i have a cheap, simple nano skimmer and its plugged into a tiny air pump. The wood that is used as the airstone has only a few bubbles on it and the are only a few clear bubbles on the inner part of the tube in the cup. There has never been any liquid in the cup. The skimmer is about halfway into the water. WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET IT TO WORK??? Thanks!
will 1 radion be ok for a 60 gallon 36in reef tank because I want to have LED's and I dont know which LED fixture is the best. can you tell me what other LED"S are good for my tank?
Thanks for the video! One thing, I think the light diffuser under the skimmer might collect detritus. Also plastic/acrylic shops have scrap pieces of plastic that they either sell for cheap or often give away for free. These could be easily stacked to form the stand. One skill I happily learned from this hobby was making acrylic items for my tank and eventually for other uses as well. Thanks again for the videos!
i have the same question as andydo2007vietnam im thinking the seaclone 100 because i dont have much money is that an ok skimmer the tank will only have 2 clowns for a while and later on id get another small fish maybe
@jpd678 im no expert, im sure mark will correct me if im wrong, but it may be u have your air intake turned down to 0. adjust the setting and u should see a difference. hope this helps
My skimmer fills with bubbles for 2 srconds then turn into water i tried closing the valves ajusting air even puting an air pump to it. Its a precision marine bullet 3. Can anyone help
I have an swc180 and I find sometimes it works well and other times it doesn't, Have played with it several times and have had nothing but trouble. Have talked to supplier and will be dropping it off and he is going to test it in shop. My sump water level is controlled with an ato and maintains itself very acurately. Did you have any issues dialing your skimmer in after the break in period?
I have a 30gal tank, just set up, am about to add fish, but I am having trouble understanding how to maintain my skimmer. should bubbles be up to the top so junk can bubble into the chamber, or is it ok for the bubbles to be low, and when the water is yucky enough the bubbles will automatically bubble over into the chamber? hopefully this is clearly typed. Thank you and any help is much appreciated
is it typical to see micro bubbles coming from the return pipe into the tanks during "break in" period? i have a coralife 65g n i have everything connected secure and on the lowest settings any help appreciated
That is a very hard question. There are only some few skimmers which should pass a 10 gallon tank. You have to change the water every week so you should be good with a Boyu-308 or 310 skimmer.
awesome video Mark! Thanks for educating us. not too many of us really want to read manuals and i never thought that the level of the water in the sump makes a difference on the bubble.
Hey Mark, do you still feel the same about your swc skimmer? I am looking to upgrade my skimmer probably on my next tank. I currently own a ASM G3 on a 150gal reef tank. I have trying to find all different types of reviews and best bang for my buck, but im stuck on the right one. My next tank will be a 200 to 240 gal tank. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Also please continue with your tank tv episodes they are awesome . Regards, Rob
Hey Mark, do you still feel the same about your swc skimmer? I am looking to upgrade my skimmer probably on my next tank. I currently own a ASM G3 on a 150gal reef tank. I have trying to find all different types of reviews and best bang for my buck, but im stuck on the right one. My next tank will be a 200 to 240 gal tank. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Also please continue with your tank tv episodes they are awesome . Regards, Rob
Thanks for putting all the knowledge out there in video-form (no better way of showing someone how to do things really!). I am setting up my small reef tank atm and bought myself a Dymax LS10, which is meant to hang at the back of the tank, but as soon as I switched it on, it filled up completely, and started overflowing!! any tips on how to tune a hang-on-top skimmer s it doesn't overflow please? Much thnx
Great info. Thanks for sharing. I have a 240gl tank and. 40 gl sump. I had a octopus OCR-200 running and it did a ok job. I want to upgrade to serious skimmer. Any ideas? Any advice? Anything would be greatly appreciated
Just got the same skimmer but I cant get the smaller bubbles to the neck. However I am getting some really "dirty water" looking skimmate. Any ideas on how to fix it. It might not be in deep enough water though.
@IPWINSTAIR Hmm...that's probably a little shallow for it so you'll have to close down the output valve to get the bubble to rise higher in the skimmer neck.
Is your skimmate dry looking vs. overly wet such that it looks like tea?
@IPWINSTAIR Even though the skimmer could be in deeper water, if your skimmate looks like tea, then it's fine, especially if your tank is looking good. I prefer to skim wet (skimmate that looks like tea like yours) so don't worry about getting black or super dark skimmate.
Mark, I have the same SWC 160 protein skimmer that I just set up for my new tank. I noticed that you have a hose attached to your air adjustment valve. What is that attached to on the other end and is that something I should be doing as well?
What specific doser are you using and are you dosing two part ESV B-Ionic or BRS calcium/alk/mag? I hate to go with a calcium reactor because they seem very complicated. B-ionic is pretty straight forward which is nice. I saw the dosers on BRS's site those look nice, there's two types 4 ball and 2 ball roller. LMK what you think. Thanks
@TheOneAndOnlyProdigy I'm using BRS 1.1mL doser (2 roller) and I'm only dosing Ca and Mg. Alk is taken care of with the kalk I'm running in my ATO. I actually don't really need to dose Ca as I only dose about 20 mL/day.
My filtration handles the bioload easy. I'm so confident with my filtration were I could add more fish if I wanted to. My total volume for my system is 240g of course you have to minus the rock/sand, but who cares it's a LOT of water and the preconceived 125g was actually double in volume which helps out. I used to think you buy the biggest skimmer for ur budget, but that's obviously not the case with the cone skimmers. The neck was way to big therefore not allowing foam to spill over easy.
@TheOneAndOnlyProdigy Interesting...I've never heard of the skimmer neck being too big such that it didn't function properly. Was the SRO 2000 in the same depth of water and have similar issues?
@mrsaltwatertank I tried the XP 3000 and if you go on RC SRO XP forum you can see how, JR aquatics, rates the skimmers and goes according to size of the tank bioload, etc. I always thought like you, go for the biggest skimmer and I'm pretty sure with the cone you need to rate them to the size tank. That was the case with me. I couldn't get fry foam really, pretty wet. I guess you can get a skimmer that is too big for your system. Is there another skimmer you'd recommend besides the SRO xp line?
@TheOneAndOnlyProdigy I've been real happy with my SWC skimmer. Sure it doesn't have a brand name pump, but it works well and its very quiet (My #1 pet peeve of skimmers).
Another skimmer to consider would be a Tunze. I just taped a show today on a guy's tank who has a similar setup to you and he has a dual pump Tunze that is overrated for his tank, but he swears by it. They aren't cheap, but they work well. I'll dig out the model # tomorrow when I edit the show.
Thanks for the advise, but I strongly disagree with you being surprised my tank hasn't had a disaster. You can't jump the gun because you don't know the specs of my tank. As long as you have sufficient filtration then the fish/corals should thrive. Considering I have a 75g fuge w/ 6" dsb filled with chaeto, 40g sump, had decent skimmer but didn't work properly on my tank, the thing with the new cone skimmers is you have to rate them properly to the tank size or they will not skim well.
@TheOneAndOnlyProdigy adding in another 115G to the already 120G certainly changes the equation. It puts you near the 250G that I was going to recommend for that many fish.
Given the new information with total system volume, I'd actually rate the SWC 160 or the SRO 2000 as too small a skimmer for the volume - I'd stick to the SWC 200 or SRO 3000.
@mrsaltwatertank Yeah, my bad that I left out I had an extra 115g or so of water. I wasn't getting a good head foam and had to skim wet. I don't know if it's because this skimmer is so new and they still need to work things out, but I didn't have to much luck. I didn't submerge the output, because with cones backpressure is a big deal(pretty troublesome), ran it in 6" of water per instructions, tried 7" then 8", I skimmed, but nothing like my so called "outdated" skimmer. Did a better job.IMO
I like your videos, funny and informative. I haven't heard back from you, posted this on setting up a cone skimmer. I'd like to know what you think. I have a 125g reef with a high bioload. Livestock: 4 tangs~4-6in, purple/yellow/blue hippo/blonde naso tang, copperband butterfly, 3 wrasses, yellow fin, cleaner, melanarus wrasse, school of 5 green chromis, 2 anthias, school of 3 bangaii cardinals, 2 mandarins( very cool vid of mandarins mating! btw), 2 clowns, n a couple more smaller fish.
@TheOneAndOnlyProdigy Well, first that's way too many fish for that sized tank. I'm surprised it hasn't ended in disaster and if you aren't already, keep up your water changes and heavy skimming.
As answered on my other video, go with the Super Reef Octopus 2000, or the SWC Xtreme Cone 200 (Its always out of stock so the SRO 2000 would be a safer bet)
@mrsaltwatertank Your videos are great! Keep um up! Are you in film because I noticed how you shoot different angels with several cameras.Anyways, I'm hoping I can find the right skimmer..
@TheOneAndOnlyProdigy Yep..I do video marketing for a living. I've work on national TV shows and I just finished working on a large feature film set where we blew things up, made our own rain and even built our own town. Its a great way to make a living
Your videos are AMAZING! Thanks so much for posting this very helpful series of reef tank videos - the best marine tank video series I've seen. I'm a fan!
Is it ok if my skimmer is making ALOT of bubbles in the tank. Would that be bad for the fish?
drosenwinkel 3 days ago
i will never look at an ice tea the same way again. hehe
salvadoroars 2 weeks ago
do a skimmer skim out phythoplankton and all that good stuff out?
phillykidd15 2 weeks ago
Esse cara é muito lindo.. Obrigado pelas dicas de skimmer
gabrieltavares18 4 weeks ago
i have a cheap, simple nano skimmer and its plugged into a tiny air pump. The wood that is used as the airstone has only a few bubbles on it and the are only a few clear bubbles on the inner part of the tube in the cup. There has never been any liquid in the cup. The skimmer is about halfway into the water. WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET IT TO WORK??? Thanks!
xoxPandaLover104 1 month ago
im having a problem with too much water coming into my cup please help ASAP!!
chargin22 1 month ago
wots the name and make off this skimmer pls
dean198425 1 month ago
some air line and an airline ball valve will do the same thing right?
KALZONE850 1 month ago
som actual worrrrrrrk
westrsk 1 month ago
will 1 radion be ok for a 60 gallon 36in reef tank because I want to have LED's and I dont know which LED fixture is the best. can you tell me what other LED"S are good for my tank?
draco9277 1 month ago
Thanks for the video! One thing, I think the light diffuser under the skimmer might collect detritus. Also plastic/acrylic shops have scrap pieces of plastic that they either sell for cheap or often give away for free. These could be easily stacked to form the stand. One skill I happily learned from this hobby was making acrylic items for my tank and eventually for other uses as well. Thanks again for the videos!
fosarvian 3 months ago
How long does it take for a protein skimmer
To start working when I have only one fish?
Seank1728 3 months ago
How
Seank1728 3 months ago
I just git a coralife 65g superskimmer and have it as a hang on back and its not foaming at all or collecting anywaste any advise?
MEGAFUCKNDETH 3 months ago
I got to ask...where did you buy your stand? Oh and I love all your vids!
UnholyStyx 4 months ago
@UnholyStyx It was custom made.
and thanks for the nod about the vids.
mrsaltwatertank 4 months ago
i am getting a 28 gallon tank in about a month i have 2 questions and i dont want to spend alot of money
1 a good skimmer for the 28 gallon tank
2 what powerhead should i get or what 2
MrBettacare 4 months ago
i have the same question as andydo2007vietnam im thinking the seaclone 100 because i dont have much money is that an ok skimmer the tank will only have 2 clowns for a while and later on id get another small fish maybe
MrBettacare 4 months ago
what type of skimmer do you suggest for 30 gallon tank? thank
andydo2007vietnam 4 months ago
how do u tune a hang on proetin skimmer
mrmagigx 4 months ago
i need help use in a hang on protein skimmer
maltitoamor21 5 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
How does that skimmer compare to the AquaC EV240?
Springs24 5 months ago
How can i take out red algae and prevent to have it
edguevarra9703 5 months ago
@edguevarra9703 that what u want
mrmagigx 4 months ago
Hey thanks for the videos. I am having a problem with my bak pak skimmer, it is not making bubbles, have you ever heard of this?
jpd678 5 months ago
@jpd678 im no expert, im sure mark will correct me if im wrong, but it may be u have your air intake turned down to 0. adjust the setting and u should see a difference. hope this helps
Deathstar11978 5 months ago
My skimmer fills with bubbles for 2 srconds then turn into water i tried closing the valves ajusting air even puting an air pump to it. Its a precision marine bullet 3. Can anyone help
BoY860 6 months ago
I have an swc180 and I find sometimes it works well and other times it doesn't, Have played with it several times and have had nothing but trouble. Have talked to supplier and will be dropping it off and he is going to test it in shop. My sump water level is controlled with an ato and maintains itself very acurately. Did you have any issues dialing your skimmer in after the break in period?
dsaundry1 6 months ago
I have a 30gal tank, just set up, am about to add fish, but I am having trouble understanding how to maintain my skimmer. should bubbles be up to the top so junk can bubble into the chamber, or is it ok for the bubbles to be low, and when the water is yucky enough the bubbles will automatically bubble over into the chamber? hopefully this is clearly typed. Thank you and any help is much appreciated
Cheers!
gardenmoma7 6 months ago
is it typical to see micro bubbles coming from the return pipe into the tanks during "break in" period? i have a coralife 65g n i have everything connected secure and on the lowest settings any help appreciated
MEWTUBEProductions 6 months ago
Hey what will be the best protein skimmer for 10 gallon tank...
PapoBoom 6 months ago
@PapoBoom get a bigger tank. Smaller tanks are harder to keep and a bigger tank is better in the saltwater tank world.
mrsaltwatertank 6 months ago 4
@PapoBoom
That is a very hard question. There are only some few skimmers which should pass a 10 gallon tank. You have to change the water every week so you should be good with a Boyu-308 or 310 skimmer.
Blunper 4 months ago
what the different between Air pump and motor driven skimmer?And which is good to use?
rashiidefukazumi 7 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Hi, great job your doing,.. i am trying to decide
SWC Xtreme 150 BMK Protein Skimmer VS SWC Xtreme 160 Cone Protein Skimmer
can you help me on this,.. they look pretty much the same, but different design
franchu1 7 months ago
Would you believe it! I have the same name as you Mark...including surname.
20834me 8 months ago
Comment removed
20834me 8 months ago
....and the same skimmer!....whats your midle or second name lol
20834me 8 months ago
I don't think this was the right video to watch when eating breakfast but thanks anyway lol
BritishRider 10 months ago
awesome video Mark! Thanks for educating us. not too many of us really want to read manuals and i never thought that the level of the water in the sump makes a difference on the bubble.
suprmax 11 months ago
good video.
saliva911 11 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Hey Mark, do you still feel the same about your swc skimmer? I am looking to upgrade my skimmer probably on my next tank. I currently own a ASM G3 on a 150gal reef tank. I have trying to find all different types of reviews and best bang for my buck, but im stuck on the right one. My next tank will be a 200 to 240 gal tank. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Also please continue with your tank tv episodes they are awesome . Regards, Rob
sonamerica 1 year ago
Hey Mark, do you still feel the same about your swc skimmer? I am looking to upgrade my skimmer probably on my next tank. I currently own a ASM G3 on a 150gal reef tank. I have trying to find all different types of reviews and best bang for my buck, but im stuck on the right one. My next tank will be a 200 to 240 gal tank. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Also please continue with your tank tv episodes they are awesome . Regards, Rob
sonamerica 1 year ago
why do you have that hose on your air valve?, I have the swc 160 cone and no hose there, bought it used. hope its not missing. thanks for posting.
aquameni100 1 year ago
Thanks for putting all the knowledge out there in video-form (no better way of showing someone how to do things really!). I am setting up my small reef tank atm and bought myself a Dymax LS10, which is meant to hang at the back of the tank, but as soon as I switched it on, it filled up completely, and started overflowing!! any tips on how to tune a hang-on-top skimmer s it doesn't overflow please? Much thnx
ibizalover2000 1 year ago
great video m8
Take care,
Erik
AweSomo84 1 year ago
Great info. Thanks for sharing. I have a 240gl tank and. 40 gl sump. I had a octopus OCR-200 running and it did a ok job. I want to upgrade to serious skimmer. Any ideas? Any advice? Anything would be greatly appreciated
chooch4044 1 year ago
hello great job.. i bought a second hand bubble king skimmer here in the uk but i dont know how to set it up.. helpppppp?
machaud1 1 year ago
@machaud1 what do you need help with specifically?
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
@mcrexx you are welcome! Glad I could help
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
is there such thing as hang on skimmers
finger11yo 1 year ago
@finger11yo absolutely! There are plenty of hang on back (HOB) skimmers. Reef Octopus makes really good ones.
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
Just got the same skimmer but I cant get the smaller bubbles to the neck. However I am getting some really "dirty water" looking skimmate. Any ideas on how to fix it. It might not be in deep enough water though.
IPWINSTAIR 1 year ago
@IPWINSTAIR in how much water is the skimmer in? (how deep?)
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
@mrsaltwatertank right now its in 7 inches which is the max I can do in my sump
IPWINSTAIR 1 year ago
@IPWINSTAIR Hmm...that's probably a little shallow for it so you'll have to close down the output valve to get the bubble to rise higher in the skimmer neck.
Is your skimmate dry looking vs. overly wet such that it looks like tea?
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
@mrsaltwatertank looks like tea
IPWINSTAIR 1 year ago
@IPWINSTAIR Even though the skimmer could be in deeper water, if your skimmate looks like tea, then it's fine, especially if your tank is looking good. I prefer to skim wet (skimmate that looks like tea like yours) so don't worry about getting black or super dark skimmate.
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
Great thanks! Looking forward to your episode on "Getting Rid of Bubble Algae"!!!
MendocinoCoastFilms2 1 year ago
Mark, I have the same SWC 160 protein skimmer that I just set up for my new tank. I noticed that you have a hose attached to your air adjustment valve. What is that attached to on the other end and is that something I should be doing as well?
drewhart85 1 year ago
@drewhart85 The tube runs outdoors to pull oxygen rich air into to my tank to try to raise my pH (see my low pH video to learn more).
I saw a small increase in pH with it and if your tank is near an exterior wall, I recommend it.
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
Please let me know when your Bubble Algae episode is online. I'm anxious to learn more.
MendocinoCoastFilms2 1 year ago
@MendocinoCoastFilms2 Can do. I'll get it done in a week.
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
What specific doser are you using and are you dosing two part ESV B-Ionic or BRS calcium/alk/mag? I hate to go with a calcium reactor because they seem very complicated. B-ionic is pretty straight forward which is nice. I saw the dosers on BRS's site those look nice, there's two types 4 ball and 2 ball roller. LMK what you think. Thanks
TheOneAndOnlyProdigy 1 year ago
@TheOneAndOnlyProdigy I'm using BRS 1.1mL doser (2 roller) and I'm only dosing Ca and Mg. Alk is taken care of with the kalk I'm running in my ATO. I actually don't really need to dose Ca as I only dose about 20 mL/day.
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
My filtration handles the bioload easy. I'm so confident with my filtration were I could add more fish if I wanted to. My total volume for my system is 240g of course you have to minus the rock/sand, but who cares it's a LOT of water and the preconceived 125g was actually double in volume which helps out. I used to think you buy the biggest skimmer for ur budget, but that's obviously not the case with the cone skimmers. The neck was way to big therefore not allowing foam to spill over easy.
TheOneAndOnlyProdigy 1 year ago
@TheOneAndOnlyProdigy Interesting...I've never heard of the skimmer neck being too big such that it didn't function properly. Was the SRO 2000 in the same depth of water and have similar issues?
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
@mrsaltwatertank I tried the XP 3000 and if you go on RC SRO XP forum you can see how, JR aquatics, rates the skimmers and goes according to size of the tank bioload, etc. I always thought like you, go for the biggest skimmer and I'm pretty sure with the cone you need to rate them to the size tank. That was the case with me. I couldn't get fry foam really, pretty wet. I guess you can get a skimmer that is too big for your system. Is there another skimmer you'd recommend besides the SRO xp line?
TheOneAndOnlyProdigy 1 year ago
@TheOneAndOnlyProdigy I've been real happy with my SWC skimmer. Sure it doesn't have a brand name pump, but it works well and its very quiet (My #1 pet peeve of skimmers).
Another skimmer to consider would be a Tunze. I just taped a show today on a guy's tank who has a similar setup to you and he has a dual pump Tunze that is overrated for his tank, but he swears by it. They aren't cheap, but they work well. I'll dig out the model # tomorrow when I edit the show.
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
Thanks for the advise, but I strongly disagree with you being surprised my tank hasn't had a disaster. You can't jump the gun because you don't know the specs of my tank. As long as you have sufficient filtration then the fish/corals should thrive. Considering I have a 75g fuge w/ 6" dsb filled with chaeto, 40g sump, had decent skimmer but didn't work properly on my tank, the thing with the new cone skimmers is you have to rate them properly to the tank size or they will not skim well.
TheOneAndOnlyProdigy 1 year ago
@TheOneAndOnlyProdigy adding in another 115G to the already 120G certainly changes the equation. It puts you near the 250G that I was going to recommend for that many fish.
Given the new information with total system volume, I'd actually rate the SWC 160 or the SRO 2000 as too small a skimmer for the volume - I'd stick to the SWC 200 or SRO 3000.
What exact issue did you have with the SRO 3000?
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
@mrsaltwatertank Yeah, my bad that I left out I had an extra 115g or so of water. I wasn't getting a good head foam and had to skim wet. I don't know if it's because this skimmer is so new and they still need to work things out, but I didn't have to much luck. I didn't submerge the output, because with cones backpressure is a big deal(pretty troublesome), ran it in 6" of water per instructions, tried 7" then 8", I skimmed, but nothing like my so called "outdated" skimmer. Did a better job.IMO
TheOneAndOnlyProdigy 1 year ago
How about, "How to Safely Remove Bubble Algae from Live Rocks"?
MendocinoCoastFilms2 1 year ago
@MendocinoCoastFilms2 Ah! I'm battling a little bit of bubble algae in my tank so that will make for a good topic. Thanks for the suggestion.
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
I like your videos, funny and informative. I haven't heard back from you, posted this on setting up a cone skimmer. I'd like to know what you think. I have a 125g reef with a high bioload. Livestock: 4 tangs~4-6in, purple/yellow/blue hippo/blonde naso tang, copperband butterfly, 3 wrasses, yellow fin, cleaner, melanarus wrasse, school of 5 green chromis, 2 anthias, school of 3 bangaii cardinals, 2 mandarins( very cool vid of mandarins mating! btw), 2 clowns, n a couple more smaller fish.
TheOneAndOnlyProdigy 1 year ago
@TheOneAndOnlyProdigy Well, first that's way too many fish for that sized tank. I'm surprised it hasn't ended in disaster and if you aren't already, keep up your water changes and heavy skimming.
As answered on my other video, go with the Super Reef Octopus 2000, or the SWC Xtreme Cone 200 (Its always out of stock so the SRO 2000 would be a safer bet)
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
@mrsaltwatertank Your videos are great! Keep um up! Are you in film because I noticed how you shoot different angels with several cameras.Anyways, I'm hoping I can find the right skimmer..
TheOneAndOnlyProdigy 1 year ago
@TheOneAndOnlyProdigy Yep..I do video marketing for a living. I've work on national TV shows and I just finished working on a large feature film set where we blew things up, made our own rain and even built our own town. Its a great way to make a living
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago
Your videos are AMAZING! Thanks so much for posting this very helpful series of reef tank videos - the best marine tank video series I've seen. I'm a fan!
MendocinoCoastFilms2 1 year ago
@MendocinoCoastFilms2 Thanks for the feedback!
Any topics that I haven't covered yet that you'd like to see?
mrsaltwatertank 1 year ago