# THE HELL IS THIS?



## NitrousCorvette (May 31, 2004)

I have a 60G SW tank setup running off of a fluval 404, 2 rio 900 powerheads, 65lbs of beautiful cured LR, and housing 2 peppermint shrimp, 1 camel shrimp, purple lobster, red lobster, arrowhead crab, a helmet cowfish, and a figi clown. anyways i purchased a MarineLand Sea Clone protein skimmer after getting sick of doing weekly warter changes on my tank with out one. to my suprise i set he protein skimmer up correctly and have adjusted the oxygen/water mix correctly. Now the bubbles spinning up towards the catch "pan" is also making bubbles come out of the water flow of my protein skimmer! it says a brand new skimmer will take "at least" 3 days to break in, so does this mean its breaking in? has anyone experienced this problem? my tank is covered with many mini bubbles and i fear its stressing out my fish........especially my helmet cow please help!!! tahnk you all in adavnce.


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## Hareball (Jul 6, 2003)

slow the flow down some. this should stop so many escaping bubbles.

how far are the bubbles coming up to the collection cup? you want the bubbles to fill the hour glass looking area and have it stop just as that inner tube gets narrow.


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## NitrousCorvette (May 31, 2004)

The bubbles are going up through a tube thats creating a cyclone, but it looks like a lot of them are going or escaping through somewhere and are comin out of the outlet of the skimmer. its a marineland seaclone 100. have u heard anything about them? or know if its a bad design of a protein skimmer?


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## NitrousCorvette (May 31, 2004)

...


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## Hareball (Jul 6, 2003)

try and slow down the air mixture and let it break in.


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## NitrousCorvette (May 31, 2004)

so do i turn the valve off for the air, or just let very little air in? and how does waiting 3 days fix the problem? i think it may be a difictive skimmer, but then again this is my first skimmer ive bought............im so stressed over this dumb p o s


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## Hareball (Jul 6, 2003)

yes, slow the air mixture down. this will prevent bubble escape. give the skimmer a few days to season. I don't understand why that needs to be done either.
I run aqua medic skimmers and they start skimming once plugged in and ive never had a problem.

the type you are using I also have on a marine system at work but the damn pump died within a few hours. I hate rio pumps


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## NitrousCorvette (May 31, 2004)

BUYERS BEWARE!!! marinelands seaclone skimmers sucK! i may have a defective unit, but the damn design of the skimmer isnt reassuring either.


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

i dont think there is anything wrong with the skimmer i think you just need to be more patient and keep adjusting it, the break in period is to allow the bubbles to start collecting the protiens, eventually crap will start to collect in the bubbles, instead of just pupping quickly as they rise they start to get a thicker consistancy as the protiens build and the bubbles will hold together longer and rise higher up the skimmer until they rise through the tappered tube and into the collection cup. the whole purpose is so the collection cup only collects the thick nasty crappy bubbles and does just fill up with water.. give it some time eventually youll see the collection cup getting a yellowish or brownish slime build up, one you dial it in so the bubbles rise correctly you can adjust the thickness of the skimmate..

im not completely familiar with the seaclone operation but i would think that you should be able to set the bubble level so that your return has little to no bubbles. you may not want the immediate bubble production to reach the top of the chamber, once th skiimer starts to build up skimmate the bubbles will riase to the collection cup..

in general HOB skimmers dont work as well as one that can be place in the sump so any bubbles that come out of the skimmer break down before the water is returned to the tank.


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## Fish_first (Jan 26, 2005)

I have a cyclone 150 and it works pretty good... took about 2 days to break in... but I didn't slow down the air flow at all...


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## Scolopendra (Feb 24, 2005)

NitrousCorvette said:


> BUYERS BEWARE!!! marinelands seaclone skimmers sucK! i may have a defective unit, but the damn design of the skimmer isnt reassuring either.
> [snapback]951481[/snapback]​


Thats funny....one been kept my 40 gallon display reef looking cherry for over a year @ work......


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## weidjd (Feb 13, 2005)

It is known that the seaclone it nothing great. But I would let it run to break in before I would do alot of adjustment on it.


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