Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

I need information regarding this please. I have an Aqua C skimmer on my 55 gallon tank. Since I have had it, it is loud and doesn't seem to pull gunk out consistently. I have tried cleaning it out and it helped, but seems to clog again. I have put on another jet, but it makes the skimmer louder. Since the tank is in our living room and 6 foot from the tv, it makes it somewhat distracting. Is there better HOB skimmers out there? I have heard some people talk good about Corallife skimmers. Anyone have any good results with this skimmer and think that they are better than the Aqua C? Is there a better HOB out there than these? Does anyone have a Aqua C sitting in a garage somewhere that they would be willing to sell or trade? Any information would be wonderful. Thanks

If you take a sponge and cut it to fit the chamber that the injector is in, that will solve the noise issue. However, the skimming problem might be more complicated. I scrub the walls of the skimmer and the bubble shaft atleast once a week. Once every few weeks ill scrub the injector with a brush. This seems to keep everything functioning properly.

On the collection cup, the cylinder leading up to the collection cup, I clean that out and scrub it once a week. The part inside the skimmer that you clean. Is that the middle section where all the water turbulence seems to be? Do you just take a sponge on a stick and scrub it that way? How often do you empty the whole unit out and clean it thoroughly?

Yeah. The part where the bubbles move up. It is the center. You really only need to scrub the area that is exposed to air near the top. I rarely ever empty the whole unit. There is a recommendation somewhere but I can't remember where. Where do you keep your salinity? Do you use any additives? How many and what kind of fish? What and how often do you feed? All this will effect my skimmers production.

My fish are....Foxface, Blue Hippo Tang, Yellow Tang, and Lawnmower Blenny. I also have 1 serpent starfish, 3 sea urchins, and various snails, hermits, and shrimp. Few corals. My salinity is at 1.026 and the only additives that i add are Alkaline 8.3, Koralle-VM, and Koral Color. Each are added my manufacture's instructions. Any of those cause you problems?

It doesn't look like you have a tremendous amount of fish to create waste. If you are doing water changes regularly then this will also cut the amount of skimmate. I don't know much about the supplements you listed. You might want to do a search on some other popular forums to see if anyone can help you with that.

I bet as long as you are doing proper water changes, not over feeding, not over stocking, and not using some chemical that depresses skimming, your skimmer is running just fine. You could always experiment and feed a bit more heavy to see if you pull more skimmate.

I did the cleaning that you stated and got a new brush to get in the nozzle spray area better. The amount of gunk is almost night and day now. Lots of foam coming up and lots of nasty stuff in the cup. Thanks for the help. Now, any ideas on how to rid my tank of algae?

TIME NOW THAT YOUR SKIMMER IS WORKING
LOWER YOU PHOSPHATES(WITH REACTOR)
MANUAL REMOVAL AS WELL

I've heard and done a little reading on magnesium treatment to kill it. Anyone have experience on this?