Skimmer Cleaning

[ThatGuy]

Seeing if people are as faithful as me about cleaning there skimmers, or atleast there skimmer cups.

I'll start with what I do.

I use to only have a ramora that would pull gunk regardless of if it was clean or dirty. Had it running on my reef tank since the begining and would have to empty it atleast once every other day. The difference between clean or dirty way when I first cleaned it, it would pull wetter than if it was dirty. Whats weird with this is when I put it on my FOWLR it pulls blue(don't know why, no its not copper).

Now my New(used but new to me) Tunza 9011 I put in the sump and it didn't seem to want to pull anything at all. Took out the collection area and cleaned the collection cup and it was like a completely different skimmer. Pulled like a beast. Now this one I clean everytime I cant see into the tube going up to the collection area. Works great.


Josh

 

[ahvrivera]

I used to clean mine once a week so long as its not overflowing. But since i got the new diablo 2500, wow! every 2 to 3 days. I need to get a collection cup soon. OR DIY one. I had the same issue. for the first day or 2 it didnt pull all that much.I figured it was still braking in. after the first cleaning it went nuts and WOW did it stink. So 2 days ago i raised it 1.5" and i think i found the sweet spot. last night there was thick green sludge to the point that i put a carbon pad over the cup to filter out some of the smell. I would also like to hear how often others clean their skimmer

 

[dirtycontour]

Every 2-3 days I dump the collection cup and clean the cup/neck.

 

[downbeach]

I cleaned my Tunze 9011 every day. Since it was always over half full I really didn't have a choice. I recenlty added a Bubble Magus CS 180 that has an drain line. I ran it in some vinegar/water for about an hour before I put it in service, and it started pulling right away. I wanted to see how long I could go before I had to empty the 1 gallon jug I was using as a container to hold the skimmate. It took 10 days, so that was the first time I cleaned it. I adjusted the outlet tube to get a drier skim, and it's been about 11 days since I had to empty the jug, it's about 3/4 full, so I'll be cleaning it again on Saturday. I think I'll be doing a regular weekly cleaning of the cup. So far I'm really happy with this unit.

 

[TanksNStuff]

I just bought the same skimmer as Jim (downbeach) upon his recommendation and I'm really happy with it. It's basically a big brother of my NAC-7 Cone skimmer, but with a stronger pump. I bought this for my upcoming upgrade from my 75g to a 120g but I figured I'd try it out now to see how it works. It worked so well that I had to raise it a bit and adjusted it to the lowest setting on the outlet. It stays consistent and at the end of the first week I had a gallon or so of skimmate and a fairly thick sludge buildup inside the cup.

Both of my Bubble Magus skimmers had a drain line in the collection cup... which I've been running to a custom made acrylic (by me) skimmate container. I could probably leave it for about a month without emptying it (because it holds almost 5g), but I rarely go more than 2 weeks just because the smell tends to get pretty potent by then. I do however remove and clean the collection cup every weekend when I do my water change. I just take it outside and give it a quick spray with my garden hose to rinse it out. Sometimes I need to use a toothbrush to scrub some of the sludge stuff out, but it's just a quick brushing to get the sticky stuff off.

I don't know if having a clean or dirty collection cup matters regarding the performance, but I clean it just to keep my equipment in new condition. I also take my whole skimmer out and give the pump an inspection/cleaning every few months and while I'm at it I give the cone body a good rinse with the hose and a light scrubbing with a brush if it has any buildup.

I recommend you keep all of your equipment clean on a regular basis.

 

[Mike S]

I used to clean out my cup and wipe down the neck every 2 or 3 days and do a complete breakdown about once a month. I recently picked up a neck cleaner and ran the cup drain to a bucket. Now I'm only pulling off the cup to clean it once or twice a month.

 

[falconut]

I clean my cup out when it gets pretty full. I'll dump the cup and wipe out the lid and sides until it's like new. It usually takes a day before it starts to really get going again. It seems to run better when a little dirty, but not too bad.

 

[Chrisgarrick]

I clean my reef octo 3k every 4 days. It is set up so that it collects very dry skim mate I have a 5 gallon bucket as a collection system ( below the sump). I haven't emptied it in months. I think it's because the stuff that does get down there is very dry and with evaporation it doesn't build up. I will say this that when I do clean the bucket it is nasty! Keep in mind the reef octopus cup has to be cleaned every 4 days cause it get a very thick layer of crap that never makes it to the overflow tube. This too is really foul.