Aqua C Remora question.

[jsteph24]

I bought the aqua c remora skimmer for my 55 gallon last week and I have a question. I have the collection cup as high as it will go so that the rubberband thing is touching the drain fitting. It is still taking out a ton of water though. I went to bed last night and woke up to find that the gallon jug I had at the end of the hose was filled up with slightly dirty looking water. Isn't this thing supposed to take off foam? I have never had a skimmer so I am not sure. It just seems like it is taking a lot of water out of my tank. Any thoughts?

 

[buffett]

i am no expert but ive read that it takes a few days to really break in, and that sometimes the skim is more liquid than foam, but hopefully someone with more knowledge with give you some advice on it because thats the skimmer im getting soon

 

[jsteph24]

bump

 

[happyhourh]

I have mine set up where there is about 2.5 inches of the clear collection cup showing. They do take a few days to break in and you can tweak the leveling screws on the bottom to get better results.
When the collection cup is all the way down you will get a wetter skimmate the higher you raise it the more "foamy" the skimmate gets.
Im not sure what the hose you are talking about is?

 

[dlee]

I concur with happyhourh....lower the rubberband so that the collection cup rests higher. I keep my rubberband at 2 or 3 inches below the top

 

[contrarymary]

Originally Posted by jsteph24
I bought the aqua c remora skimmer for my 55 gallon last week and I have a question. I have the collection cup as high as it will go so that the rubberband thing is touching the drain fitting. It is still taking out a ton of water though. I went to bed last night and woke up to find that the gallon jug I had at the end of the hose was filled up with slightly dirty looking water. Isn't this thing supposed to take off foam? I have never had a skimmer so I am not sure. It just seems like it is taking a lot of water out of my tank. Any thoughts?
I just got a new Remora skimmer too. It has been up about 10 days. When I did my last water change, my water level was about 1/2" higher after. My collection cup filled up too quickly. I raised the collection cup AND lowered the water level & everything is back to normal. Hope this helps!

 

[bjlled]

I put my cup all the way in. It hasn't even filled up this week. Is my water really that good? Or is something wrong? what could be wrong?

 

[happyhourh]

there is probably just not too much organic matter in the water colum yet.

 

[bruder]

Originally Posted by bjlled
I put my cup all the way in. It hasn't even filled up this week. Is my water really that good? Or is something wrong? what could be wrong?
It takes a while to break in. Oils from your hands or the product from when it was constructed will kill any type of foam that can collect. If you put your hands in the tank often, the oils could be preventing you from collecting a nice skimmate. Give it a week or so, it'll start pulling some nice junk.

 

[chilwil84]

chlorine remover will make a remora go nuts along with some medications, oily things like your hands and some food will stop it along with 2 part epoxy

 

[jsteph24]

Maybe I wasn't clear enough i guess. My skimmer came with the drain fitting which i put a hose onto and ran it to a bucket under the tank. My rubber band thing is all the way down so that my cup is as high as it can go. It still pulled a gallon of water out overnight. Also I don't use any kind of chlorine remover or medications.

 

[firefish_48]

I had the same problem, you are better off buying the extend collection cup with out the drain.I thought the drain would be good idea but it was more of a pain when it was time to clean. good luck.
Mike.

 

[bjlled]

My remora used to fill the cup 2x per day. Now its barely nothing at all. Its been running for 3 months or so, so I am well past the break in period. It seems like maybe the MJ 1200 flow is less than it originally was.

 

[happyhourh]

Originally Posted by bjlled
My remora used to fill the cup 2x per day. Now its barely nothing at all. Its been running for 3 months or so, so I am well past the break in period. It seems like maybe the MJ 1200 flow is less than it originally was.
You can always take out the MJ and give it a good cleaning. I clean mine every month or so.
As far as the remora goes, I have had mine running for 2 yrs and empty and clean my cup(which is only half full) once a week. If you are pulling out insane amounts of skimmate, you are either overfeeding or have the cup set too low.

 

[jsteph24]

it got better today. The skimmer is only just a week old. I pulled about a cup full last night. The problem was that i wasnt really pulling out a ton foamy stuff it was lots of water. Think Ive got it all figured out now though. Thanks for the replys!