As any regular peruser of these forums can attest to, the AquaC line of HOB skimmers (Remora/Pro) have people who either love them or hate them. I've performed a number of modifications on mine gathered from here and there which perhaps may help those in the "hate" category.
I purchased a standard Remora for my 46 gallon about a year and a half ago and it did "OK", but certainly not spectacular. It skimmed tea-coloured, but stinky, skimmate and I'd have to empty to cup about once a week. It also had the common issues of being too noisy and having too many micro-bubbles in the tank.
Then I had a major cyano/algae outbreak and lost a few residents so I decided to do a complete tear down and went barebottom. The Remora stopped skimming anything even after a re-break-in period. So this is what I did:
1. Too noisy
The easiest solution was to simply fold up a paper towel and jam it in the space below the cup and on top of the injector. I used a heavy-duty shop towel which muffles the sound even more. It's not dead silent, but at least my wife's stopped complaining. You could use some cotton cloth or the like to deaden the sound further.
2. Micro-bubbles
Another easy fix. I picked up an AC500 sponge and cut it into thirds. Then a cut a slit in the middle of each section just big enough to slip onto the outflow lip of the Remora. No more micro-bubbles. I rotate the 3 sponges every 3-4 days to prevent nitrate build-up. The sponges usually come in white or blue, but I managed to find a black sponge that blends in well with my black background.
3. Not enough skimmate
The big kahuna. I heard of others using Mag5s on their Remora Pros so I stuck one onto my Remora. AquaC actually recommended a Mag3 as an upgrade to the Maxijet, but I'm all about overdoing everything
.
Sure enough, the added head-pressure overwhelmed the Remora and the collection cup filled with clear water in no time. I throttled back the flow with the cheap ball valve from a Filstar between the Mag outlet and the Remora intake.
Taking some of Mr. Calfo's advice about taking water from the surface, I also added a Hagen surface skimmer before the Mag intake.
http://www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/product.cfm?CAT=1&SUBCAT=106&PROD_ID=01010060020101
I like it because it has an adjustment knob to vary the amount of surface water it takes in and it floats so is unaffected by changes in water level unlike the AquaC pre-skimmer box.
I hooked the whole thing up with PVC NPT barb fittings and the 1/2" ID tubing also from a Filstar. In retrospect, I wished I had used solid PVC tubing and a gate valve rather than a ball valve. It would have been much easier to fine tune as it took me weeks to "dial in" the skimmate and re-re-break-in.
I would also have added a T between the Mag and the valve to bleed off any diverted head pressure from the Mag and even add more flow to the tank.
The result?
I don't get black "nog" but the skimmate is much darker tea than before with black crusty stuff on the inside of the cup and the neck. I keep the cup about 2/3 of the way up (pretty "dry"). I have to empty the cup every 2-3 days now. I like the fact that I now have 2 flow adjustment points whereas there was none before.
I've heard of snaking a wooden airstone into the body of the Remora for even more bubbles, but that's been unnecessary with the Mag5.
All in all, the Remora went from a "C" before tank breakdown, to an "F" to a "B" currently.
Anybody have any more ideas?
I purchased a standard Remora for my 46 gallon about a year and a half ago and it did "OK", but certainly not spectacular. It skimmed tea-coloured, but stinky, skimmate and I'd have to empty to cup about once a week. It also had the common issues of being too noisy and having too many micro-bubbles in the tank.
Then I had a major cyano/algae outbreak and lost a few residents so I decided to do a complete tear down and went barebottom. The Remora stopped skimming anything even after a re-break-in period. So this is what I did:
1. Too noisy
The easiest solution was to simply fold up a paper towel and jam it in the space below the cup and on top of the injector. I used a heavy-duty shop towel which muffles the sound even more. It's not dead silent, but at least my wife's stopped complaining. You could use some cotton cloth or the like to deaden the sound further.
2. Micro-bubbles
Another easy fix. I picked up an AC500 sponge and cut it into thirds. Then a cut a slit in the middle of each section just big enough to slip onto the outflow lip of the Remora. No more micro-bubbles. I rotate the 3 sponges every 3-4 days to prevent nitrate build-up. The sponges usually come in white or blue, but I managed to find a black sponge that blends in well with my black background.
3. Not enough skimmate
The big kahuna. I heard of others using Mag5s on their Remora Pros so I stuck one onto my Remora. AquaC actually recommended a Mag3 as an upgrade to the Maxijet, but I'm all about overdoing everything
.Sure enough, the added head-pressure overwhelmed the Remora and the collection cup filled with clear water in no time. I throttled back the flow with the cheap ball valve from a Filstar between the Mag outlet and the Remora intake.
Taking some of Mr. Calfo's advice about taking water from the surface, I also added a Hagen surface skimmer before the Mag intake.
http://www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/product.cfm?CAT=1&SUBCAT=106&PROD_ID=01010060020101
I like it because it has an adjustment knob to vary the amount of surface water it takes in and it floats so is unaffected by changes in water level unlike the AquaC pre-skimmer box.
I hooked the whole thing up with PVC NPT barb fittings and the 1/2" ID tubing also from a Filstar. In retrospect, I wished I had used solid PVC tubing and a gate valve rather than a ball valve. It would have been much easier to fine tune as it took me weeks to "dial in" the skimmate and re-re-break-in.
I would also have added a T between the Mag and the valve to bleed off any diverted head pressure from the Mag and even add more flow to the tank.
The result?
I don't get black "nog" but the skimmate is much darker tea than before with black crusty stuff on the inside of the cup and the neck. I keep the cup about 2/3 of the way up (pretty "dry"). I have to empty the cup every 2-3 days now. I like the fact that I now have 2 flow adjustment points whereas there was none before.
I've heard of snaking a wooden airstone into the body of the Remora for even more bubbles, but that's been unnecessary with the Mag5.
All in all, the Remora went from a "C" before tank breakdown, to an "F" to a "B" currently.
Anybody have any more ideas?
