How often do you clean your skimmer?

[I never finish anythi]

I clean the cup weekly, and the skimmer gets a full service maybe once a year !

 

[Dburr1014]

i only clean the cup...doesn't work well after i clean whole thing

They need to get the bacteria skim before they start working again. For me it's about 24 hours.

 

[Gtinnel]

6 months. Don’t want to get the LARS.

I believe I’ve had a bad case of LARS for many years.

 

[exnisstech]

Deep cleaning? Never unless I'm pulling it for some reason or it stops working. Cup when it's close to full and I wipe the neck then.

 

[vic5hands]

Cleaning no longer required. Used a Neptune Apex solenoid to flush cup every 3 hours. Using tap water. Water then goes down the drain.

 

[Fred A.]

I have a downdraft skimmer. No moving parts. Every 6 months enough crud starts to stick to the inside of the chambers that I need a deep clean. Otherwise, the collection cup automatically empties itself into a bucket (not pictured)

 

[Evil1]

Quick tip when cleaning skimmer. I clean my cup about once a week. When doing so I unplug then plug the pump back in quickly. I do this about 5 times like turning a switch on and off rapidly. I found this jars loose any crap that has gotten stuck to the needle wheel. Not as good as a good scrubbing but works well enough to avoid the dreaded re-break in period.

 

[Philip Chin]

Same issue. I have the Aquamax 1.5. It clogs quite often at the propeller and nozzles. Regretting my purchase. Worked great for about (6) weeks, then pretty much stopped working. I end up tearing apart and cleaning every couple of weeks. I cleaned out the air inlet nozzle to the pump a couple days ago because plugged, now sounds like a John Deere tractor. Grrrr. Also the attach bracket came unglued on one side. BRS replaced the unit for free quickly. It is only (3) months old.

I use a pre filter sponge and the propeller clogged a lot less! Skimmer is nice when it works but I also do regret it sometimes

 

[Stingerpr]

Just curious how many of you clean your skimmer and how often.
And I don't mean a quick clean up the neck I mean getting in there and going deep cleaning.

A couple months ago I had a mishap with some GAC and frankly I kind of forgot all about it. I use GAC passively in my bag got caught up in the propeller of a circulating pump in my sump. I noticed in the past few weeks my phosphates have been climbing my skimmer hasn't been working very well as it should be.
As a result this is what I found.
And a lot of my funnels were also clogged.

Hello; I empty and clean the cup every week and the complete unit once a year, due the problem to remove (is a hang on one).

 

[McPuff]

I empty and clean the cup about once per week. The entire skimmer gets thoroughly cleaned about once a year.

 

[vlangel]

I hated cleaning my skimmer so I took it offline and have never missed it. My tank is a high nutrient tank by design so this works for me but may not for others.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Two LifeReef Skimmers here. I never clean the body, Three to Seven Days Clean the Cup, and maybe the throat. Have to wait till the house is empty, LOOL. Every now and then Inject RO/DI Water, into to Ventura Hose. Two to three times a year, pull and clean the pump. Found out I can flush clean the pump by temporarily ramping the Simplicity 1000 pump all the way up.

 

[ReefKeeperElite]

Clean the cup and oil the sides of the skim collection part twice a month. Unscrew the body from the base (RO Regal 200sss) and switch the Varios pump with a fresh one every month. Never clean the body.

 

[Saltyanimals]

First proper clean on a Simplicity DC skimmer. Can't believe that thing ran 6 years straight with only a cup clean.

I only did it because it stopped producing the bubbles. Citric bath the thing and while all looked fine after the bath, I went ahead and took the pump apart. Glad I did this because I learned about those 'funnels' mentioned in here which is crucial for the operations. They were full of chaeto hairs that were sucked in. Back in operation now and realized I now have to break it back in again... all from the start as if it was a new skimmer because I zapped the biofilm in the cleaning. Talk about PIA which is why I don't see myself EVER cleaning the skimmer unless something is wrong. I can't see why anyone would do a deep clean proactively due to the re-breaking-in part of the process now that I'm on that road.

I hope to run this another 6 years. =) Come on Simplicity! You can do it! Great skimmer BTW.