super skimmer cleaning

[jstdv8]

heres a total newb question.
What is involved with cleaning a super skimmer?
I clean the cup and the tube at the top every couple of days so i can see whats going on. What other celaning should I be doing and how often should i be doing it?
i'm getting nice ugly stuff in the cup, but not as much as alot of otehr systems I see running. and i'm also experiencing alot of fluctuatiuon in microbubble levels in the tube without changing the air settings. Sometimes it will run for days kicking along jsut fine and then all of a sudden it overflows more than a gallon of liquid in less than 4 hours. This makes it really hard to keep track of top off VS wasted water.
Thanks

 

[gill again68]

I have found that my skimmer is hyper sensitive to the evaporation that happens in my sump. What is happing is the water level changes affecting the amount of water above the intake pump for the skimmer. This changes the amount of bubbles the skimmer produces and then I get the same, either too much or too little production. I have tweaked it to just about right but still when the water evaporates I get some little to no production but when the water level is optimal then I dont get the overflow issue any more. That was/is my issues.

 

[jstdv8]

Gill,
Yeah, i have the same thing going. Im hoping when i get my tank in teh wall in a week or so and get my sump up and running with an automatic top off going that that problem will be cured.
Still need to know what the cleaning involves and how to do it.

 

[olemiss]

I had a super skimmer years ago. Other than basic rinsing out, make sure to clean salt out of the air intake. Mine was constantly becoming clogged. I bought a small drill that fit perfectly in the hole and made removal of the salt quite easy. In all honesty, I would recommend getting a better skimmer- there are much better skimmers out there for just a little more money.