Seaclone 100?

[stillfllyy]

I am running the seaclone 100 on my 29gal reef and its a peice of ######. After 2weeks its only collecting clean bubbles in the cup and making too many bubbles in the tank. I researched on it and all i found was people complaing about how poor it works. Any suggestions on a few good skimmers?

[Mr. Fosi]

Have you done any mods on the SC100?

[stillfllyy]

No its totally stock.

 

Can i mod it to work better without having to do alot of work? how would i mod it?

[Mr. Fosi]

Here is a transcript of several PMs that I sent to several people recently. Italicized words are questions from one of the people who PMed me about my modded SC100:

 

I have the older model SC100 with the ~11" bubble riser and the poorly sealing collection cup. I got mine on ebay for $10, so I don't have the nice curved intake tube or the MJ1200.

 

Here is the short version:

 

Skimmer

----------

- teflon tape around the collection cup where it seals to the skimmer body

- an o-ring & teflon tape where the cup seals to the inner bubble dam

- shortened the tube in the cup to ~2.5" instead of 3.5", but I would take it as low a 2" if I wanted a wetter skimmate

 

Venturi

--------

- broke a couple teeth out of the intake grate of the P550

- ran some standard airhose through the hole and right up to the impeller, being sure not to obstruct it

- popped the stock P550 screw-type air valve on the end of the airhose for additional tuning capability

 

If I was more brave, I would attempt to shorten the bubble riser to less than 6".

 

What would shorten the bubble riser do?

 

Allow longer contact time between the bubbles and the water & greater bubble distribution. As it is, the bubbles "cyclone" around inside the riser tube when they would better extract skimmate by forming a cloud in the upper half of the skimmer.

 

I have a mj1200 on it and it heat up my tank. I was thining about running a smaller pump.

 

A smaller (less powerful, slower flow) pump might help you in two ways: 1) less heat into your tank & 2) slower flow, allowing more contact time.

 

However, using a smaller pump will also limit the depth to which you can place said pump and still get a good air intake through the venturi.

 

Any idea on how to cut the bubble riser tube?

 

I have read of people pulling it out by (very carefully) working it back and forth with a pair of pliers. Once it is out, they cut it down then remount it with a thick weldon.

 

Of course, some people that attempt this mod end up breaking the tube off short (not all bad...) or screwing up the bottom where it attaches such that they can't glue it back in.

 

This is why I haven't tried it. My skimmer works well without this mod and if I screw it up, I'll have a less funtional or non-functional skimmer.

 

These pics were origionally posted with the following text in this thread: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...88673&st=40

 

... for those of you that don't think that seaclones can be made to work well (the cup looks like that on any given day).

 

 

[baj]

I agree with mr. Fosi. here is a bit from another post I made.

This is an excellent skimmer with the modification. The modifications are:

1) Shorter collection-cup riser tube. The MaxiJet 1200 is not very powerful (the venturi further reduces its output), therefore, the short riser tube enables the bubbles to spill over into the collection cup. Drawback is that the collection cup needs to be emptied more often.

2) Bioball modification for the MaxiJet1200. This can be seen in the picture above, this turns the maxijet into a needlewheel-like pump, the result is finer bubbles.

3) Short riser tube in the main body. The origginal length of the tube is too long, this makes the "cyclone" relatively short, reducing the contact time with the bubbles. The short riser tube increases the contact time.

 

In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the skimmer, I made a 2g batch of fresh saltwater (sg 1.026), into this I emptied the collection cup from my Tunze skimmer. Here is a picture, FYI this is the skimmate produced after 2 days in my main tank:

 

 

I then ran the SeaClone in the bucket. Here is the collection cup after 5 minutes of operation:

 

 

 

And here is the skimmate after about 1 hour:

 

 

Not bad eh?

[dla]

I have a really old seaclone and it was working o.k. (white foam) and the only time I get bubbles in my tank is when I did water changes or when I need to adjust the air thing. If you open it up and let more air get into the pump it will lessen the amount of tiny bubbles that get into your tank.

 

Any way. I read a post by Mr. Fosi about modifying the his seaclone so I did some of it.

 

I cut down the tube in the collection cup to 1"

I put teflon tape around the collection cup where it seals to the skimmer body.

And just with that, the skimmer worked a lot better. It was coming out green, wet and foamy.

 

Well, why stop when you can make it better, so I pm Mr. Foci about the riser tube and some other stuff (a lot of pm) and he answered all of them (Thank You).

 

So, now I got an o-ring & teflon tape around where the cup seals to the inner bubble dam ( I notice some foam bubbles coming out on the inside of the skimmer at the collection cup, but didn't think nothing of it.)

 

I got that riser tube out of the body and cut it down to 5" and put it back in the skimmer. Now I'm waiting for it to set so I can put in on line again