AquaC Remora microbubbles and noise

[jesslovesfish]

I have a 29G with an AquaC Remora HOB skimmer. I've had the skimmer running for about 6-8 months and have never really seen the microbubbles cease. In addition, I find the skimmer pretty loud (even though it's supposed to be a quiet unit).

I recently took the skimmer apart and back together, and the bubbles slowed down for a while but seem to be just as bad as ever now (4 days later). The noise is inconsistant - pretty quiet sometimes, but with moments of "sucking" and buzzing noises.

Has anyone else had this problem, and do you have any suggestions?

It's not an emergency, but I bought this skimmer because it was so highly recommended within my price range (it does seem to skim well).

 

[Nereaga]

The noise you are hearing might be the spray injection. Thats about all I hear with the one that I have.

Ive had mine for about a year and I still have microbubbles from it. I recently bought the surface skimmer box add on for it, I think I paid around $34 with shipping for it. It has two slots, one for your pump/powerhead and one that is for the return/bubble diffuser. You could actually run some media in the return side aswell. I actually added in some carbon pads and it greatly reduced the bubbles. Just a thought.

I do agree with you that the skimmer is very productive, IMO.

Brad

 

[jim70]

i made my own skimmer box out of a lee's specimen container and used the pic of the skimmer box as a guide

 

[luke33]

Few and far between have good luck with these skimmers imo. As for noise you can slide a paper towel under the skimmate cup on the top of the injector and there won't be anymore. Just fold the paper towel in a small square adn place it under the skimmate cup on the left side.(if your facing the front of the skimmer)

 

[jesslovesfish]

Luke - do you mean place the towel on top of the injector screw? I'm not sure I understand this trick, but I would LOVE to cut down on the noise. It's all sort of white noise, but the apartment sounds so much more peaceful when the skimmer is off!

 

[luke33]

Yep, you just place the paper towel over the left side on the injector. Noise problem solved..........not its just the functionality you have to deal with ; )

 

[mikellini]

Well, I wouldn't say that solves the problem, as you will be constantly changing paper towels as they dry out/get mouldy. I have the exact same setup, 29 with a remora, and microbubbles/noise. Minus the microbubbles and noise. Get the surface prefilter box, it's a little big (ok for the 29) but it's great for adding chemical filtration to the tank, and it'll kill the microbubbles if you add a little filter floss on top of the foam pad. As for the noise, use the bottom rectangle of the collection cup as a template to cut out a piece of a sour cream or margarine lid. Make it slightly smaller on two sides (1/8"), then take some airline tubing and cut it down the length of one side. Cut it to fit the four sides of the plastic (@ 45 degree angles so it fits together well), then them onto the sides. Slip this contraption into the left side (the one with the plastic screw) and it'll form a somewhat tight seal, do the same as the paper towel (without affecting skimming performance) and cut the noise to about 10% of what it used to be.

Makes more sense with pictures but you get my drift. Easy fix. And as for the performance of this skimmer, it took a long time to break in and produce consistent skimmate, but it works well. Better than many more expensive skimmers, without having to "tune" it.

 

[colotl]

I did the same thing as jim70. Made my own box. It cost me about 10 bucks. It works great! no microbubbles. I also put a paper towel on top of the injector and it reduced the noice. As for the performance.....It works ok when it wants to.

 

[customanimalart]

Now I am on the fence about buying one of these. ??? I am so confused. Some say they are crap, but I have read nothing but good reviews.
Some say the HOB octopus are better than the remoras. ???

I have a standard prizm on my 55g frag tank. That is a noisy piece of junk in my opinion. The pro deluxe model is pretty good (using on my 55g display reef) and I want to replace the junky prizm with this and put a remora on my main reef display.

But now, I am just confused...I hate to waste money. Thankfully, I bought these skimmers used. Although, money still wasted on the basic prizm.

 

[jesslovesfish]

thanks everyone - I did the trick Mickellini suggested with a plastic rectangle and tubing and it seems to have worked wonders on the noise level!

Though it also immediately increased the bubbles --I'm going to rack this up to screwing around with stuff - hopefully will go down again. And I'll look into a collection cup.


Performance wise, I've never had a problem, but it's the first skimmer I've ever dealt with so I have nothing to compare to.

 

[mikellini]

I dealt with Jason at AquaC, owner/operator... he sent me some plastic screening to bunch up and put in the output side of the skimmer to reduce microbubbles. Didn't work. I'm thinking this was because the screening was too big...

What I would do if I were you (short of making/buying a box to fit on the output), and I should look into this myself, is to attach a micron bag to the output. You know, like one of the ones you buy to put phosban or some other such filter media in. 180 micron seems to be the most common. I would be willing to bet that if you put one of these around the output of the skimmer (like a sock) and held it in place with a rubber band it would stop most, if not all, of the microbubbles.

Hope you get what i'm saying, hard to explain. If you do this, let me know how it works. Not ready to go spend $10 at the LFS for a frickin micron bag yet

 

[Shaun120]

I eventually used some filter pads cramed on the output of the skimmer of my AquaC when I had one. Just make sure you clean them regually.

Worked ok after that...regarding microbubbles that is.

 

[colotl]

I also cramed some filter pad into the output side. It worked but it cause restriction and the water level to rise on the injector side. instead of spraying the surface it would spray under the water surface. I got very little bubbles. I played around with how many filter pads and sizes but eventually they clog and the problem came again.