Ugh..Seaclone, funny color skimmate

Two things.

First-Have a Seaclone 100 skimmer and am having questionable results. I have checked most of the posts on this and well, enough said...Other than taking the powerhead off and throwing the rest away, what can be done to help it out? The only addition to it is a fine tuned air valve. No internal mods. I have also noticed if I add Selcon to the food the skimmer stops working for a few hours/days and spews a lot of bubbles. Any recommendations on modestly priced skimmers?

Second-When I add my Calcium supplement to the tank the skimmate turns pink. Is this from a dye in the supplement? Is it normal?

Thanks in advance.

 

I don't know much about the skimmer other than what I have read. I have heard mention of modifying it to increase efficiency, but it's up to you if it is worth the hassle or not. What size is your tank? What type of system do you want to run, Reef or FOWLR? I would recommend the Remora, but also read that the Octpus is good too. I have a Bak-Pak 2, but it can be a PITA at times. All 3 of those are roughly $200.
As far as pink skimmate, it may be the calcium, but I wouldn't think so since there shouldn't be any dyes in the supplement. I had an aqua-blue color skimmate in my tank, but that was actually free floating cynobacteria that got pulled out of the water. You may be seeing the same in your tank. Cyno comes in many colors, not just red.

 

I use corallife and they work great. I have a 65 and a 125 both do there job fine. They are cheep too. I think I only paid $150 for the 125.

 

I no longer use mine but i modded the maxijet with a bioball cut in half used as the impeller. Also it works better in a sump since the water level is constant and the pump is connected directly to the skimmer. Mine didn't do too bad before i modded it once it broke in which took about 3weeks.

 

I have a Seaclone 150 on a 80g tank work great for me. Just upgrade to a ASM g2. The Seaclone skim out darker stuff then the ASM for me. I think the Seaclone is a good skimmer but it's just the size, it's too small and the pump is not strong enough for it to rate at 150g tank

 

I made the internal mod to shorten the inner most tube (increasing bubble contact time ) and drilled a bunch of holes in the impeller. Then set it up in a small sump. For a 20g system. It works better in a sump than hanging on the back (but a better pump would help that).

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Tigermike..My tank is an old odell 65 with a ~15 gal. wet/dry. Params are good. Nitrate is 20, thats the only thing a little high. Just built a coil and installed. Tank is FOWLR eventually going to add some frags. The color of the skimmate is interesting in that the color of the Calcium is pink also. I didn't think skimmers removed calcium. Why would the calcium be pink? The brand is Microbe-Lift.

Thanks for all who replied.

 

I wonder if the calcium is on the edge of precipitating in your tank. What is your Alk and Mg levels? If calcium precipitates, the flakes can get pulled out by the skimmer if it makes it into your wet dry. Definitely wait to add any frags, small coral will easy die with nitrates. What type of fish do you want to add to the tank? Make sure they aren't coral nippers.

 

I have a modded seaclone I cut the innermost tube down to around 2inches and I did the fishing string trick to the impeller.(works allot better now) But I still think they are the biggest piece of junk on the market.(ok well maybe not as bad as the prizem)

 

i started with a seaclone 100 and adding a wooden airstone made it work really good,a little too good actually since the collection cup is so small on them i also ended up drilling a hole in the bottom of the cup and siliconing a line so it could drain into a milk jug, drilling a hole in the middle and finessing a wooden airstone down to the bottom{not easy} will definately show some big improvement an adjustable air pump will make it easier also.