Seaclone Skimmer Question

[debdeb]

I Know That The Seaclone 100 Skimmer Gets A Lot Of Bad Rap, And I Am Curious What The Problem Is With Them. I Have A Seaclone 100 On My 37 Gallon Reef. I Really Don't Have To Adjust It Often At All. Usually Only After We Do A "big" Tank Clean Up And I've Stirred Up The Sand Bed Etc. When I Empty The Cup About Once A Week, It Is Usually About 1/4 To 1/3 Full Of Gunk. Is That Not Enough? What Is The Skimmate Supposed To Look Like?

 

[gsd]

I really like how some say skim is supposed to look like such and such, or else its not working right. Some say it should look dark black brown like coffee...... etc etc. What it all boils down to is what is in your tank, the size of the tankas sized to the skimmer in use, the bio load, the food yu feed, how you feed, and a whole host of other odds and ends. If its getting colored junk collected in the cup, its skimming......Is it skimming as efficieint as it should be.,,.,.,.hard to say, it may or maybe not, as it may be diue to skimmer design and thats all your gonna get. Lots of corals and rock usually makes a lot more darker skim, as compared to a tank with few corals and mainly fish....Some say you should be getting a cup of skim a day. Its bull hockey. Maybe my tank doe snot porduce a cup of skim a day, and maybe it takes a week........since no two tanks are identical. If your water parameters are fine, no odor etc, clarity is good not yellow looking let it alone and be done with it. I personally try and run my skimmers as dry as I can, so I get a darker skim and it takes longer to accumulate than a watery skim setting.........its all personal preference, but sinc eyu have a seaclown, just be glad its skimming as anything skimmed is better than nothing being skimmed.

 

[stanlalee]

Originally Posted by debdeb
When I Empty The Cup About Once A Week, It Is Usually About 1/4 To 1/3 Full Of Gunk. Is That Not Enough? What Is The Skimmate Supposed To Look Like?
You'll know its enough or not based on your testing. If you are able to maintain low nitrates with normal feeding and normal water change size and schedule then it must be working "well enough". Like said how much or litte depends on the tank. As far as skimate again depends on the tank and skimmer adjustment.
Mine is sometimes green:

sometimes dark

sometimes mucky looking

mine foams pretty decently

from what you described your is working like it should. I dont adjust mine AT ALL (keep it nearly wide open. I dont even bother with the adjuster unless its about to fall out from being too far out). it works fine and is not inconsistant. the only time it stops producing is when the collection cup neck is dirty. I dont know why everybody else sucks so much. I wouldn't use it on a bigger tank though, it only has a 3" body and a 295pgh pump.

 

[debdeb]

Thanks Stanlalee. Your pictures show pretty much what I see with mine. Although, I am having some heavy brown algae problems right now. I think it is coming from my sand bed. We've stirred it up pretty good the last couple times we did water changes so I think that is the problem. I'm going to post this problem in detail in the newbie forum if you have any more advice. Thanks!

 

[monalisa]

Resurrecting this thread.
I just put a SeaClone 100 on my 37gal last week. This week has been interesting in that the first day my new skimmer worked great (lots of microbubbles...expected). The next day it wasn't working at all. I took it out...looked it over...replaced it...voila!! After that for the next few days my water was looking hazy, or milky is the best I can describe it. I marked that down to skimmer break in and the fact that it was still spilling microbubbles.
Today my water is crystal clear. My tank looks awesome and healthy again. Still spilling some microbubbles, but as far as I'm concerned, it's still in the break in period...most skimmers take 2-3 weeks to completely break in. Mine is pulling so much junk out that it's just amazing!! And most importanly, my critters all look like happy little campers.
Nothing wrong with the Sea Clone skimmers in my book!!
Lisa :happyfish

 

[catawaba]

Amen.
I've never had a problem either. Some people just have to have the biggest and the best....to compensate.

 

[lubeck]

IMO the seaclone should only be used on tanks under 40gals to be effective. i would even use the 150 and it will probably get a little more gunk. i use to have the 150 on my 110gal. that was a big mistake since i get almost a gallon of the dark each month from the asm3... i only got less than a quart a month with the seaclone.. just my experiences. again i think they do well on small tanks.

 

[catawaba]

A gallon? WOW, maybe you should adjust your air/water flow...Your skimate shouldn't have much volume to it--you're skimming out too much water.

 

[dragonladylea]

I used to use the Seaclone to and "thought" it was a great skimmer until I bought my new tank that came with a CSS 65 - WOW was I amazed at the difference. I will not ever recommend the Seaclone to anyone again when for just a little more you can get a great skimmer.

 

[monalisa]

I've had my Sea Clone 100 running for less than 2 weeks and I've had to empty the collection cup twice of nasty, dark skimmate...
I don't understand either how this skimmer got such a bad rap. My guess is that someone came up with the nickname for it, and, well, you know how people think sometimes.
For the record...I couldn't be happier with this skimmer, and this is NOT my first experience with running a skimmer!! I'm totally impressed, and my tank is finally...FINALLY looking healthy and happy again!!
This really could have been an expensive lesson for me in not adhering to the opinions of others, but it was available, and I needed a new skimmer. I'm very happy with my Sea Clone. I will definitely recommend it to others.
Lisa :happyfish

 

[dragonladylea]

Lisa - I thought mine was great to until I got the CSS 65 now I empty my collection cup every other day and my water parameters are almost perfect!! Always fought nitrates before.

 

[murray bmf]

Originally Posted by Dragonladylea
I used to use the Seaclone to and "thought" it was a great skimmer until I bought my new tank that came with a CSS 65 - WOW was I amazed at the difference. I will not ever recommend the Seaclone to anyone again when for just a little more you can get a great skimmer.

Me to! I used a Sea Clone for a long time, then I bought a Euro-Reef. Wow!, What a difference. I'm not saying the Sea Clone is a bad skimmer, as a matter of fact, for the price it's hard to beat, but I love my Euro. I guess the botton line is if it's doing a good job for your tank, then it's doing a good job! But thats just me...

 

[yomommasmom10]

i have just bought mine and im wondering to run it with less air or more

 

[dawman]

Originally Posted by MonaLisa
Resurrecting this thread.
I just put a SeaClone 100 on my 37gal last week. This week has been interesting in that the first day my new skimmer worked great (lots of microbubbles...expected). The next day it wasn't working at all. I took it out...looked it over...replaced it...voila!! After that for the next few days my water was looking hazy, or milky is the best I can describe it. I marked that down to skimmer break in and the fact that it was still spilling microbubbles.
Today my water is crystal clear. My tank looks awesome and healthy again. Still spilling some microbubbles, but as far as I'm concerned, it's still in the break in period...most skimmers take 2-3 weeks to completely break in. Mine is pulling so much junk out that it's just amazing!! And most importanly, my critters all look like happy little campers.
Nothing wrong with the Sea Clone skimmers in my book!!
Lisa

+1 , I have the 150 in my 75 gal and works great ! I usually empty the collection cup every other day . I`ve heard people bash them , but it works , my nitrates are always 0 , and the tank is crystal clear . That is all that matters to me .