Cleaning skimmers

[schiavonir]

I have a one month old Octopus skimmer that I bought from Rod. I clean the collection cup out about every week or so. My question is - how often, if ever, do I have to drag the whole thing out and clean it? Is that beneficial or does that cause me to have to go through a "break-in" again? When I first got it, it took about a week to produce any skimmate.

Roger

 

[ostrow]

I was having probs with my G5 and cleaned as much of the body as I could. Skimmed better and immediately.

That was after maybe 6mos.

But if you clean the cup and reaction chamber (neck) every couple weeks you shoudl be fine.

 

[schiavonir]

Thanks. Yeah, tonight I stuck my finger in the neck and (yuck) pulled out a lot of gunk that has been building up.

 

[hansnfrans]

The general rule from what I've read is to disassemble the skimmer and clean the entire unit 2 times per year. I guess it depends where your tank is located within your house. Sometimes I get alot of brown diatoms building up inside of the skimmer body from the sunlight because my tank is near a window. This type of situation I believe warrants more frequent cleanings of the entire skimmer body.

 

[ostrow]

I'm not sure why cleaning the body would make a difference, and in fact am not sure it does. The reaction chamber including the "neck" is where it's at!

 

[mbunaman]

I agree with ostrow the body to me does not make a difference I run the Aqua C 180 but when you clean the neck and the throat of the collection cup it skims like crazy. I have to do this weekly to keep it skimming at peak.

 

[hansnfrans]

I would think that "build up" of sorts on the inside of the skimmer body could possibly effect the movement of the bubbles and maybe pop the bubbles while they are in the skimmer body. Not sure though, just a thought.