Superskimmer or no skimmer?

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by gqlmao

About the fish line mod, since skimmers need to cut the air it takes in to produce micro bubbles, people find ways to cut finer bubbles with the stock pump, finer micro bubbles means better crap pick up. Fishing line was one of the solutions, people wrap their old pump propellers with fishing line to increase the cutting surfaces hoping to yield better results. I've never tried it but from what I see it has a slight improvement on stock pumps.

Summed it up pretty well. I just wrapped fishing line around the impeller needles and it seems to give the skimmer a marginal improvement. (Not a huge change by any means but basically noticeably a little bit better.)

I wanted to mesh mod it but the pump they use is an odd size. I was not able to find a replacement impeller so I wasn't brave enough to take the step to start cutting up the stock impeller (always braver if I know there's a way to "undo" what I've done ). So I tried using a similar sized impeller instead from a different pump and it was ever so slightly too small. It did not have enough power to draw the air in. I still wonder if a mesh mod is possible but using a different pump .. but I didn't look for a different pump because then my $70 skimmer becomes a $70 + "whatever a new pump costs" and if I'm going to spend that kind of coin anyhow then there are probably other options in the used market for around the same price, so I didn't take that step. If a guy had a pump laying around anyhow it might be a different story.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I think I may wait and find a slightly better skimmer. I doubt after using my Bubblemaster for so long I would be happy with a SS.

I remember thinking the Aqua C Remora skimmers were awesome until I started using higher end ones. You really can't beat a good skimmer!

I am not in a rush really since the tank is doing so well and not fed very much.