which is why I've only used a couple times. I probably only used half of the recommended amount when i did use it. If I'm dealing with algae issues, CUC, water changes, manual removal and time is a far better method. You can't fix things overnight, it took time to create the problem and it will take (and should) time to remedy the problem.