alright, so i got a 37 gallon tank with an aquarium systems cyclone 100 (piece of ****) skimmer. ive heard about a lot of problems with this skimmer, but for the price i went and got it anyways, to my amazment it worked.. for about 3 weeks..... now all it does is break the surface water up, or turn my tank into a bubble machine. ive tried adjusting it about any possible way but it wont collect anythingg. any tips would be great. thank you
problems with skimmer
- Thread starter drummin
- Start date
ya, well i got a nice canister filter good for 125 gals and a turbo twist Coralife 9 Watt UV Sterilizer that seem to take care of my tank extremely well, and i dont really see any effects from the skimmer not working. with that small of a tank and all that filtration, plus i got some powerheads and stuff the fish look good and the corals look amazing, i guess i would just like it to be working.... i didnt buy it to be a bubble gun, but i guess thats what i ended up getting... ;[
Absolutely if you can get a better skimmer do it. If not, there are a lot of mod's you can do to make a seaclone useable (note: I didn't say good 
). I'm using one on my 20 right now and I have to clean it every few days, so I would say it works... modded lol.
I'm kinda pressed for time right now, but I'll try to post some mods asap.
Chris
). I'm using one on my 20 right now and I have to clean it every few days, so I would say it works... modded lol. I'm kinda pressed for time right now, but I'll try to post some mods asap.
Chris
The uv sterilizer and canister filter are probably not the best choices to use in a reef tank. The uv sterilizer will kill alot of the food that is available for the corals to eat. The canister unless you are only running carbon infrequently in it should only be used for flow. Canister filter pads can become nitrate traps and high nitrates are not good for corals...if a fish only tank is what you have then both of these are okay..... if you have a reef you really should have a good skimmer.....or some other nutrient export system in place such as a fuge with macro algae etc....
Sorry this took so long...
OK, by far the most effective mod is the air stone/pump mod which just so happens to be what I have running. All you do is drill a hole in the center of the lid for an air line coupling. Using a small piece of airline connect a 13.5" length of rigid airline and then another small piece of airline to a Red Sea Limewood air stone. That is the important part! I haven't found another brand that will fit so to my knowledge it *must* be the Red Sea one. This goes down the small center tube. Then replace the pump with something in the 80-100GPH range, adjustable would be better. lol, I don't even remember the brand I'm using but it was a cheap Chinese import, cost me $12 I think. So far as an air pump, right now I'm testing a corallife Luft (not as impressed with it actually) but I was running the largest marineland air pump for a long time. I ran both outputs (wide open) into a gang valve. One GV outlet into the skimmer and one to another short length that has an old used air stone on it. The old air stone acts like a muffler for the air you bleed off and you use that valve to control how much air goes to the skimmer. The less back pressure you put on an air pump the longer it will last so bleeding excess is better than throttling back. Plus it allows better precision.
Now there is another "mod" I'm using... If you do some looking it's called a foam gasket mod. In my case it's actually an accidental silicone gasket but whatever. It's a really long story involving a mod that isn't as effective so I won't bother going into it. Either way what you can do to try it out is wrap the collection cup with Teflon tape where it seats into the intermediate tube (the removable one).
So really, all this will make it a passable skimmer... I've made better skimmers on the kitchen table! So if it is a reef, listen to Lorna and get a better skimmer. What I'm saying though is if you are thinking of going skimmerless... try this instead! May as well use what you have.
So far as the UV and canister. I'll second that you should look at alternate filtration. *IF* your tank is a reef, it's too small to run a UV IMO. And no matter how you cut it, the canister would be extremely labour intensive to maintain. Anything it catches still breaks down (rots) which add nutrients to the water. You would have to do maintenance way too often for my tastes to keep up... say once a week as a ballpark figure? Maybe more...
Chris
OK, by far the most effective mod is the air stone/pump mod which just so happens to be what I have running. All you do is drill a hole in the center of the lid for an air line coupling. Using a small piece of airline connect a 13.5" length of rigid airline and then another small piece of airline to a Red Sea Limewood air stone. That is the important part! I haven't found another brand that will fit so to my knowledge it *must* be the Red Sea one. This goes down the small center tube. Then replace the pump with something in the 80-100GPH range, adjustable would be better. lol, I don't even remember the brand I'm using but it was a cheap Chinese import, cost me $12 I think. So far as an air pump, right now I'm testing a corallife Luft (not as impressed with it actually) but I was running the largest marineland air pump for a long time. I ran both outputs (wide open) into a gang valve. One GV outlet into the skimmer and one to another short length that has an old used air stone on it. The old air stone acts like a muffler for the air you bleed off and you use that valve to control how much air goes to the skimmer. The less back pressure you put on an air pump the longer it will last so bleeding excess is better than throttling back. Plus it allows better precision.
Now there is another "mod" I'm using... If you do some looking it's called a foam gasket mod. In my case it's actually an accidental silicone gasket but whatever
. It's a really long story involving a mod that isn't as effective so I won't bother going into it. Either way what you can do to try it out is wrap the collection cup with Teflon tape where it seats into the intermediate tube (the removable one). So really, all this will make it a passable skimmer... I've made better skimmers on the kitchen table! So if it is a reef, listen to Lorna and get a better skimmer
. What I'm saying though is if you are thinking of going skimmerless... try this instead! May as well use what you have. So far as the UV and canister. I'll second that you should look at alternate filtration. *IF* your tank is a reef, it's too small to run a UV IMO. And no matter how you cut it, the canister would be extremely labour intensive to maintain. Anything it catches still breaks down (rots) which add nutrients to the water. You would have to do maintenance way too often for my tastes to keep up... say once a week as a ballpark figure? Maybe more...
Chris