Colorado Reefs
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Seaclone 50 & 100 Skimmer Mod: Air stone implant
SeaClone 100
In an effort to boost the production of skimmate with the seaclone series of skimmers, I followed and posted up the following article(suggested mods for the seclone skimmer). Since then, I had read about the benefits and possible problems with adding an air stone to the Seaclone 50 or 100, in order to help with fractioning(the making of the bubbles). I went ahead and modified the one on my show tank to see what the outcome would be. This mod is rather simple to do, requires following:
- Air pump
- Air hose
- Lime Stone for bubble generation
- Drill
- Drill bit the size of the air hose
All you need to do is simply drill a hole in the collection cup cover, feed the air tube through, attach the limestone, and feed it down to the bottom of the riser tube. Easy enough. Hook up the air pump, and plug it in. This worked GREAT. I had great dark skimmate, and had to clean the cup the next day. What I didn’t realize(or check for) was that the salinity of the water was slowly but surely dropping from 1.025 to 1.020 SG. I’ve just noticed this the other day, and will now revert to the original set up, and try again, seeing if the same thing persists. If not, it was another culprit(maybe some bad replacement water). More to come on this front, though the skimmate produced was pretty damn good.
Tags: Air Hose, Air Stone, Air Tube, Airstone, Bubbles, Culprit, Drill Bit, Drill Drill, Hook Up, Lime Stone, Limestone, Riser Tube, Salinity, Seaclone, Seaclone 100, Seaclone 150, Seaclone Skimmer, show tank, Skimmer, Skimmers
Suggested Modifications for the Seaclone Skimmer
SeaClone 100
Given my cheap budget(in relative terms), I’ve stayed with the skimmer that came with my 75G Show tank, since I got it. Main reason, it didn’t cost anything, and has worked, very well actually. I originally got my 75G Show tank from a friend who works in the aquarium business, and had a customer who wanted his out. I took it, with the low low cost of moving it out of his house. Not a bad price, given I’d have to do that w/ a used tank anyways.
I should preface this page with first, by saying that there is a little bit different setup to my skimmer: It’s not setup HOB(Hang on Back) style. I’ve taken off the necesary pieces, and connected the Maxi-Jet 1200 directly to the skimmer body. While this reduces the bubble’s contact time with the water, it hasn’t seemed to make any difference in the performance of the skimmer. The skimmer sits in the bottom of my sump, in about 4″ of water. I should also mention, this is the SeaClone 100, not the Seaclone 150. Here we go:
- Pump/Impeller: If you’re not using a Maxi-Jet 1200 with this unit, get one. Take out the impeller and drill three tiny holes(1/16″) in each blade of the impeller. Even better, make a mesh wheel for the maxi-jet 1200. I haven’t done this, but I would expect it would help even more with performance, by making the bubbles even tinier, creating more surface area.
- Inner riser tube: I cut mine down by 3 1/2″ – 4″. There have been other pages which say you can pull this out, after taking out the inner column, but I have never been able to get either of mine out(I have 2 of these skimmers). I have a dremel with the flex shaft attachment, which made cutting this pretty easy using a smaller size cutting wheel. Given my big hands, I did putz around with it a bit, but with a little patience I got this done pretty easily. Take your time here, as breaking this would render the whole skimmer pretty much useless.
- Collection cup riser tube: Reduce the height of the riser tube in the collection cup by about 1/2″. Given the total height the foam has to go to get into the collection cup, this can only help, as it allows it to flow over into the collection cup easier.
- Replace the provided “air adjustment” valve with a real air adjustment valve. The one provided with the Maxi-Jet just doesn’t have enough control over the amount of air you want going into the skimmer.
These are the four changes I have made to the two of my SeaClone skimmers, and it has made all the difference. On average I’d say both pull out about 1 Cup per week from my Show tank cluster and my frag cluster of tanks.
Tags: Aquarium, Big Hands, Blade, Bubbles, Coral Tank, Dremel, Flex Shaft, Hob, Little Bit, Patience, Preface, Reef System, Reef Tank, Relative Terms, Riser Tube, Saltwater, Saltwater Aquarium, Seaclone 100, Seaclone 150, Seaclone Skimmer, show tank, Skimmers, Surface Area, Tiny Holes, Wh, Wheel
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