sea-clone skimmer

[sokol1312]

hi,
I gor seaclone 100 skimmer, got it 3 days ago. it is creating lot of fine
mist bubbles in my tank, i tried adjusting it but nothing is helping,i also put a divider with sponge on a outflow but bubbles are still leaking in my tank,within minutse my tank turns white.I was told to runn it with no air
for 1-2 days, I did that as well ,tried adjusting it as per instructions and still bubbles. I dont know what else to do?should I still let it run with no air
for a bit, anyone has any sugestions?HELP!!!!!!!
:x :x

 

[jandree22]

return it and spend a few bucks more for a quality skimmer. I own a SeaClone and I replaced it with a CPR BakPak. The CPR is way more efficient and it's only rated to 60gal. However, there's plenty of skimmers plenty more efficient than even the CPR.

The SeaClone is junk, exchange it.

Also,

 

[fredso2003]

I totally disagree with jandree22.I bought a seaclone 100 last saturday and it has been operating great since I fired it up saturday night,I didnt even have to make any air/water mixture adjustments!So far I have filled 1 whole cup of dark green stinky skimate off it,and im on my way to a second cup being filled now and its only tuesday.I upgraded from a prizm which was my starter skimmer and I did alot of reading before I bought it,maybe you got a defective unit,They can take a week or so to break in,whatever the case is I hope you give it another try,as far as the SEACLONE 100 being junk IMO thats the furthest thing from the truth on my system! :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to reefs.org, home of debate and debasing, as jandee22 illustrated!

Im in between jandee22 and fredso2003... My seaclone is doing the same thing; I have the same exact model you do. I dont know what to do; I dont really have the cash to move to a better skimmer, and Ive heard that the seaclone was really efficient for its price. Ive been leaving mine running with no air for almost two weeks now; still no difference. My problem isnt as much the micro-bubbles (heck, the fish actually like that!), its actually the fact that with any amount of air going in through the intake, I start getting WAY TOO MUCH bubbles in the scum-cup! Its hyper-active! It starts to spew out the top hole within the hour! I cant control it for the life of me!

Tell you what... If you want more cash to upgrade to better stuff in the near future (12-18 months), PM me for a killer stock tip with a near 400% projected return; its something you know will fly...

 

[sokol1312]

i just open air valve it is foaming like crazy,it has been 20 min and cup is 1/4 full

 

[jandree22]

my problem with it, is that it would produce about 1/2" of high quality skum, then it would do nothing. Maybe I just bought a lemon, I dunno...

 

[hillbilly]

You can make a much better skimmer out of 4", 2", 3/4" pvc pipe, and a powerhead that will put a sea-clone to shame for under $40. If I knew how to post the plans, I would show you. Maybe I can figure it out. I know very little about computers.

 

[silly34]

I have a SeaClone 150, skimmed awsome until I decided to break it down and clean it. For a couple of weeks it hasn't really done anything. I readjusted it last night just fiddling w/ it and finallly got it going again, very finicky. What I don't understand is the design is basically the same as other skimmers, it creates tons of very fine bubles so why isn't it skimming?

Why doesn't it work more efficiently? The pieces seem to be of good quality and I haven't had any problems out of the pump, when I cleaned it, it still looked new.

Could it use a bigger pump?

B.

 

[jandree22]

Needs more air contact time. Instead of pushin more water through there, drop a limewood airstone down the chamber and hook 'er up to a airpump. Better yet, if you're really crafty (and courageous), somehow find a way to install the airline tube through the bottom of the chamber so the tubing doesnt conflix with the 'vortex.' (ie, drill a hole) That's about the only way to make the skimmer more efficient IMO. It's already gotta strong pump pushin it...MaxiJet 1200 I believe

 

[sokol1312]

I don't know,
I am realy ready to return this thing,I opened air valve this am,went to
get ready for work,came back to my livingroom full of water. :x .
I am writing another post to see what everyone thinks of not having a skimmer.

 

[jandree22]

well, a skimmer is a very wise thing to utilize IMO. It removes a lot of nutrients before they even have a chance to foul the water with Nitrates.

I have no clue why your skimmer overflowed, that's actually really wierd. I never even really took a stab at your original quesiton though.... the skimmers I've used have always caused bubbles in the tank for at least the first week, then they just kinda go away. I think it's just the break in period. As long as you have 30 days or whatever, I'd suggest just setting it the way it's supposed to be and letting it be for a week or two. If your performance doesn't increase, take it back and say it was defective and you'd like to exchange it for another.(unless you just want your $$$ back).

You know I'm not a fan of the SeaClone, but there's no sense in returning it before you really have to. I say give it one more shot then decide from there.

BTW, how big is your tank?

 

[silly34]

Needs more air contact time. Instead of pushin more water through there, drop a limewood airstone down the chamber and hook 'er up to a airpump. Better yet, if you're really crafty (and courageous), somehow find a way to install the airline tube through the bottom of the chamber so the tubing doesnt conflix with the 'vortex.' (ie, drill a hole) That's about the only way to make the skimmer more efficient IMO. It's already gotta strong pump pushin it...MaxiJet 1200 I believe

Could you elaborate a little bit more on this??

B.

 

[silly34]

Just decided to do a search on google, the holy grail of searches and found this, haven't read it all the way yet.

http://www.reefcentral.com/diy/seaclone ... ations.htm

B.

 

[jandree22]

no freekin way man! 8O I was lookin around for the past 10 min trying to find some info for ya and you found the EXACT thing I did before I had a chance to post it! oh well.... happy reading :lol:

 

[brandonberry]

Let me start off by saying I've used seaclones now for about 3 years. When I bought my first Seaclone, they were really bad skimmers. They have, however made some improvements in their efficiency. Even the old ones can be altered to become decent skimmers. To my knowledge, the new ones still have several flaws. First of all, the bubbles getting back to the tank are caused by too high of a water flow rate. The reason this seems to go away after a while is that the pump and the prefilter start to get clogged up, thus dereasing the flow rate. One way I've found to somewhat decrease the flow rate is by opening the air injecter wide open. This allows more air to enter and less water. You may not need to open it all the way, just more. This however could cause you to get a wetter foam. You could also try getting some kind of valve to hook up to the outflow on your pump to adjust the flow. Another problem is the air that escapes between the collction cup and inner chamber. Your skimmer needs that air pressure to push skimmate up into the collection cup. I used a rubber ring used to attach a toilet tank to the bowl, and cut it to fit with a razor blade. If you do these things the skimmer will work better, however, it is still not as good as others on the market. I just recently bought a Berlin Turbo and hooked it to the same tank with my Seaclone to see what would happen. The Berlin's cup, which holds 3-4x the amount the seaclone's cup holds was completely full before the seaclone's cup had 1/2". Bottom line: if money's tight make the adjustments, it might get you buy, if not buy a berlin, a turboflotor, or a bak-pak. Oh yeah, one more thing, certain substances in your water can cause your skimmer to over-react as you described. Just last night, I fed my fish some oysters and my skimmer went crazy. I also once but a nemertean worm in my tank and it did the same thing. That likely has to do with something in the water, and not the skimmer malfunctioning. Just watch it when you first turn it on. If it doesn't immediately start foaming like crazy, then it probably won't do that.

 

[hillbilly]

I guess you can make a sea clone work better by doing mods to it, I just don't like to fiddle with it all the time.I have a Euro-Reef on one of my tanks, and it strips the water so much that I don't run it all the time.

 

[buoymarker28]

I'm trying to get some feedback on a red sea berlin skimmer....

anyone ever used one of them? it's for a 125 reef

 

[brandonberry]

As I mentioned in my above reply, I just bought one recently off of Ebay and ordered the turbo pump from justphish.com for a total of $59.90. It works like a champ. It is a little tricky to learn how to adjust, but once you get the air flow and water flow adjusted right, it really pulls a lot of stuff out of the water. I saw a whole unit, with the pump go on Ebay a couple of days ago for around $75 bucks. I almost bought it even though I don't need another one. I hear turboflotors are really good skimmers also. I think some prefer them over Berlins. Personally I'm happy with my Berlin and if it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[buoymarker28]

New to protein skimmers...wasn't sure if berlin and red sea berlin were the same. thanks for the info..

 

[sokol1312]

hi,
just fyi, I tried calling company that makes seaclone to see if they have any advice, I have been leaving voicemail's for 3 days now
no one got back to me.well what does that tells you?