Is this normal color for a skimmer

[SaltISlife]

So my 135g has no sump or skimmer. I just use 3 emperor 400s for mechanical filtration.

The only thing (special) i do have would be 2 gallons worth of seachem denitrate to keep nitrates from sky rocketting due to ny huge fish load. But nitrates are always in the 20-40ppm range. Of course without the denitrate itll jump fast.

Ive never had the need for skimmers nore will i drill a 40 year old glass tank to get a sump and skimmer.

But despite the mixed reviews i decided to try a sea clone 150. Honestly the reviews out there and videos are only for the 100. I cant find anything on the 150. But they seem the same minus the length of the 150.

Anyway. Hooked it up and dialed it in and i noticed the collection cups leaks into the skimmer itself. The bubble go uo the tube then drop down as it leaks.

A simple rubber band around the cup neck fixed this. It acts as a gasket.


Within 30 minutes my cup is already getting filled. The fosm is climbind up the neck quickly. I dialed the bubbles down due to this.

But this is thr color im getting. Is this normal ?

Honestly i dont see why ppl say the seaclone sucks. The cup filled this much in 30 minutes.. it works great with a rubber band on the collection cup neck to stop the positive pressure that pushes the bubbles up from leaking.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

That's a fine color for very light skimming. I bet once it breaks in you'll see some darker gunk. Hey nice thinking on the rubber band!

 

[SaltISlife]

Thanks. I dunno if what i said makes sense on the leak.. basically the bubbles push up the neck below the cup and leak back down. I can see it leaking. And thrn a big bubble forms and when it pops. The bubbles in the tube drop down half an inch.. and then thry go back up but then boom a leak and they drop back down.

I messed with it for awhile then figured a rubber band should act as an o ring. And boom. It stopped the pressure from leaking and thr bubbles are shooting up the tube quickly.

In fact i had to turn the bubbles on the venturi way down due to this.

Fyi i have the skimmer in the front of my tank in a corner right now.. because i wanted to be sure it didnt leak before i put it in thr back of the tank lol

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Yep makes sense. I'm guessing it was just plastic on plastic before? Interesting design.....

 

[SaltISlife]

Yea plastic on plastic. It was a tight seal for plastic on plastic. You gatta push it down it doesnt just pop in and drop. But with no 0 ring it leaks between the cup.. causing the inside to lose pressure and thr bubbles drop.

I honestly wonder if this is why so many people claim this thing sucks. I mean 30 min and my cup is that full.. imagine 24 hours...

Yea i couldnt find ANY reviews or videos on the sea clone 150. Just the 100. They both look the same. Use the same maxijet 1200. But the 150 is like 27 inchs tall lol. I guess the longer length allows the bubbles to mix in the tube more and produce more skim ?

 

[SaltISlife]

Here is a video of the skimmer. If anyone is curious

 

[xxkenny90xx]

.

I honestly wonder if this is why so many people claim this thing sucks. I mean 30 min and my cup is that full.. imagine 24 hours...

Most likely. Most people aren't going to figure out a diy fix like that.

I noticed this is an external skimmer. Do you have some kind of failsafe to protect your floor if it freaks out and overflows? Usually with reactors and skimmers and such that are meant to be hob external I just put them in my sump anyways just to be safe

 

[Gtinnel]

I mean 30 min and my cup is that full.. imagine 24 hours...

If you are getting that wet of a skimmate that it filled about 1/4 of the cup in 30 minutes are you not worried that it will overflow within a few hours?
I am biased here because I strongly dislike the sea clone skimmers, which is unusual for me as I generally stick with the cheaper hardware in this hobby.

 

[SaltISlife]

Not yet no. This is why its in the front of my tank. I have to figure that out. I might just keep it on when im home. And off when im not.

 

[SaltISlife]

If you are getting that wet of a skimmate that it filled about 1/4 of the cup in 30 minutes are you not worried that it will overflow within a few hours?
I am biased here because I strongly dislike the sea clone skimmers, which is unusual for me as I generally stick with the cheaper hardware in this hobby.

Thats why i dialed down the bubbles. But The inner tube the bubbles go up is shorter than the the collection cup height. If it gets too full inside i imagine the skim would just overflow back down the tube and out of the overflow into the tank. But thats just me thinking im not sure yet.

Honestly im amazed this thing has been out so long but i can find veey little info on it. Other than ( it sucks and doesnt skim)

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Thats why i dialed down the bubbles. But The inner tube the bubbles go up is shorter than the the collection cup height. If it gets too full inside i imagine the skim would just overflow back down the tube and out of the overflow into the tank. But thats just me thinking im not sure yet.

You would think that but if something gets into the tank that the skimmer doesn't like then those bubbles can get pretty crazy.... Maybe another rubber band gasket for the lid to make sure the bubbles don't push it right off would help (I'm just thinking out loud here)?

 

[SaltISlife]

I could do that yes. But it does have a hole on top to allow the pressure from the air bubbles to escape. So if it skims like mad itll go out the hole.

I guess ill have to figure something out. Like maybe insert a tube in the hole that leads to the tank and seal the top like you said so if the bubbles do overflow they go into the tube and into the tank. Or something like that.

Ill figure it out.

 

[Gtinnel]

You can buy controllers that will turn the skimmer off if it fills up the cup. There is the auto aqua smart skimmer, I've never used it personally but I've heard good thing about it. I'm assuming it would still work on that small of a collection cup.

 

[SaltISlife]

Oh and here isa video i recorded earlier before the rubber band thing. See how it leaks past the cup ? And the bubbles just drop down then go back up and drop down.

I bet this is the main reason everyone complains it doesnt skim. Because it didnt for me either. Youd figure theyd put a 10 cent o ring here to stop this. It would probly stop a billion returns and bad reviews too.

 

[SaltISlife]

You can buy controllers that will turn the skimmer off if it fills up the cup. There is the auto aqua smart skimmer, I've never used it personally but I've heard good thing about it. I'm assuming it would still work on that small of a collection cup.

Sweet thanks. I just saw a brs video of it. Looks good. The device is very tiny. Im sure itll fit in this cup lol.

Funny its more expensive than the skimmer itself. I paid only 50$ as i had coupons and did that 30% autoship trick in chewy hah

 

[Sleeping Giant]

I've run these skimmers for years and I never thought of adding a gasket to the lower neck, smart idea, they do work great.

There will be no reason to shut it off once it gets broken in and you adjust the foam and skimmate properly.

If you are worried about overflow, you can do what I did, when I would turn it back on after doing a cyano treatment.

First off, I tape the lids of my skimmers down all the time, so the foam doesn't knock it off.. which it can and will.

Second, there's a hole in the top of the lid. If you run basic airline tubing through there, to the base of the cup while the lid is taped down or will be taped down after installing the airline tubing. Place the other end into a bucket, and it will remove any liquid skimmate from the cup and put it in the bucket. Only one issue with this is, you may have to give the bucket end of the tubing a quick syphon suck with your mouth to get the syphon to work properly, no need to suck until you are drinking skimmate, lol

I did change my hob skimmer, so I could get more removal of whatever that gross stuff is, and to get the pump out of my DT.
I ended up getting a HOB AquaMaxx 1.5, it's a beast and and I also stole my ventri from my sea clone to adjust my airflow on the AquaMaxx, it doesn't have that option which I found weird. But overall, the sea clone is good, but the pump might start causing lots of vibration inside the DT, mine did on all 3 that I had. Which was another reason I switch skimmers.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Am I understanding this correctly?

So, you were worried there weren’t enough bubbles making it into the cup, so you added something, which made more bubbles go into the cup, so you “dialed down the bubbles”?

Why not just use it as it was designed and just adjust the valve until you get the flow where you want it? The bubbles won’t always spill into the cup, especially if you are skimming drier...

 

[Gtinnel]

The device is very tiny. Im sure itll fit in this cup lol.

The only reason I was questioning if it would work is because of the curvature of the collection cup. I'm not saying it won't just something to consider first.

As already stated I strongly dislike the sea clone, but I will say it's incredibly cheap. The pump costs close to that much alone.

 

[SaltISlife]

Am I understanding this correctly?

So, you were worried there weren’t enough bubbles making it into the cup, so you added something, which made more bubbles go into the cup, so you “dialed down the bubbles”?

Why not just use it as it was designed and just adjust the valve until you get the flow where you want it? The bubbles won’t always spill into the cup, especially if you are skimming drier...

No youre not understanding this correctly


All i did was add a rubber band to the cup neck to act as an o ring to stop it from leaking inside itself causing it to lose pressure keeping bubbles from ever getting to the top. How is that hard to understand ? Maybe watch my video i posted of the leakage and the bubbles only getting half way up then dropping. Everytime it leaks past the bottom of the cup the bubbles will drop down. It wasnt hard to see the problem and fix it.... at least for me.

The problem is NO bubbles were getting in thr cup, it wouldnt even get half way before itd drop down as you see in my video. I saw the drops coincided with it leaking. As it leaked it dropped


No amount of tweaking the airtube fixed it. Turn it up too much and it slows down water flow too much, turn it down and it doesnt make enough bubbles and water moves too fast. Turn it all in between and all you get is bubbles half way up... bouncing up and down as it LEAKS inside itself. As Its leaks it releases air pressure, causing the bubbles foaming in the tube to drop down repeatedly as you saw on my video

And yes i dialed it down a little to slow it down some after i fixed it but when i say dial down i mean like a little lol less than 1.3rd of a turb on the airlnob.... Why is that a big deal ???? I mean im confused on how you cant see this obvious problem that i solved with the unit. ?

After digging more online i found a few others came up with the same diagnoses. But they used teflon or silicone tape to where i used a rubber band..

My cup is nearly half full now after just a few hours lol. Must have alot of crap in my tank because this thing is working great.. but ya i could see it getting full quickly when im not around.

 

[SaltISlife]

Woke up... and the cup is already full of yellow liquid.. looks like light beer. Amazing. This thing is working great lol. Is that normal to be filled so quickly ?