Protein Skimmer Leaving Bubbles in Tank

[skiffalope]

Hi, my SeaClone 100 is tank mounted and constantly adds little bubbles back into the tank when it returns water. Is this normal? I don't think it is, but I haven't figured out how to stop it.

Any help would be appreciated.


Thanks.

 

[mr_fosi]

Seaclowns are notorious for this.

There are some mods you can do to elimiate it:

1) Seal the cup/body interface with teflon tape or an o-ring.
2) Seal the cup/riser tube in the same way.

Both of those mods completely eliminated the microbubble problem on mine.

You can also rubberband some filter floss across the output to catch the bubbles as they exit the skimmer, but I think that it less useful than the previous two.

Do a search here, on nano-reef.com, and on Reefcentral for seaclone mods and you will find out all you ever wanted to know about how to fix their crappy origional design.

 

[skiffalope]

Thanks. I'll take a look at that.

Do these bubbles cause damage or problems in the tank? Is there a better and inexpensive PS I could exchange this for?

Thanks.

 

[reefking]

I bought a coralife super skimmer off of ebay for $85, I originally had the seaclone and took it back and got this one, it works great!

 

[Owens187]

if your using any kind of water conditioner/declorinator with a "slime coat" producing stimulant/additive, it will make it microbubble like a maddog. if so stop using it and it will stop in 3-4 weeks. my seaclown works absolutely awesome, and i have absolutely no microbubbles. the only mod i did was drill a new hole dead center in the lid, just big enough for airline to run through it, and run a limewood airstone all the way down into the first chamber. connect this to a descent air pump and youll have way more mico-bubbles in the reaction chamber, without changing the water pressure too much. (more air=more skimmate.) i pull out a full cup of dark, black, sludgy, and just generally foul skimmate evry single day! oh, mine is the new desighn that actually has an o-ring for the cup/ body junction. if yours doesnt, seal it like stated earlier. you want all the air to exit through the cup lid. i also run at exactly one full turn from closed on the air intake. :devil: