I love cleaning my skimmer.

Lylelovett · Apr 7, 2019

Hi all,

Just wanted to say that I love cleaning my skimmer!

My aquarium is about 6mos old, skimmer is 3mos old-ish and I just cleaned it for the first time.

I love the seawater smell and the briny feel of the water and the sludge. Just a nice experience. Calming. Peaceful. Albeit dirty. Just reminds me that this hobby allows us to do something really cool by creating an ocean reef in our homes.

Keep on reefin'!

TriggerFinger · Apr 7, 2019

Mine has been running for about 4 months and it needs cleaned. Did you clean the entire thing? I’ve been meaning to find out what people mean when they “clean the skimmer”. Just the cup? Take the entire thing off line and wash all of it?

JimFuller · Apr 8, 2019

I empty the cup every week, and clean th ed entire skimmer every 3 months.

michaelmyboy · Apr 8, 2019

I dont think I have ever cleaned my whole skimmer unless I was doing a tank break down. I clean the cup every week. Should I be cleaning it every 3 months?

cracker · Apr 8, 2019

Thanks for the reminder ! I really need to clean mine

Hemmdog · Apr 8, 2019

Just did mine last night too. It’s gross, but it’s good to do, lol.

Hemmdog · Apr 8, 2019

michaelmyboy said:
I dont think I have ever cleaned my whole skimmer unless I was doing a tank break down. I clean the cup every week. Should I be cleaning it every 3 months?

More often than that. It becoming less effective and efficient the dirtier it is.

ZipAdeeZoa · Apr 8, 2019

I don't actually have skimmer but I know what you mean, I think the coolest part of my tank cycling was how it went from smelling like saline solution to smelling like ocean!

starypotter · Apr 8, 2019

I've had to clean mine a handful of times and it'll only be a year this June. Granted most of those times were because I either had to have it off for a period of time and it started growing algae, or because some seaweed got stuck and was clogging up the pump. That last one has happened a couple times. None of those times was it an experience I'd ever consider pleasurable.

ccombs · Apr 8, 2019

This is interesting, I am on a different boat completely. Things don't really gross me out, so I wouldn't call cleaning my skimmer a bad experience, but I certainly do not find the joy you do haha. Either way, we all have the same goal, reef on @Lylelovett !

Lylelovett · Apr 8, 2019

ccombs said:
This is interesting, I am on a different boat completely. Things don't really gross me out, so I wouldn't call cleaning my skimmer a bad experience, but I certainly do not find the joy you do haha. Either way, we all have the same goal, reef on @Lylelovett !

Well it is just the first time that I've ever cleaned it, so maybe my opinion will change over the years.

TriggerFinger · Apr 8, 2019

Does it go through a break in period again after cleaning?

Lylelovett · Apr 9, 2019

TriggerFinger said:
Does it go through a break in period again after cleaning?

This is my first cleaning, so I don't know if it does every time, but it only took an hour of running after I got it back in the sump and it was just like normal. I didn't clean it with vinegar either, FWIW.