Run for a while?
Skimmer producing less than it once did?
Congratulating yourself that it must've skimmed out all the bad stuff and that's why it's not getting as much out as it once did?
Nawwww...not so.
It's not just the tube and fittings that get dirty. I found a colony of tubeworms and a layer of muck in my Aqua C EV 120. If your skimmer has run for a year, or survived a particularly nasty raising of muck, think about cleaning.
To clean, get a couple gallons of pure white vinegar---the cheapest. Set skimmer in sink, apologize to spouse, empty skimmer, block off water-exits of skimmer, fill with pure white vinegar, and allow to sit overnight. Remove anything that unscrews, check it out, be sure it's clean, and screw it back fairly snugly: don't crack the plastic: the idea of a skimmer is to have air coming in where it is supposed to come in, not from loose fittings.
Rinse out the resultant muck the next morning, rinse with sink water, shake out, go fill with clean new salt water (you don't want it to cause your autotopoff to start and get your tank salt balance off) and let 'er rip.
Mine, after cleaning, works better than new: I think I tightened the fittings better than they were, and it is going nonstop.
Skimmer producing less than it once did?
Congratulating yourself that it must've skimmed out all the bad stuff and that's why it's not getting as much out as it once did?
Nawwww...not so.
It's not just the tube and fittings that get dirty. I found a colony of tubeworms and a layer of muck in my Aqua C EV 120. If your skimmer has run for a year, or survived a particularly nasty raising of muck, think about cleaning.
To clean, get a couple gallons of pure white vinegar---the cheapest. Set skimmer in sink, apologize to spouse, empty skimmer, block off water-exits of skimmer, fill with pure white vinegar, and allow to sit overnight. Remove anything that unscrews, check it out, be sure it's clean, and screw it back fairly snugly: don't crack the plastic: the idea of a skimmer is to have air coming in where it is supposed to come in, not from loose fittings.
Rinse out the resultant muck the next morning, rinse with sink water, shake out, go fill with clean new salt water (you don't want it to cause your autotopoff to start and get your tank salt balance off) and let 'er rip.
Mine, after cleaning, works better than new: I think I tightened the fittings better than they were, and it is going nonstop.
