? About Sea Clone Protein Skimmer

[teetee]

I understand that the consensus about the Sea Clone is that it is not worth purchasing. I ,unfourtunately, discovered this info after I purchased and set up mine. My tank has been running for 3 months now (135g fish only with no live rock). The skimmer dioes collect skum , but very little & slowly. Am I being impatient? I guess I am somewhat paranoid in thinking that my skimmer is not working properly. In some posts people mention that owners of Sea Clones modify their skimmers, but fail to mention the specific modifications. Can someone help me here? Is my skimmer working normally, & how do I modify it. TIA TT.

 

[fixitdude2001]

Hi, also have the seaclone and you will get a bashing for having it, but I dont have a problem with ours . It takes awhile for it to work aweek or so. If you do want to modify it as I remember you take out center tube were the funnle is and cut it in half, then put it back together and on the top you drill a hole big enough for a piece of hose and inseart it with a bubbler on the enddown towards the bottom and hook it up to a small pump, and ajust the hight of the bubbler till you get the best results... __I did not do this and remove a full cup of goooo everyweek from the original condition of it when we bought it LOL....fixit

 

[teetee]

Hi fixit, thanks for the advice. Seems like quite a bit of modifictions. Will wait to see what others think. Do you have Live rock, & how big & old is your set-up. A cup full of gooo per week sounds good. Thanks, TT

 

[pisces38]

Hi. I also purchased a Sea Clone before discovering this board and reading the opinions. I can get mine to do nothing. I've talked to the lfs who sold it to me, and he says just keep opening the air valve until it starts collecting stuff. Well, all I get out of that is millions and MILLIONS of tiny air bubbles in my tank, which I have read are dangerous. The lfs guy says they're not. Just air bubbles, he says.

 

[fixitdude2001]

Hi we have a 72 bow and 150 LBS of stone 100LBS ofLS have been running skimmer 4monthes now did not use one before, and the micro - bubbles wont hurt anaything If you are having this prob I would cut small piece of firm filter material the size of the out let and wedge it in there.. now that the systm has been running for awhile it has matured so I dont need this anymore ,,,,Change the air adjuster and go get a regular valve that you can adjust better, I got mine at home depot. NOOOO problems.....fixit

 

[teetee]

Hey Fixit, what sort of valve did you get at Home Depot? Which department carries these valves? Thanks, TT.

 

[anastasia]

Hello;
I went to buy a new skimmer Saturday. The lfs that I went to tried to sell me a Sea Clone. I told them what I read on this site and they said that it only works on a tank 100 gallons or less. I didn't buy it because I don;t want to deal with all the trouble. I believe that if you buy something it should work right and you should not have to invest more money to make it work.

 

[fixitdude2001]

hAY TEETEE, I got it in the plumming dept, same kind of petcock you would use for an icemaker, this, and the piece of fiber is all the modifacations that I made. I allso agree you should buy something and it is ready to go. But like other things like a control center to run all your stuff light , temp, chiller, and other probes they are sold seperatly, this item we are talking about should be ready, in my case it was, IT DID WORK but, the things I added enhanced the performance....cya fixit

 

[totalxtreme1]

Hello..
I also have the sea clone and have no problems with it. I clean it about 3 times a week and it goes right back to skimming every time I put it back. I leave it on 24/7 and it seems to be doing great. I dont have mine modified. I have it on a 46 gallon tank fowlr. Anyway Hope this helped. Good luck..

 

[larouche10]

I have had trouble in the past too. I sent mine back to the company and they sent me their modified, updated and improved version. The center tube is cut halfway like the previous post but without a bubbler. I was on the verge of bagging the whole thing but decided to run it another couple of weeks. It is definetly working better. Lots of scum collecting now....It may be that your tank is still young, because when a tank is newer the skimmer collects less because full cycles are still developing. Thats at least what I was told. Seems to be true because I am collecting a lot more than in my first year.... If you have an older model with a center tube that goes the length of the skimmer, try calling them and sending it back for the newer model. If its already the newer model stick with it. Just my opinion. Good Luck.