how long for the remora to break in?

mws · #1 12-30-2010, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maverick00

Well after posting here i decided to rip the skimmer out and give it another wash. i had it running in the sink for over an hour with water vinegar combination, then another hour with freshwater. After rinsing/cleaning it out for a final time i dried it off and reassembled it and hung it back on the tank. Still nothing. I called up the LFS i bought it from and was told i could try adjusting the height of the pump which would change the microbubbles in the skimmer. After another week of playing around with it i dont see any difference whatsoever. I was told by the LFS there would be a restocking fee or they'll let me upgrade to a remora pro for just the added cost of the skimmer. Does anyone that use the pro model see sludge accumulate in the collection cup or just the tea colored water like alot of people seem to find? Im not sure what to do here, return the remoras and hook back up my coralife SS or does anyone have a better upgrade recommendation from the coralife SS in the same price range as the remora? Thanks for the replies.

Why would you worry about it on a 33gal tank. You don't want your water completely striped anyways. Put in on and forget it. The longer it's there the better it will perform.

Maverick00 · #2 12-30-2010, 09:34 PM

sry magma

let me know how the break in goes with yours, i hope you have better luck. i found the noise did go down slightly in a couple weeks, but a sponge some kind covering the injector compartment makes a night and day difference.

@mike31154 yeah thats a good call mike, ill ask around here to see if i can find a stronger pump

@mws i wasnt aware i could overskim?

ive thrown my old SS for the time being and im already seeing minor sludge buildup. i also started seeing some hair algae showing up recently, i cant really blame it on the remora as i knew it was under a break in period but out comes the phosban reactor to hopefully axe this new issue.

Magma · #3 12-30-2010, 09:40 PM

yah I noticed the injector makes a lot of noise even when I asked like 5 times "is this a loud skimmer?" and answer was no no really quiet etc.

Hope it calms down once it breaks in and I think I will try and find some foam to stick in there now.

tuck · #4 12-30-2010, 10:06 PM

I was happy with my remora skimmer and I had it running for a year and a half. It took a long time to break in, 2-3 weeks. After adding anything to the water, food, epoxy, garlic, conditioner, ect. it took an hour or so to kick back in. I got a nasty really strong coffee looking stuff in the collection cup.

mike31154 · #5 12-31-2010, 04:21 AM

Actually one thing that may improve the Remora's performance if you're not using it already, is a surface skimmer or pre skimmer box, particularly if your unit is hanging in the display. This will ensure the water going into the skimmer is being pulled from near the surface where most of the proteins tend to collect. Pretty sure Remora sells the skimmer box, but it's huge and when I was using the Remora, I simply used one of those $20 bobbing surface skimmer thingys available at virtually any LFS. Hook the pump intake to this little device and there's an adjustment lever down the center that allows you to tweak how much water is drawn from the surface. The lower section of the device will also take in some water and is a bit of a fail safe in case the bobber screws up, I think. Not as clunky and intrusive as Remora's box and probably a little less efficient.

http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...t_ID=pf-acpskm

I also need to correct a statement made in an earlier post. Just noticed on JL site that the Pro is a few inches longer and an inch wider than the standard model. My bad, sorry for the misinformation. You can still get a larger pump for the standard Remora if you wish though.

Skimmerking · #6 12-31-2010, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mws

Why would you worry about it on a 33gal tank. You don't want your water completely striped anyways. Put in on and forget it. The longer it's there the better it will perform.

I agree on this one with a small footprint why even bother doing a 5 gal change is huge to a 33 gal, or a 10 gal change. Doing a 5 gal change every week will cancel out anything bad. If you seriously want to know.

Maverick00 · #7 12-31-2010, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skimmer King

I agree on this one with a small footprint why even bother doing a 5 gal change is huge to a 33 gal, or a 10 gal change. Doing a 5 gal change every week will cancel out anything bad. If you seriously want to know.

defiantly thanks for the info, perhaps i was getting alittle worked up about what i was seeing in that &^%$ collection cup rather than whats actually needed. Thanks again for the replies everyone.

Skimmerking · #8 12-31-2010, 09:55 PM

Maverick just because you are pulling light color tea skim out of the tank doesnt mean that the skimmer isnt working. It's pretty much menas that the tank does not have any extra nutrients to take out....

Magma · #9 12-31-2010, 10:01 PM

mines been up for about 3 days now, and after not having a skimmer it for about a month (damn thing broke) im getting a thick paste in the bottom of the cup and im still getting tea coloured water as well.

Maverick00 · #10 01-01-2011, 12:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skimmer King

Maverick just because you are pulling light color tea skim out of the tank doesnt mean that the skimmer isnt working. It's pretty much menas that the tank does not have any extra nutrients to take out....

I took out the remora and threw in the coralife SS and within 24 hrs it's already started to pull out sludge so yes I'm assuming there is stuff to be pulled out the remora isn't getting.

That's awesome to hear magma, are you running that surface filter as well?