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Guys new tank few days only. Does this mean I need a skimmer?
Yeah, there will be abit of Co2 loss from the extra water movement through the skimmer, but its not alot and you can just inject abit more Co2 to compensate for it, so not really necessary to switch it off.Originally Posted by mercur1al
The skimmer head is a floating design and the intake pipe itself is telescopic, therefore you can shorten and adjust it so that the skimmer is able to work closer the top of the tank (the photo shows the intake pipe and skimmer at its lowest extended level, i guess its more to show the entire unit for marketing purposes).
Guys new tank few days only. Does this mean I need a skimmer?
If you find that a layer of oil film is constantly building up on the water surface, the skimmer can help clear it.
Other alternatives are to increase surface agitation to break up the oil film or do more water changes or use paper towels to soak it up periodically.
Hi Gurus who are using this product, I just bought a set from Seaview. Can I check is it turn the blue collar anti-clockwise or clockwise to increase the suction? Is it also normal for the telescopic intake pipe to vibrate while in operation? It's silent though.
The blue collar should be turned clockwise for less flow, anti-clock-wise for more flow (you can see the dot indicator on the front of the until itself, small dot to big dot, it indicates the flow rate).
If your tank has more surface agitation, waves or ripples, the telescopic intake pipe's floating head will bob around as its automatically adjusting its height and position, so its normal in this case. But if your water surface is relatively calm and you see the intake pipe vibrating alot, then better check to see if its installed properly.
Up for this review.
This is probably what I need most now, overnight I will get 1 full layer of film T_T
The Glass built inflow surface skimmer is pretty much useless constantly need to adjust or am I just a noob adjusting it.
Have a Chiong PRC one and a NAG one , doesn't seem to work .
@UA
Lets say I am using a lily pipe for my 3 feet (2036 + hilea) and I see the water outflow doesn't seem to reach the far end probably a bit over 2 and a quarter feet. Will this skimmer helps in the circulation also ?
tomorrow see got sale at Aquarama or not.
Yup, it's good. Just remember to clean the filter inside regularly. I clean mine every 2-3 days.
I've used those integrated skimmer + glass intake pipes before, they do work... but you have to tune the intake opening adjustment at the base of the pipe to balance the flow between the top and bottom.
Sometimes if the filter flow is too low, there may not be enough of it to share between the skimmer and intake, so either you need to adjust the bottom side to use alot less flow in order to give flow priority to the skimmer, or switch to a higher flow rate filter.
Another method is to use an airline hose to suck out some of the air from inside the floating skimmer head, that will reduce its bouyancy and allow it to work with less flow.
Looks like your existing canister filter doesn't have enough flow rate to generate sufficient circulation in the tank, most likely the flow rate has been reduced much lower being connected to a chiller too.
Just for comparison, i also use a Eheim 2036 (aka Ecco Pro 300 @ 750 l/ph) for my 2ft (64 liters) tank which is connected to an inline Co2 reactor, the final flow rate i measured worked out to around 600+ l/ph, which is still sufficient to provide around 9-10x turnover for the tank.
In your case, the same canister filter is operating in a much larger and longer tank (50% longer and at 182+ liters is almost 3x larger in volume than my 2ft tank), so assuming the connected chiller also reduce its flow to around 600+ l/ph or less, you'll only be getting a 3-4x turnover for the 3ft tank, which naturally results in much less circulation, especially if the tank is densely planted.
A stand-alone surface skimmer unit can help to reduce some deadspots in the tank, but its flow coverage is still limited to small areas. It would still be a good idea to consider upgrading your canister filter to a higher flow model or maybe add another filter to help improve overall circulation.
Thanks, I try tonight to suck out abit of air from the skimmer head.
Sorry .forget to mention my tank is a custom
90cm x 30cm x 36 cm ( 97.2L) , and I am using inline atomizer, the turn over might be just okay just probably have some dead spots at the extreme end.
I see... yeah, for that tank volume the turn-over should still be sufficient with the 2036 filter. I guess the combination of chiller + inline atomizer connected to that filter is slowing down the flow quite abit, so just have to find ways to increase overall flow rate and improve the circulation.
^^ THis works. The perfect solution I believe many are searching for, usually if u place it on the skimmer it will float on the water.
yup, doing some research on ways that can do now.
May I ask if it will be bottlenecking/big reduction if I am using 12/16 hose all the way till the lily pipe?
That's just one of the thought as my canister outlet goes to the inline atomizer to chiller then to my 12/16 lily pipe. (switch from poppy to old school lily head with a little improvement shown yesterday)
hopefully tomorrow I can get the skimmer and all will be solved also.
Best to keep the same hose size all the way from the canister filter to the tank, any reduction in hose or port size along the line will definitely reduce the flow accordingly.
Yeah, poppy design outflows (the ball shaped ones) do reduce the overall current as they are designed to diffuse and direct the flow upwards... the normal design lily pipes definitely generate better current and circulation.
Just got mine at c328.
Should have spent 26 dollars earler and saved so much trouble and a few sip of tank water .
hahha
Hi. Intend to get 1 at c328. May I know the price still $26? Ty
I already bought 1 at c328 for $26
Hi all,
I read this review and went out to buy the OF Surf Clear but it is not that effective for me. I also had to clean it almost on daily basis? I feel that the pump may not be strong enough. Maybe there's something wrong with my unit but I've checked and everything seems to be working and it's still not able to clear the surface film as effectively as I was hoping for. What else could i do?
Working fine for me, actually the pump is not really that critical?
How about pictures of your placement height and stuff.
Yeah, additional info on your setup would help alot.
If your tank surface area is very large or the amount of floating leaves/debris is alot or the oil layer is very thick... then you may need to clean the skimmer media much more often, or install a second unit to boost the overall cleaning efficiency.
Currently I am using the Tom skimmer connected to the inlet of my eheim external filter.
i am really keen to have one of the OF skimmer, need some advise..
cleaning the skimmer every 2-3 days is tedious, what will happen if you don't clean it every 2-3 days? Will it get blocked? Performance will drop by how much? What is the length of period to go without cleaning?
if you have a 5 footer, will it be better to get the eheim instead of OF? Cos eheim flow rate is faster hence more efficient to clear the bigger tank more effectively?
appreciate you can share your experience and advise. Thx
It really depends on the amount of floating debris/leaves and how thick the oil layer is in your tank... the more the surface skimmer has to clean, the more often you need to clear the sponge trap inside the skimmer. One of the ways to reduce the cleaning intervals is to just install more surface skimmer units (especially if your water surface area is large or there is alot of debris/oil), this divides the cleaning load between more units.
If the surface skimmer gets clogged up and you don't clean it, its flow rate and cleaning efficiency will just gradually decrease over time, just like how a filter would also react if its clogged up too.
The eheim unit has a slightly higher flow rate compared to the ocean free unit, so the eheim will process more water and hence clean the water surface abit quicker. But their sponge traps are similar in size, so both will eventually still get clogged up with the same amount of debris and oil.
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