What can I do with my Seaclone 100

[azboostin]

Hey guys im tired of messing with my seaclone. I can only get foam out of it every other day and its not much... I cannot get the inner tube out to cut it down.. I have tried boiling water, and pulling as hard as I cant ect..... all that did was deform the shape alittle bit... anyway is there any other mods I can do besides new air valve and sealing the collection cup???? im ready to toss this thing.

[dragon_slayer]

some of the inner tubes are glued in and you'll have to use a Dremel to 'whittle' away at the tube to get it shorter. one of the best mods is the addition of the bio-ball to the pump impeller making it a needle wheel as is shortening the collection cups riser tube.

hth
kc

[azboostin]

How much will it help modding the pump????

[dragon_slayer]

it helps dramatically with foam production.

kc

[azboostin]

Ok well I will give it a shot.... right now I cant get any foam to come up the collection cup tube

[Steverino]

can you add a wood airstone down in the main chamber for additional bubbles?

[Catharsis70]

Originally posted by Steverino
can you add a wood airstone down in the main chamber for additional bubbles?

I did that way back. Drill a hole in the cup cap. Use rigid air line inside the skimmer body to help keep it form whipping around in there. Makes a big difference.

[Shade00]

I would suggest either upgrading the Maxi-jet or modifying the impeller - I actually did this to a Maxi-jet 1200 today. Took a bio-ball and cut it down to fit on the impeller. Works surprisingly better.

[azboostin]

Hey I ended up getting th einner tube cut way down... and the cup tube... still no foam what am I doing wrong? inside the skimmer looks like there are 3 billion bubbles but no foam comes out....

[dhnguyen]

A better mod would be to mesh mod the MJ1200 impeller. Much better than the bio-ball needle wheel.

[azboostin]

HOw od I go about doing the mesh mod

[dhnguyen]

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1005653

[azboostin]

well guys ive done everything i can think of heres some pics why cant i get this to work/?????/?

[img] http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...=post&id=21061 [img]

[img] http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...=post&id=21062 [img]

[img] http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...=post&id=21063 [img]

[customcolor]

i did the foam thing on the output to and it helped but i think i will upgrade the gph by switching to a diff. powerhead and hope that will help. to what i see by playing with the air inlet is the less air whe wetter the skim is cus the water levle is higher and it will skimm more some days that way, but on other days it dont cuz the lack of bubbles.

[customcolor]

when i first hooked it up i had to empty it every 2 days. week later its about 4 days. i have a small load in the 55 and i feed 2-3 times aweek.

[dragon_slayer]

from the second pic the air bubbles are marginal on the inside of the skimmer, you're not getting enough air in. below is a pic of the one i have, at the time of the pic it was on a 75g tank with just a few fish and feedings of a few times a week. skimmer was cleaned every 3-4 days. it also does not employ any modding of the pump/impeller, i gave the bio-ball mod to some guy here on RC several yrs ago because he just couldn't understand how to make his own and i never made another one.

kc

[wiley0717]

I got the best performance out of mine (Still not like dragon_slayer's, that's awesome by the way!) when I swapped out the MJ 1200 for a 400 and dropped in a limewood airstone. Had to cut the stone down to make it fit the inner tube but it was better than just running the MJ 1200.

[douggiestyle]

if you remove the inner tube. then carefully take the pump off and all the bits that hold it on. this is the tough part as the unit could break. then using a saw cut the bottom reaction chamber off. make sure that you cut below the seperation disk when looking at the sea clone in the upright position. using some reef putty or any doughey epoxy carefully fill in the hole where the motor was attached. now you have a nice ashtray. hope this helps and good luck. and make sure you tell your friends not to buy a seaclone.

[Steverino]

I looked at that link and did not find the specifics on the MJ1200 mesh mod. Can someone post the link to that again? I found the bio-ball mod.

Anyone familiar with the "Turbo Vortex" skimmer? Looks to me like a SeaClown knock-off with perhaps a couple improvements.

[rustybucket145]

The acrylic that they are made of works great for cutting apart and using to build a new DIY skimmer that works!

Other than that, I find that they are a MAJOR pain and otherwise useless.

[Steverino]

rustybuckets, did you do a mod on one of those Vortex's? I have access to one and would have the gumption to do a DIY if I had some idea of what to actually do!

[dragon_slayer]

@ douggiestyle & rustybucket145

your comments simply show Your inability to make the seaclone an efficient skimmer. i agree whole heartedly that out of the box, it's about useless for much more then a slight addition to circulation in a system, but with a few mods here and there they do wonders as shown in my above posting, and FWIW I've never used the addition of the airstone myself, never found a need for it. the most important part of the mod is the inner tube length, 1/4" too long or too short drastically compromises form production.

with that said, no I'd never suggest anyone to buy one over say an Aqua-C Remora/Urchin and it'll never live up to the high end skimmers regardless of how many mods are made to it but IF someone already has one, they can make it quiet efficient with a few non dramatic modifications and make do..

@ Steverino

what you're looking for is the modification to the impeller assembly in the pump. the link dhnguyen posted leads to a thread that has many pics of impellers with the mod adding the mesh.

kc

[dhnguyen]

This is the mesh

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...&pagenumber=17 (scroll down)


And this is what it should look like on your impeller

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...&pagenumber=15 (scroll down again)


Here is where to GET the mesh

http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/...etail/iid/4323 Make sure it's the PF4 you're getting

[douggiestyle]

i have one and the most effort i think i would expend is to carry it to the garbage. it was the worst money i think ive spent in this hobby. i truely think i was ripped off. but i have only myself to blame. i trusted the lfs. so mod away im sure you may figure out a way to make it work. might even help someone recoup their money. for me, i chalk one up in the experience column.

DO NOT BY A SEACLONE

btw i did manage to use the mj somewhere, cant remember where.

Originally posted by dragon_slayer
@ douggiestyle & rustybucket145

your comments simply show Your inability to make the seaclone an efficient skimmer. i agree whole heartedly that out of the box, it's about useless for much more then a slight addition to circulation in a system, but with a few mods here and there they do wonders as shown in my above posting, and FWIW I've never used the addition of the airstone myself, never found a need for it. the most important part of the mod is the inner tube length, 1/4" too long or too short drastically compromises form production.

with that said, no I'd never suggest anyone to buy one over say an Aqua-C Remora/Urchin and it'll never live up to the high end skimmers regardless of how many mods are made to it but IF someone already has one, they can make it quiet efficient with a few non dramatic modifications and make do..

@ Steverino

what you're looking for is the modification to the impeller assembly in the pump. the link dhnguyen posted leads to a thread that has many pics of impellers with the mod adding the mesh.

kc

and i dont appreciate your tone.
i was mearly making a joke with my earlier post.

[dhnguyen]

Ok well.... Telling someone who already owns a SeaClone to throw it in the garbage isn't exactly constructive IMO.

Just try the mesh mod. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.