Skimmer Rant

trevorhiller · Nov 9, 2023

I just spent the last 2 hours cleaning my protein Skimmer. It's an Ultra Reef UKS-160. I love the skimmer, but the Sicce PSK 600 pump that is included is a pain to reassemble. It uses the front cover to align the needle wheel shaft and because of the way the front has 1/4 turn threads it's a nightmare to reassemble. It's my least favorite part of tank maintenance. The magnet inside the motor constantly pulls the needle wheel shaft out of central alignment with the front cover. Then getting the keys on the front cover to engage with the threads on the pump is difficult. It's a really terrible pump design IMO.

The Sicce PSK 4000 has a much easier to reassemble design and no tools required:

I actually reassembled the whole thing, put it back in my sump only to find the needle wheel wasn't fully seated and had to pull the whole thing out again and reassemble to get the pump spinning.

After a couple extra minutes and a few f bombs, it's back in action. But the whole experience got me thinking...

Why doesn't anyone make a skimmers with an opaque, non-acrylic body. The large commercial skimmers are made with HDPE bodies and these would prevent coralline and other algae from taking hold inside the skimmer. I imagine they would be much cleaner and look a lot cleaner too! I realize the purpose is to be able to see the bubble production, but in practice that doesn't really work as it gets filthy really quickly due to my refugium. My skimmer gets covered in coralline algae in about 2 months.

I want a company to produce me a mini version of skimmer like the MRC or RK2 skimmers!

Raul-7 · Nov 9, 2023

I believe it's due to branding and marketing.

Clear is sexy, elegant and classy. Opaque is ugly, lame and boring. With so many competitors in the market that all preform around the same, they're going to compete on design, IMO.

trevorhiller · Nov 9, 2023

Raul-7 said:
I believe it's due to branding and marketing.

Clear is sexy, elegant and classy. Opaque is ugly, lame and boring. With so many competitors in the market that all preform around the same, they're going to compete on design, IMO.

Probably true!

I wish functionally superior was sexy

Kind of reminds me of those Aquamaxx skimmers that have a clear dome on the lid “so you can see the bubbles.”

Great in theory, but once you know what those bubbles look like you probably don’t want to show off that fish poop viewing dome.

exnisstech · Nov 9, 2023

trevorhiller said:
It uses the front cover to align the needle wheel shaft and because of the way the front has 1/4 turn threads it's a nightmare to reassemble.

I just cleaned mine and thought it was pretty simple. I placed the impeller all the way into the magnetic motor bottom so it is seated in the bushing then aligned the cover and installed it. If you were trying to put the cover on without the impeller being all the way down into the motor that would be very difficult since the magnet keeps pulling it down and never strait into the bushing. Been there done that the first time.

trevorhiller · Nov 9, 2023

exnisstech said:
I just cleaned mine and thought it was pretty simple. I placed the impeller all the way into the magnetic motor bottom so it is seated in the bushing then aligned the cover and installed it. If you were trying to put the cover on without the impeller being all the way down into the motor that would be very difficult since the magnet keeps pulling it down and never strait into the bushing. Been there done that the first time.

I’m glad you understand my complaint. So on mine, when I put the motor all the way down the needle wheel wants to constantly come out of alignment so the shaft doesn’t align inside the bushing on the cover. You’re saying when yours is pushed all the way in that it’s centered?

I imagine that’s how it’s designed to work, but I could not get mine easily aligned for the life of me. This is the 4th or 5th time I’ve cleaned it and it’s always been the same story.

exnisstech · Nov 9, 2023

Mine centers pretty well in the bottom if its pressed all the way into the bushing. I broke the impeller on my first one disassembling it. I had no idea how it was designed and the front cover came off at an angle really quickly and broke the impeller shaft. Now it's slow and steady wiggling while pulling.

HudsonReefer2.0 · Nov 9, 2023

Raul-7 said:
I believe it's due to branding and marketing.

Clear is sexy, elegant and classy. Opaque is ugly, lame and boring. With so many competitors in the market that all preform around the same, they're going to compete on design, IMO.

Bubbles!!!

jda · Nov 9, 2023

I don't ever take apart my pumps to clean the insides. I have broken too many ceramic shafts, etc. I they need a clean, just a run for an hour in a bucket with some muriatic acid is all that I do.

Why is your skimmer getting coralline and stuff in it? You have a light close by? I nearly never wash a skimmer body -sponges and stuff on the inside. I have some that have not moved out of the sump in years.. cryptic zone for filter feeders and stuff. I don't have any light down there, so no algae to worry about.

trevorhiller · Nov 9, 2023

jda said:
I don't ever take apart my pumps to clean the insides. I have broken too many ceramic shafts, etc. I they need a clean, just a run for an hour in a bucket with some muriatic acid is all that I do.

Why is your skimmer getting coralline and stuff in it? You have a light close by? I nearly never wash a skimmer body -sponges and stuff on the inside. I have some that have not moved out of the sump in years.. cryptic zone for filter feeders and stuff. I don't have any light down there, so no algae to worry about.

Yes my sump is quite small and there's a refugium area across from the skimmer