corallife protein skimmer questions

racingtiger03

racingtiger03

Member
Does anyone else have this skimmer? I've had this one for a few months on my tank. It's the one that comes with a rio 1100 pump and is rated for <65 gallon tanks. It does a good job, but I can't get it to stop putting micro-bubbles into the tank. I cleaned all the algae off the glass last weekend and that stopped 90% of the micro-bubbles for about 3 days. It is much worse if I stick my hand in the tank, and during feeding time. Would a different pump help things or make it worse? If upgrading the pump will help, what are my options? (also looking to make it a little quieter, and from what I've read the rio is noisy compared to most other options).
I thought I got a great deal on the skimmer, but the bubbles are killing me! This is the HOB model.
 
olemiss

olemiss

Member
This was the first skimmer that I ever owned, and the first of many mistakes. This skimmer is just too finicky. It pulls out a fair amount of waste but would overflow for no apparent reason--it would be fine and all of the sudden the collection cup would overflow(generally while I was sleeping). The micro bubbles should go away after a couple of weeks after the initial break in period. I'm not a fan of HOB's in general but for a little bit more money a Reef Octopus HOB skimmer is far superior to coralife..
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

Big sigh…I HATE my corallife skimmer…here is what I have to do to get rid of the micro bubbles that I have had for the 6 months I have owned this blasted piece of expensive junk.
I use regular white filament in the bottom of the overflow cup and the black foam sponge on top. I make sure the cup is submerged and the black foam is lifted halfway out of the water and surrounding the output tube. Otherwise the micro bubbles come from on top instead of the bottom like it usually does.
But you’re not done yet. Doing what I just said will cause it to overflow. So take airline tubing, and put that over that little nub just above the output tube. Run the airline tubing back into the aquarium, resting on top of the black foam. I secured mine with one of those nylon ties to the output tube. That way when it over flows it will just feed the water back to the tank and not on the floor.
This has worked for me for the last month. Good luck. This skimmer pulls out plenty of yuck but is a pain in the you know what, to tweak and get rid of those bubbles. If the water level drops the bubbles return, so timely top offs are essential. I use an auto top off unit.
 
racingtiger03

racingtiger03

Member
I stay on top of top offs, and had extended the output tube to be aimed at the LR to help dissapate bubbles instead of using that overflow box. (I didn't want to have to clean the filter media every day and replace it every week or so). By this I ran into the same problem as you, it was then overflowing out of the output tube. So I added a few slices before the extension so it would overflow on to the surface of the tank to add to surface flow. I was hoping the solution wasn't going to be as expensive as replacing the skimmer...
Speaking of which.. What is a good way to help with surface skimming? I have a hob (use to be filter/skimmer until I learned better) that houses my carbon and it had been doing great until recently *shrug* Now there is a film on my water...
I still can't get over how the bubbles magically went away, and then came back a few days later -.-... this thing is picky! Like you I've also had mine for about 4 months.
Olemiss, mine has done that twice, but I was always near the tank. I think it was a surge. Unplugging the skimmer for about a minute always caused it to stop and function properly.
carlos, do you have a picture of how yours is setup? I have mine to exact specs that are in the manual (or did at one time, and still do minus the output cup) and still have the problem with micro-bubbles =/
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by racingtiger03
http:///forum/post/3180596
Speaking of which.. What is a good way to help with surface skimming? I have a hob (use to be filter/skimmer until I learned better) that houses my carbon and it had been doing great until recently *shrug* Now there is a film on my water...
=/

That “film” on the surface means you need more water agitation. It really has little to do with the skimmer. I pointed my power heads upward toward the surface and eliminated the problem.
My skimmer is HOB, but I use two canister filters, and put my carbon there.
 
racingtiger03

racingtiger03

Member
odd, I haven't had a problem with it until this past week. My PH is aimed upwards, as well as the HOB (more or less an overflow). Between those two I thought I had plenty of surface aggitation.. =/ May try to re-arrange things a bit. Thanks
 
taznut

taznut

Active Member
Originally Posted by OleMiss
http:///forum/post/3180560
This was the first skimmer that I ever owned, and the first of many mistakes. This skimmer is just too finicky. It pulls out a fair amount of waste but would overflow for no apparent reason--it would be fine and all of the sudden the collection cup would overflow(generally while I was sleeping). The micro bubbles should go away after a couple of weeks after the initial break in period. I'm not a fan of HOB's in general but for a little bit more money a Reef Octopus HOB skimmer is far superior to coralife..
i have the same overflow problem with mine... i have it turned down really low so this doesnt happen but this doesnt allow it to skim much... i have two coralifes running in my sump and there are a ton of microbubbles... the baffles take care of this but will never buy another one of these again...
 
racingtiger03

racingtiger03

Member
Followed a lot fo teh advice on there. I will be modding mine this weekend, but removed the flow control valve from the pump and got it closer to the top, also did the bubble diffuser as instructed with the black foam partially out of the top. No more micro bubbles in tank! My skimmer performed greatly as I had it setup before but I could not stand the bubbles. I hope the performance stays on par with what it was, if not mod time!
 
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