Skimmer Problems

It can take a long time for a skimmer to start collecting foam. Over a month sometimes.

Since I just addressed this in the newbies forum:

Aquarium Systems Seaclone:

While the ‘New & Improved’ 100 and 150 models are a significant improvement over the first Seaclones to be offered for sale, they still perform exceptionally poorly. There are a tremendous number of hobbyists advocating various Do-It-Yourself methods to improve this type of skimmer and many of these in-the-field modifications found there way into the newer models. Unfortunately, they still just don’t work well enough for me. They are difficult to adjust such that they produce any skimmate at all. Even once they are adjusted properly, they tend to be finicky and require further tuning to continue to produce. And lastly, even when they are working, their production is paltry, watery, and inconsistent. Regardless of how attractive the price is, I don’t recommend anyone purchase one of these. In fact, my opinion is, these skimmers are a blemish on the reputation of an otherwise highly regarded company.

Click to expand...

That's from Bob Fenner's magazine. The Seaclone is one of the less useful skimmers out there and can be very hard to make do a good job. If you think you can still return it (with the explanation that it never creates any skimmate) I'd say that another skimmer might be a better bet. If you knew this going in and simply found it the most economical for your small tank, expect a lot of tinkering.

My LFS wasn't interested in taking my SeaClone back. I ended up eating the cost of the SeaClone and plan to pick up a Aqua-C Remora next week.

All in the name of education I guess...

I would suggest if nothing ever has collected then you are doing something wrong. I assume you have a mixture of air and water forming in the thing? I am not familiar with the seaclown though I have the almost as nasty prism. Anyway, you are making a water/bubbles mix. Is this bubbling away nicely, but not going high enough. Can you turn the flow up and down? Can you get it to overflow almost pure water?
Come on seaclown owners, is there nothing this guy can do?

People can get a Seaclown to work, but it usually actually requires modifying the design of the skimmer. Google phrases like "Seaclone FAQ", "seaclone modifications" or "modify seaclone". Here's one I got in less than a minute: http://reefcentral.com/diy/seaclone_modifications.htm

The Prizm actually functions from what I've read, it's just only good enough to handle about 30 gallons. If you put it on a 90 (like it claims it can handle), it's like putting a Bak Pak on a 200... Just won't cut it at all.

The best hang on skimmer is the AquaC Remora:
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...Product_Code=AQUAC-REMORA&Category_Code=AquaC
That's $164 plus shipping.

The next best for price/performance ratio is the CPR Bak Pak 2:
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...&Product_Code=CPR-BAKPAK&Category_Code=Bakpak
That's $130 plus shipping. For this one, take the 'bio-bale' out if you have corals. I suggest getting one already equipped with the maxi-jet, even though it costs more than with a Rio pump.

I used to have a Seaclone 100 skimmer but it made zero on my 65 gal tank. I told this to the owner of my LFS and he convinced me into buying a Euro-Reef. The difference was incredible, in a day it filled the collection cup(twice the size of the seaclone's) with dark stinky fluid. Well worth the money.

Hi,

I had a seaclone once and even when "modified", it still was not producing any significant amounts of foam.

Basically, the "modification" I did was to drop a wooden airstone in the reaction chamber. I used a tetra luft pump (very good air pumps) to drive the skimmer.

One thing to note is that, water additives can affect skimmer performance. Some anti-chlorinating compounds can decrease foaming while other water additives can actually increase foaming.

A skimmer takes time to "break-in". I would suggest you give this skimmer a few more days, if you intend to keep it. Try to increase the air to the skimmer or use an air-stone as I did (only use wood air stones!).

Learning to adjust a skimmer can be tricky, especially if you are not experienced. I remeber when it happened to me... I had a KNOP skimmer and I even called the retailer who sold me the skimmer because I thought something was wrong with it.

It turns out that it needed a few more days to break in.....

Why????????????? I will answer that in another post, or perhaps I will leave this to someone else...

This is too long a post!!! Sorry...