[fishytime]

Originally Posted by kien

I love the performance of Hydor 700. It skims very well and I am quite pleased with it. However, there is one thing that I do absolutely hate about it and that is the fact that you require herculean strength to remove the skimmer cup. It is held in quite tightly by an O-ring. Often times I find myself wiggling, jiggling, twisting, turning, and whatever else I can do to get that darn skimmer cup off. Sometimes I get fed up and just give it good 'ol brute force which unfortunately usually results in the contents of the skimmer cup ending right back into the sump

It was finally time for an intervention. What I ended up doing was removing that darn O-ring completely.

In order to prevent water leaking out of the skimmer cup's neck I employed a gasket instead. The gasket is cut out of that thinish foamy paper that you can get from craft stores like Michaels.

I cut out a ring the exact size of the skimmer neck and seated it on the lip that the skimmer cup rests on.

Lastly, the skimmer cup had a little bit of play in it due to the removal of that O-ring so I needed to shim it a bit with something. After trying various types of tape I finally settled on a strip of electrical tape which made a perfect fit.

The skimmer cup now sits into the main skimmer body quite nicely with a smooth and gentle insertion force.

This has worked out quite well and now I no longer dread cleaning the skimmer cup.

I know what you mean....I was just at a clients house yesterday where the gentleman (who's tank it is) has been away for three weeks...his g/f hasnt touched the skimmer( a hydor) and I dang near had to get a crowbar out to pry the skimate fused cup off....of course she is standing there looking at me like Im some sort of weakling....

Great solution! Should market them as Kien's skimmer cup-eze.