Reef Central Online Community - View Single Post - Surface skimmer same as protein skimmer???

maguro · 05/11/2007, 04:43 PM

anyone has experience with this suface skimmer overflow box?

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewIt...product=OE1318

anyway, i don't have a surface skimmer (but only a remora hang-on skimmer) for my 20gal, and i used to have a problem with oily film forming on the surface. so i later got an sufrace skimmer box, which attaches to the remora inlet pump, and it did the job pretty well. but the main problem for me was to keep water level consistent, since i don't have any auto-top-off. when water gets evaporated and below the skimmer box, the pump will run dry. and if u add water back in the tank too quickly all that oily stuff will come out of the skimmer box back into the tank...pretty nasty. so i had this for about a year, and i started to get algae/diatoms problem which i don't seem to get rid off. my water parameters were fine, and i couldn't figure out the cause...until one day i got tired of babysitting the water level for the skimmer box and removed it. as i cleaned the box, i realized it was quite dirty. and since i've removed it, the algae/diatoms had disappreared. now i just keep my remora skimmer, and keep enough agitation on the surface, to prevent the oily film from forming. but anyway, just wonder if anyone has used this tom aquatics surface skimmer, and how it works.

05/11/2007, 04:43 PM	#15
maguro Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: bay area, CA Posts: 47	anyone has experience with this suface skimmer overflow box? http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewIt...product=OE1318 anyway, i don't have a surface skimmer (but only a remora hang-on skimmer) for my 20gal, and i used to have a problem with oily film forming on the surface. so i later got an sufrace skimmer box, which attaches to the remora inlet pump, and it did the job pretty well. but the main problem for me was to keep water level consistent, since i don't have any auto-top-off. when water gets evaporated and below the skimmer box, the pump will run dry. and if u add water back in the tank too quickly all that oily stuff will come out of the skimmer box back into the tank...pretty nasty. so i had this for about a year, and i started to get algae/diatoms problem which i don't seem to get rid off. my water parameters were fine, and i couldn't figure out the cause...until one day i got tired of babysitting the water level for the skimmer box and removed it. as i cleaned the box, i realized it was quite dirty. and since i've removed it, the algae/diatoms had disappreared. now i just keep my remora skimmer, and keep enough agitation on the surface, to prevent the oily film from forming. but anyway, just wonder if anyone has used this tom aquatics surface skimmer, and how it works.