Skilter 250 Midoifications (w/picture)

[newnano]

I have a Skilter 250 the was recommended to me by my LFS. It is noisy as I'm sure most of you know. I've read alot about the modifications that others have done to quite the unit down. The modifications I read about involved the addition of a wooden air stone into the skimmer tower. None of the articles I read had any type of diagrams to show the novice to do this modification. So, after reading to or three articles and several posts here, I developed my own and it is attached. I think it's correct and I'm asking the people who did make this modification to their Skilter 250 to look at it and tell me if it's correct. The one thing I wasn't sure about is if the part of the impeller cover that gets connected to the skimmer tower showld be disconnected and rotated out of the way. My tank is still cycling and I'd like to make this modification before adding any livestock. Please review and let me know if it's right.

 

Thanks very much.

[palaegic]

Great work on the diagram - hang onto that, you will be doling it out like candy in the future.

 

To answer the question in the diagram, yes the pump should remain connected to the column tube.

[AZDesertRat]

Leave the pump connected to the riser. Also leave the original airline connected, just push the cap down so it doesn't suck air and make noise. Two other suggestions are to throw the filter floss and carbon insert away and buy a Whisper Triad replacement cartridge and trim it to fit in the Skilter frame. Next, drill a small hole close to the top of the skimmer catch basin so if the basin fills up (and it will) it drains back into the tank and not out the back on the floor. It takes a little adjusting at first but you eventually get the hang of it. I went the airline valve route at first but eventually picked up a good air pump with variable output which worked much better. The other way to adjust is to move the wooden airstone up and down within the skimmer. For a small tank these work great.

[skylsdale]

I just took out the original airline and fed the new airline from the pump backwards along the top of the U-tube and down under one of the spaces at the base of the rise tower.

 

It was still an inefficient piece of garbage.

[reefout]

i did the same thing to a skilter a few years ago, you would be

much better off if you didnt drill holes in it at all.

just run a piece of silicon air tube in the water outlet of the

skilter down to the bottom of the skimmer, then take the top

half of the skimmer off, now you can easily slide the air line

through one of the open squares and grab it from the inside of

the skimmer cylinder, now put your air stone on and place it

in very bottom of skimmer. this way there is no airline or airstone

to deal with when you want to empty the cup, and no holes in

your skilter. also make sure you use a strong enough air pump

with a built in air adjuster so you can fine tune your foam.

I also removed filter media and replaced with poly pad and

a bag o' carbon. worked twice as well when i was done.

[Chyendra]

that's the modifications i plan on makeing to my skilter in the future (when i get my tank set up.) also removeing the filter cartrige. I have a question though. Should i have the Skilter hang on the back of the tank, (to add water flow as well) or would it do just as good of job if i put it on the back of my refugium?

[reefout]

i would keep the skilter seperate from your refugium, unless the

skimming can occur before the water goes into the fuge. if the

fuge was a sump version then i could see keeping the skilter

hidden in the sump would be nicer than having to look at it on

your tank.