Reeflo/Sequence Skimmer Club

I dont know the answer to this question, but I was curious what you guy's think. On my orca 250 I noticed that it seems to work great if I set it so the bubbles pop in the first inch or 2 of the riser. The problem is the skimmate gets so dark and heavy that it is completely dry by the time it gets to the top. On the flip side if I set it so the bubbles break in the top two inches of the riser the quality and quantity of skimmate is very poor in comparison. I have been trying to find the happy medium, but it really seems most productive set on the low side, although very dry, at least in my case. This leads me to believe the skimmer cup and riser are actually too tall to get more productive wet skimmate. Wouldnt this also make the optional taller riser and cup available just make you a very nice 6 inch skimmer with a big reaction chamber. Just thinking.
 
I think Mike at Reef Specialty was talking about a larger drain on the cup, longer neck, larger cup size etc. Nothing is in stone yet. Overall it should have the same benefits as the 250 upgrade cup, if not more.
 
I was out of town this weekend (gone 5 days) came back to a ton of dark liquid in my Precision Marine collection cup and this is some of the gunk cleaned out of the skimmer neck.



CIMG0121.jpg
 
Anyone have some info on the Laguna 4200 pump for the Reeflo 250?

I asked about replacing the Dart with one in another thread and got this response from Jon.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12397494#post12397494 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
Yes, in fact that is exactly what one of the 4200's is being planned for.
Click to expand...

Should be a awesome pump with the larger cup from Reef Specialty.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12395504#post12395504 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
The Laguna 4200 at about 120 watts (maybe as low as 100... well have to see) should kill a Dart... 6000lph should be easy, possibly 8000.
Click to expand...
 
I was having fits with my skimmer last week. The AO motor it came with is running hotter than it used to and there were large bubbles escaping from the bottom of the skimmer, going up and busting up the bubble column. I cleaned the venturi and the whole skimmer, no help. I decided that maybe the pump was going out... it almost seems like it was maybe not chopping the bubbles fast enough and ordered the DART Gold from Mike.

However... as the week wore on, it is working more normally now, and this a.m. was building a nice bubble column again. I guess I will shelf the reeflo GOLD for a spare for if and when this pump does go out. In retrospect, maybe after a thorough cleaning, the think just needed to recondition? Will report update in a week or so.

Can anyone chime in... when you look at the base of the skimmer... do you see any large bubbles escaping from the bottom chamber? Right now, I am seeing a trickle of 5 mm bubbles with an occasional burp of quater sized bubbles every few minutes. Less and less each day though. Is this normal?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12400775#post12400775 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FishTruck
I was having fits with my skimmer last week. The AO motor it came with is running hotter than it used to and there were large bubbles escaping from the bottom of the skimmer, going up and busting up the bubble column. I cleaned the venturi and the whole skimmer, no help. I decided that maybe the pump was going out... it almost seems like it was maybe not chopping the bubbles fast enough and ordered the DART Gold from Mike.

However... as the week wore on, it is working more normally now, and this a.m. was building a nice bubble column again. I guess I will shelf the reeflo GOLD for a spare for if and when this pump does go out. In retrospect, maybe after a thorough cleaning, the think just needed to recondition? Will report update in a week or so.

Can anyone chime in... when you look at the base of the skimmer... do you see any large bubbles escaping from the bottom chamber? Right now, I am seeing a trickle of 5 mm bubbles with an occasional burp of quater sized bubbles every few minutes. Less and less each day though. Is this normal?
Click to expand...

Completly normal. When you clean your skimmers body and parts you remove the slime coat. Your skimmer will skim normally once it has a chance to re-slime. As for the occational burp, that is also normal, this is due to such a large re-circulating pump and box design. This is nothing that will greatly hinder performance IMO. My 200 burps the traped air in the box on occasion. I would put the gold pump on your skimmer and keep the ao smith version as a back up.
 
I did the upgrade on my 250 with both the collection cup and the dart gold after a week this thing is the balls .
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12400775#post12400775 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FishTruck
I was having fits with my skimmer last week. The AO motor it came with is running hotter than it used to and there were large bubbles escaping from the bottom of the skimmer, going up and busting up the bubble column. I cleaned the venturi and the whole skimmer, no help. I decided that maybe the pump was going out... it almost seems like it was maybe not chopping the bubbles fast enough and ordered the DART Gold from Mike.

However... as the week wore on, it is working more normally now, and this a.m. was building a nice bubble column again. I guess I will shelf the reeflo GOLD for a spare for if and when this pump does go out. In retrospect, maybe after a thorough cleaning, the think just needed to recondition? Will report update in a week or so.

Can anyone chime in... when you look at the base of the skimmer... do you see any large bubbles escaping from the bottom chamber? Right now, I am seeing a trickle of 5 mm bubbles with an occasional burp of quater sized bubbles every few minutes. Less and less each day though. Is this normal?
Click to expand...

Yes, it is back in action now for a week. Just dumped a gallon of nasty skimmate yesterday. I have the Dart Gold, but, will save it for when the AO motor konks out. At that point, the fish load etc.. will be much higher and the upgrade will be more important. Right now, it seems to be PLENTY of skimmer for my system.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12470531#post12470531 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by calciumbuf
crankin it up :D

24505100_1948__Small_.JPG
Click to expand...

Looking good! It looks like you are running ozone also. What brand and size ozone generator do you have?
 
Those of you with the 250 and the upgraded cup, did you also increase the size of the feed pump? I know Mike runs about 1000-1100 gph through his and has great results. I tried it with mine and lost performance instead of gaining it but I still have the original cup. Upgraded cup should be here Wednesday. What have you found?
 
My skimmer is gravity fed, but i did allow more water to enter. My water line is ~1.5" above the mounting flange.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

jay505
Is STARS still an active club
Replies
3
Views
59
griss
griss
sauceyreefOG
New (but old) Member - Hello!
Replies
12
Views
523
Reefing102
Reefing102
Guygettnby
Stuck between 2 skimmers...
Replies
12
Views
415
Guygettnby
Guygettnby
S
Why do oversized protein skimmers not adequately remove protein from a tank?
Replies
12
Views
204
Paul B
Paul B
M
ATO Problem in JBJ NanoCube 24g
Replies
0
Views
222
MNtadpole
M
Back
Top