Upgraded my rsm 130d skimmer

mmedley

New member
Just wanted to share my experience in searching for an upgrade for my tank. Seemed to be a lack of info for this model(not just this forum). Not sure if ppl have given up on these tanks or they're keeping the crappy stock skimmer.

I have been slowly upgrading parts of this tank, upgraded the pumps last year. Just scored a nice deal on a jebao pp4 for it. I have done the mods and tinkered with the stock skimmer and just could not keep it working to my satisfaction. I have a fowlr, bicolor dottyback, lawnmower Benny, flame hawk, 2 clowns and long spine urchin. Was having an issue with green hair algae, I was thinking it was due to the poor skimming of the stock skimmer. Or maybe it was due to me moving the yellow tang to my 150g? Water parameters:nitrites-0 nitrates-0 ph-7.8 ammonia-0 phos-.25.

I searched for 2 days looking to see what ppl had upgraded to and how well the other skimmers worked. I was going to go with a tunze skimmer which seemed to be a popular choice and it would still fit in the skimmer compartment. Most ppl loved it in the beginning but ended up in the same situation as the stock skimmer after some months. Plus you had to purchase the media basket to go with it. Second, I considered the hydor slim skim, cheaper in price and still fit in the stock compartment. I just could not find enough reviews on it to hit that purchase button. I ran across a post on another forum about a guy raving about a hob octopus skimmer.(Oct-1000) Nothing but positive reviews, plus I have the same brand for my 150g and love it. Only down side is it hangs on the back instead of in the compartment under the hood, which I don't care about. I decided to order the octopus hob classic 100 model, where the pump is inside the compartment versus outside of the tank. To me it was just less of a risk of water leaking behind my tank. Found one new on eBay for $140 including shipping. Set it up as soon as I got it. I had to cut the plastic on the back of the tank down to the glass. I cut the section wide enough to fit the skimmer. As soon as I plugged it in, it went right to work. It has finally broken in, had to find the right height for the skimmer cup to avoid it filling up with water. Skimmate has been getting darker and I've emptied the cup almost everyday. It's been a full week since adding it to the tank.


Hope this post can help someone out in looking for a better skimmer option.
Tried to upload some pics but I think I have to resize them.šŸ˜•
 
I have the R.O. 100-hob. Love it. It's for my 39 gallon bowfront. I just took it apart the other day and cleaned the pineapple sponges out šŸ¤£[emoji531]. I used a piece of PVC with a green scrubby pad zip tied to the end. It is easy to dissasemble and reassemble. Just remember which tube went on the IN side and which went on the OUT side. Mine took about 2 weeks to find the right height. But now I know how high to set it if I want to skim wet or not. If I'm trying to wait a couple days on a water change, I just lower the cup and wet skim and dump the cup 2x a day. If I don't feel like dumping it in the next 2 days I move the cup up and it'll just be like nasty coffee.

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