Sea Clone Skimmer help

ok.. i have a 50 gal tank with a sea clone skimmer on it. I was not gettign much skimmate with the current pump and the pet shop said they discontinued them becasue they are not good. He then provided me an air stone that produces micro bubles.

My question is.. now i get bubbles, but my water is just green and not thick.. should i ease up on bubles or water flow to my skimmer.. its been set up for 3 months

 

The skimmer will have a brake in time (up to two weeks), when I frist got mine all I got was bubbles in the tank. It took a little over a week befor it settled down.

 

Scuba is dead on.

Here is some additional information. I've got two Seaclone skimmers that work superbly with the Maxijet pumps they came wih.

You shouuldn't need an airstone if you are properly aspirating the pump with an airline. There should be a sponge filter with a plastic venturi sleeve that fits into the pump intake and holds the clear plastic airline. The airline will have some sort of a gang valve that controls your airflow.

The pump will take the aspirated air from the venturi, creating the necessary microbubbles through the down tube and into the bottom of the skimmer chamber. The skimmer chamber will fill with micro bubbles and your skimmate will appear in your collection cup.

In general , the more air you allow through the gang valve the dryer the foam. You can have too little and too much air to create a good skimmate and you will need to make small adjustments in airflow and wiat. Repeat this until you get lots od bubbles forming at the top of the skimmer body right where the collection cup seats and tweak from there.

Posts some pictures if you can.

HTH

 

Just some other thoughts.  If your tank is new and doesn't have much bioload, there won't be much to skim, and if your SG is in the 1.023 to 1.025 range, you will have sufficient surface tension in the water to create good micro bubbles.

 

How are things going new2salt2?

 

going ok.. i still have not figured out the skimmer exactly. i get a greenish-brown water in cup.. nothing thick. i also do not like th pump sitting in tank and plan on buying a different style skimmer later once i upgrade my lights.

 

Hi, I just happened across your question while seaching for info on my newly acquired Seaclone. It has mixed reviews, half say they absolutly hate it and another half loves it to death. My local LFS keeps them on all their tanks (which is why I bought one), and all their skimmers are full of the darkest dryest gunk i've ever seen. my guess is that they do need a break in period. and maybe even some modifications which you can find online.
The modifications involve cutting down the center most tube to about 2-3 inches high, installing a gasket between the collection cup and center tube, and finally putting on a different air valve for the intake on the Venturi.
Unfortunetly in my case I haven't found out how to stop so many of the micro bubbles from flowing back into my tank. > Anyway hope this sheds a little light on your problem. If I stumble across anything I'll post.
cya, Mark

 

Hey I might try the modification you listed. I am not sure if mine is working properly because I have a layer of gunk stuck to the inner side of the collection cup (where it meets the bubbles) but none of them are collect in the cup. I'm anxious that it is not working the way it should so I have been cleaning the inner side of the collection cup everyday. Any help out there would be appreciated!