Jeff-Ft-Lauderdale
Community Member
So some background:
I inherited this 50 (I am told) gallon Plexiglass tank. It came pre-established (don't know how long, but at least a year). It is a wedge design, with an overflow filter in the back. I have had the water quality tested several times...it is near perfect. I have it tested at my local fish store once a week. Right now it is lightly stocked...a couple small anemones, a few corals (two largish ones, including a GSP colony about a foot wide, and a half dozen small ones), a small clown fish, a single firefish, about ten snails, a few small hermit crabs, and one banded coral shrimp.
I am fairly new to this hobby. I have owned many freshwater tanks (from 5 to 55 gallons and everything in-between), but this is my first salt tank. Skimmers are completely new to me.
So it came with equipment pre-installed. There is a canister filter in the base, which I guess is the "main" filter. And also this cylindrical skimmer. It has some kind of mad-scientist plumbing that winds around to and from the overflow filter. He had actually cut into the drywall to make room for some of it. I have no schematics for it. I have a vague idea of the brand, but that's it. I do not see any way to adjust it. There is the tube on the right (facing the skimmer from the tank side) that can twist around to control water flow to a degree. But nothing I do prevents what you see in the video.
When I turn it on, the foam is too thick...it quickly overloads the cup and I have to shut it off. For this reason, I have not used the skimmer hardly at all for the last 6 or 8 weeks. I have been able to maintain my water quality I think because my other filtration is good and my tank is lightly stocked...just a small clownfish and a filefish and a few invertebrates.
My question is this; given this information and what is in these photos and videos, would it make sense for me to just remove this and start over with a new skimmer? Right now I am leaning towards the latter. The people at the fish store said some brands cannot be adjusted easily or at all. They could not reliably identify this either.
I know the photos and video are not great...the angles awe awkward. I did research the brand some...the "coralvalue.com" domain no longer works. The closest I can find to it visually is this - https://www.marineandreef.com/Reef_...aG-5-7A_OPhDl9AqTWj8ci4M_z0vCdVxoCJLkQAvD_BwE
Video (Shows the skimmer functioning at the very end) - I tried to get every angle - https://photos.app.goo.gl/3vjFfYArnzfmVXNG8
Still photos of the skimmer.
Side:
Top:
Tank-Interior:
Bottom:
Still photos of the tank:
I inherited this 50 (I am told) gallon Plexiglass tank. It came pre-established (don't know how long, but at least a year). It is a wedge design, with an overflow filter in the back. I have had the water quality tested several times...it is near perfect. I have it tested at my local fish store once a week. Right now it is lightly stocked...a couple small anemones, a few corals (two largish ones, including a GSP colony about a foot wide, and a half dozen small ones), a small clown fish, a single firefish, about ten snails, a few small hermit crabs, and one banded coral shrimp.
I am fairly new to this hobby. I have owned many freshwater tanks (from 5 to 55 gallons and everything in-between), but this is my first salt tank. Skimmers are completely new to me.
So it came with equipment pre-installed. There is a canister filter in the base, which I guess is the "main" filter. And also this cylindrical skimmer. It has some kind of mad-scientist plumbing that winds around to and from the overflow filter. He had actually cut into the drywall to make room for some of it. I have no schematics for it. I have a vague idea of the brand, but that's it. I do not see any way to adjust it. There is the tube on the right (facing the skimmer from the tank side) that can twist around to control water flow to a degree. But nothing I do prevents what you see in the video.
When I turn it on, the foam is too thick...it quickly overloads the cup and I have to shut it off. For this reason, I have not used the skimmer hardly at all for the last 6 or 8 weeks. I have been able to maintain my water quality I think because my other filtration is good and my tank is lightly stocked...just a small clownfish and a filefish and a few invertebrates.
My question is this; given this information and what is in these photos and videos, would it make sense for me to just remove this and start over with a new skimmer? Right now I am leaning towards the latter. The people at the fish store said some brands cannot be adjusted easily or at all. They could not reliably identify this either.
I know the photos and video are not great...the angles awe awkward. I did research the brand some...the "coralvalue.com" domain no longer works. The closest I can find to it visually is this - https://www.marineandreef.com/Reef_...aG-5-7A_OPhDl9AqTWj8ci4M_z0vCdVxoCJLkQAvD_BwE
Video (Shows the skimmer functioning at the very end) - I tried to get every angle - https://photos.app.goo.gl/3vjFfYArnzfmVXNG8
Still photos of the skimmer.
Side:
Top:
Tank-Interior:
Bottom:
Still photos of the tank:
Last edited:
