Superskimmer or no skimmer?

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

+1 .. I run one on my 20g. I get teased about it all the time too. But it gets the job done, pulls out decent skimmate. I did the fishing line mod for the impeller and reamed out the air intake to allow a tiny bit more air in.

The one thing I don't like about it is how hypersensitive it is to adjustments. I run mine in the sump and I can't imagine running it as hang-on. I'd have emptied my tank onto the floor several times over by now if I actually used it that way.

What is the fishing line mod?

Thanks guys! I think I agree that it would be better than nothing even though nothing is working pretty well so far.

[gqlmao]

I had a super skimmer 65 on my 100g temporary when i got my tank changed. Its better than nothing but couldn't keep up with my fishies' eating habits :P. Still if i had a choice I would go ss rather than nothing lol. I wouldn't say ss are the best having tried other skimmers but they aren't that crappy since it kept my old tank healthy for 3 years lol. +1


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.


Stanley,

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by gqlmao

I had a super skimmer 65 on my 100g temporary when i got my tank changed. Its better than nothing but couldn't keep up with my fishies' eating habits :P. Still if i had a choice I would go ss rather than nothing lol. I wouldn't say ss are the best having tried other skimmers but they aren't that crappy since it kept my old tank healthy for 3 years lol. +1


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.


Stanley,

Thanks Stanley

Yeah I have a feeling I will be disappointed with the SS compared to the Bubblemaster on my other tank but oh well. I think I will end up going for it unless I can find a used skimmer from someone.

Thanks for the mod advice. Same idea as a mesh mod then on other skimmer pumps.

[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.

[justinl]

IMO, go skimmerless for a while, and save that money towards a tunze HOB or better. preferably deltec or better, but that gets pricey very quick.