New fork in the road - Skimming again after 6+ years

[BeanAnimal]

As some of you may know - I took the 6' tall DIY skimmer out of service maybe 6+ years ago to try Algal Turf Scrubbing as my only means of export. It worked, but at some point in the process of upgrading to a larger ATS...

Well I took the old one off-line and never put the new one online.

It has been 5+ years with no water changes, no skimmer, no ATS, no mechanical filtration. The tank is ~20 years old.

Today I added (a rather oversized) Reef Octopus Regal 200-EXT
It has been online 15 minutes and is already happy!

I have to say - as much as I loved my DIY monster, this thing is a dream.
Quiet, easy to adjust and it looks great too.

 

[Reefing102]

Very nice! I have an internal 110 classic and love it

 

[BeanAnimal]

It is too large for this tank - but the external classic and (I guess discontinued) external super did not have the DC pump. I figured I can tone this one down a good bit and keep the skimmate dry. Time will tell, but 2 hours in and I am as happy as can be. I mean ZERO complaints. I may even buy the neck cleaner if one fits this!

 

[Reefing102]

It is too large for this tank - but the external classic and (I guess discontinued) external super did not have the DC pump. I figured I can tone this one down a good bit and keep the skimmate dry. Time will tell, but 2 hours in and I am as happy as can be. I mean ZERO complaints. I may even buy the neck cleaner if one fits this!

I bought a baby bottle brush for mine. Depending on neck size, maybe a toilet bowl brush?

 

[BeanAnimal]

I bought a baby bottle brush for mine. Depending on neck size, maybe a toilet bowl brush?

Def toilet bowl brush... oddly all of those years with the beast and I never thought of that!

Looking back the neck was a bit narrower - maybe 5" instead of 6"

 

[JohnL]

Do you have any recent tank photos? @BeanAnimal

 

[BeanAnimal]

Do you have any recent tank photos? @BeanAnimal

I will have to grab some when I get a chance but there is not going to be much left! I went a bit nuts over the last few days after purchasing all of this stuff.

I ripped out piles of purple leather, red mushrooms and HUNKS of blue ridge. I tossed a bunch of the rock instead of trying to de-leather it.

I threw away a few rocks covered in (ugly) green grande palys.. the a local friend just told me they are acutally pretty spendy paly.

So there is a brain coral (heavily damaged, but it will come back) and some leather, mushrooms and Paly that I can't get out. (yet.. I will win)

90% of the front glass was plated over with the blue ridge .. now 80%. I am going to beak it into a few big plate and take to to a meeting next weekend (not been to one since I resigned from the board 10 years ago).

I do have a lot of algae covered rock - I am cleaning it up also - but not excited about having to feed the fish again.

 

[Misled]

(yet.. I will win)

That made me lol.

(not been to one since I resigned from the board 10 years ago).

Bout the same for me.

 

[Crowed]

Make a neck cleaner for octo, it will keep him at 100% all the time.

 

[mtnbike101]

I bought a baby bottle brush for mine. Depending on neck size, maybe a toilet bowl brush?

OXO makes nice bottle brushes which work great for skimmers.

 

[mtnbike101]

It is too large for this tank - but the external classic and (I guess discontinued) external super did not have the DC pump. I figured I can tone this one down a good bit and keep the skimmate dry. Time will tell, but 2 hours in and I am as happy as can be. I mean ZERO complaints. I may even buy the neck cleaner if one fits this!

The thing I do not like about neck cleaners it that the smeg stays in there with a potential to drop back down into the cauldron. I removed the neck cleaner from the RedSea RSK300 I have in my small (60g) tank. I empty the waste every 2-3 days when I do filter socks, so for me it is just part of the maintenance process.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Make a neck cleaner for octo, it will keep him at 100% all the time.

Read pros/cons but have been considering, I have been running pretty dry and it def gunks up fast.

 

[Crowed]

Not many dissadvantages, it add little bit to height and best is to run it with a precise timer what have adjustment in seconds (they sale such timers for reptiles). But then you have a skimmer with a clean neck what always operate at maximum and rare need to be cleaned.

As your skimmer is oversized another plus is little less neck volume. I would build cleaner with a flat hand with a scraper on both sides, like octopus factory model, that would be easiest to cut, clean best, and takes most volume and foam will climb little faster with it

 

[BeanAnimal]

Not many dissadvantages, it add little bit to height and best is to run it with a precise timer what have adjustment in seconds (they sale such timers for reptiles). But then you have a skimmer with a clean neck what always operate at maximum and rare need to be cleaned.

I think the biggest complaint is scraping a significant portion of already skimmed material back into the water column.

 

[Crowed]

Yes, true, and that could be a big problem if all that gunk finish and dissolve in aquarium water. But when some part of gunk from cleaner fall into skimmer body it goes into frenzy mode and skim like crazy until it take it all out, same effect like if you spill little skimmate from cup now near or inside a skimmer.
Also, neck cleaner can be shaped at angle so it push gunk into cup, then part of it will be solved that way.
Or you can 'wash it' sometimes to be sure that there is not any larger/visible gunk, with closing water or air valve and sink cleaner into water, or just put it on wet skimming overnight, etc.
And if someone is really concerned about it and want to keep it absolutely clean its still easier just to pick up a cover instead whole cup and wash in sink, and putting back will have much lesser effect and skimmer will be at it max very fast again

 

[mellotang]

I don’t see how a neck cleaner could beneficial if it just puts waste back into the reaction chamber

It’s that the opposite of what the skimmer is working to do

Yes, the neck is clean but all that waste is now back in suspension only to rise back up the neck n get scraped down again

How much does performance of your skimmer decrease if you clean it out manually weekly and remove the waste completely from the aquarium

Neck cleaner seems like another gadget you don’t need that is potentially counterproductive to what your trying to do with the skimmer in the first place

Don’t forget to add the miracle mud n eco aqualizer too

 

[mellotang]

JohnL just likes that I said gadget

 

[kharmaguru]

I've never used a neck cleaner but I assume you could set the interval often enough to avoid any lumps of shmeng.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Do I put the eco aqualizer inline with the skimmer feed, or is it just for my top-off?

 

[BeanAnimal]

I've never used a neck cleaner but I assume you could set the interval often enough to avoid any lumps of shmeng.

That was kind of my thought. I guess it wouldn't be to hard to do a non scientific test with and without and a weeks worth of skimmate (looking at volume/color). I just don't want to spend $200 to figure it out.

Maybe I need to invent the plunger style that drops, expands and then rises to pull the gunk in... or I could just get into the habit of cleaning the skimmer cup.