What's going on with my frogspawn coral?

[cdemoss01]

I'll read around then.

What vinegar solution do you propose? The 50distiled 50 vinegar?

If you have to run the skimmer in it, just add half or all of that gallon to the bucket of water you use. Using RODI water would be nice, but tap water will be OK too....assuming you have fairly soft water.


Full strength for other usess like on a cotton swab or toothbrush to scrub old deposits away.

I have some prime I could use if you think that'd be better. Is doing this gonna clean the injector too? Or is this so the screw can come out? I have a bucket I can use.

 

[mcarroll]

I have some prime I could use if you think that'd be better. Is doing this gonna clean the injector too? Or is this so the screw can come out? I have a bucket I can use.

I think prime is only a dechlorinator, so shouldn't be required here.

Whether running the skimmer in the vinegar solution also cleans out the injector will remain to be seen. Its possible, but the main idea is just so you can get out the screw. The deposits inside are ususally crispy and sometimes take a little force to get loose....but I couldn't predict that to be true or not in your case....just gotta find out.

I thought that thread was funny....half way through someone was like "Remoras suck, get a neeldwheel, they're GRE-E-E-AT like Tony the Tiger" Then the OP gets the skimmer ad pump cleaned out near the end and he's like "holy cow this is skimming great now".

Makes me wonder how many people changed skimmers back then when all they needed to do was clean up their old one. ;)

 

[cdemoss01]

I think prime is only a dechlorinator, so shouldn't be required here.

Whether running the skimmer in the vinegar solution also cleans out the injector will remain to be seen. Its possible, but the main idea is just so you can get out the screw. The deposits inside are ususally crispy and sometimes take a little force to get loose....but I couldn't predict that to be true or not in your case....just gotta find out.

I thought that thread was funny....half way through someone was like "Remoras suck, get a neeldwheel, they're GRE-E-E-AT like Tony the Tiger" Then the OP gets the skimmer ad pump cleaned out near the end and he's like "holy cow this is skimming great now".

Makes me wonder how many people changed skimmers back then when all they needed to do was clean up their old one. ;)

I saw that in the thread. And your right about the replacement!

I'm gonna go get the bath ready. How much vinegar would you say? I'm not sure if I have half a gallon of it. There's another gallon downstairs though.

 

[cdemoss01]

Bath is ready. Starting now

 

[cdemoss01]

@mcarroll

 

[mcarroll]

Fingers crossed!

BTW, have you already disassembled the pump to see if it also needs a cleaning? If it came with the skimmer, it seems likely.

This vinegar run might do the trick for that too, but I'd take the pump apart and make sure it's very clean as well. Calcium deposits can be hard to see when the parts are all wet, BTW, so allowing impeller assembly to dry out before judging it clean isn't a bad idea.

 

[cdemoss01]

Fingers crossed!

BTW, have you already disassembled the pump to see if it also needs a cleaning? If it came with the skimmer, it seems likely.

This vinegar run might do the trick for that too, but I'd take the pump apart and make sure it's very clean as well. Calcium deposits can be hard to see when the parts are all wet, BTW, so allowing impeller assembly to dry out before judging it clean isn't a bad idea.

New pump. Sicce

 

[mcarroll]

Seemslike a new Syncra 1.5 ought to do a good job.

 

[cdemoss01]

Seemslike a new Syncra 1.5 ought to do a good job.

Worried about how much water is coming out of the skimmer. Is dosent seem like a lot.

 

[mcarroll]

If you run the pump by itself, does it seem to run as expected?

Seems like it would take a pretty heavy blockage in the Remora's plumbing to significantly restrict flow (vs just limiting bubbles).

 

[cdemoss01]

If you run the pump by itself, does it seem to run as expected?

Seems like it would take a pretty heavy blockage in the Remora's plumbing to significantly restrict flow (vs just limiting bubbles).

Let me test the pump. The bath is still going how much longer should I run it for. Also do you think I could cut the pump tube in half to reduce the amount of distance water has to move up maybe giving it more power?

 

[mcarroll]

Let me test the pump. The bath is still going how much longer should I run it for. Also do you think I could cut the pump tube in half to reduce the amount of distance water has to move up maybe giving it more power?

You can give the screw another try witout even taking it out of the bath....see if it'll pop loose now. If not, I'd let it run a little longer. If you try it again after that but STILL no joy, then maybe just rinse it off really good and try something else, like the idea of letting it dry out so the screw shrinks.

If it ran with that length of tube before then IMO it should be fine. Have the tube too short then it might start vortexing air from the water surface. IMO it's probably fine as-is unless the tube it dirty and partly clogged from being old. In that case replace it, but the same length is probably OK.

 

[cdemoss01]

You can give the screw another try witout even taking it out of the bath....see if it'll pop loose now. If not, I'd let it run a little longer. If you try it again after that but STILL no joy, then maybe just rinse it off really good and try something else, like the idea of letting it dry out so the screw shrinks.

If it ran with that length of tube before then IMO it should be fine. Have the tube too short then it might start vortexing air from the water surface. IMO it's probably fine as-is unless the tube it dirty and partly clogged from being old. In that case replace it, but the same length is probably OK.

I cut maybe an inch off just now, got a bit more flow to be honest. It seems that the hour in the bath really helped it but it didn't help the bubble production. I'll try the screw.

 

[cdemoss01]

Here's how it sounds am I the only one that thinks it sounds odd?

 

[mcarroll]

Video won't play for some reason...will try again in a bit

 

[cdemoss01]

Video won't play for some reason...will try again in a bit

YouTube is experiencing issues I think.

 

[cdemoss01]

@mcarroll the bath is finished. Ive rinsed the skimmer. Do I wait to dry and try the impeller again? I put my hose over the area that goes into the skimmer and water came out into the skimmer. You think that cleared anything?

 

[mcarroll]

@mcarroll the bath is finished. Ive rinsed the skimmer. Do I wait to dry and try the impeller again? I put my hose over the area that goes into the skimmer and water came out into the skimmer. You think that cleared anything?

You'd have to hook it up and see how it is for generating bubbles now. If the injector is clogged, it'll still run but bubble production will be lame.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/aquacskimrfaq2.htm#google_vignette

Once you get the screw out, it's a direct line-of-sight to the injector at the en of that elbow. A poke with something will usually dislodge the salt creep that builds up.

Hard to say if anything else will clear it since the salt creep can be pretty tough, but maybe. Depends how bad it's clogged.