Skimmer Recommendations

ps this thing isnt that quiet either, but instructions say it would take a week

 

The noise and micro bubbles will subside.....at least mine did. It actually took about two week for the micro bubbles on mine. I would raise the cup when you go out of town. After looking at mine last night I don't think it will overflow (could be wrong though) because once it gets to a certain level it will not allow foam to come up because the liquid will go back down in the tube. This is of course guessing on my part.....I have gone a week with out changing it but my bio load wasn't that large either. As far as the glue places mine looks the same way and I thought like you did for the money they could have done a better job than that. I was really disappointed when I first got mine then I let her run for a couple of weeks and she just started kicking booty! Good luck and have a great trip!

 

Give the Remora time, it will quiet down and bubbles will take a month or so to decrease. One thing you can do to help with the noise is to place a piece of plastic or acryllic across the opening of the return spout leaving about 1/2" for the water to flow back into the tank. Its not a dramatic difference but its noticable.
Another thing you can do to modify the skimmer to increase efficiency is to upgrade the pump to a Via Aqua 1300 (375gph) or the Rio 1400+ at 425 gph. Skimmate production is greatly increade over the Maxijet pump rated at 295gph. I like the Rio, I've had mine for 2yrs without any problems. The new Rio plus's are much better than the old versions.

 

everyone spoke so highly of the maxijet 1200.. now i find out there is better lol. money pit

I think it has quieted down, but there are still a bunch of bubbles everywhere

 

The MJ is a great pump, but if you want to get more out of the Remora you can upgrade to larger pumps. If you email AquaC they will admit that you can use larger pumps. You could use a Mag 3 pump but its a monster of a pump as far as size is concerned and not very power efficient.
Try the piece of plastic taped across the opening of the water return to decrease the noise. Do a test with a piece of cardboard or your finger and you'll see the difference in the sound.

 

Is the skimmer always supposed to make the loud sssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh noise? I tried cutting a piece of sponge and put it in the hole to try to make the microcubbles go down and it would make it quiet for a few seconds then sssshhh, quiet, then ssshhhh, quiet, ssshhhhh (ssshh = the noise it makes lol) I didnt notice the sponge made that much of a difference on bubbles