How often...

[greenhorn reefer]

How often does everyone clean their skimmer, not just the collection cup, but everything?

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

I wipe down the body of my skimmer about once a month by just reaching in with the cup off and try to remember to clean the pump every 6 months or so.

 

[pboutin]

I clean my skimmer cup and body as needed some times as often as every 2 days. The skimmer pump and body once every 6 months or so. I also clean my intake ball valve every 2 weeks to clear salt creep. (Not every skimmer has this issue)

 

[Murica]

I clean my cup about once a month. I've never cleaned the body and it works just as good as the day I got it

 

[hartin461]

about 3 months..

 

[tgionet]

When it looks like it needs it I scrape it out with a rubber spatula

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

I usually strip mine down and fully wash it out every 3 or so months... The needle impeller tends to get gunked up

 

[MaddyP]

I try to do a deep clean of everything in the sump yearly, this includes completely dismantling skimmer. Sump is usually out of commission for a couple days.

 

[Blitzie]

Lifereef skimmer here
Clean Cup Weekly
Body Never
Mag 18 Feed Pump 6-8 months

 

[Paul B]

I think I may have removed mine in the 1990s or so and if I did I probably cleaned it, but I don't remember. I do clean the top as it is removable.
The skimate goes into a five gallon bucket. Then I make soup out of it.

 

[greenhorn reefer]

I think I may have removed mine in the 1990s or so and if I did I probably cleaned it, but I don't remember. I do clean the top as it is removable.
The skimate goes into a five gallon bucket. Then I make soup out of it.

Soup!!!

 

[greenhorn reefer]

Thanks everyone.

 

[kgstei]

I think I may have removed mine in the 1990s or so and if I did I probably cleaned it, but I don't remember. I do clean the top as it is removable.
The skimate goes into a five gallon bucket. Then I make soup out of it.

That looks similar to a skimmer I made for my very first tank back in the nineties

 

[Water Dog]

Lifereef skimmer here
Clean Cup Weekly
Body Never
Mag 18 Feed Pump 6-8 months

That's precisely why I recently picked one of these up for an upgrade that I'm currently putting together.

 

[Blitzie]

That's precisely why I recently picked one of these up for an upgrade that I'm currently putting together.

You will love it, once it breaks in after a few days, there is nothing to do, no airflow to adjust, no nothing. it just skims and skims

 

[Vaiodude]

I usually only clean the collection cup and the pump when I feel that performance has started to degrade. I leave the body alone.

 

[Triggreef]

never!

 

[greenhorn reefer]

I have a bubble magus that I stripped down and cleaned this weekend. It's housed in my sump after the filter socks. It had a lot of calcium build up, presumably because I add Red Sea abc to the filter socks. It was also pretty dirty. I even dry vac'd the sump. Now the skimmer is wet skimming but it seems to be settling quickly.

 

[goatcorals]

Cup once a month. Inside body paper towel every 3 months. Pull the whole skimmer and run in vinegar in a blue tote every 6 months.

 

[Ditto]

Lifeskimmer:

Clean once every two weeks the skimmer cup, have mine draining into a Davy Locker and once a year I clean the pump.

If it not broke I let it keep skimming. When I see within the body of the skimmer that the bubbles are not as much is when I go time to go look.