colstudent69's Full Review: Aquarium Systems Seaclone 100 Protein Skimmer
I had a small party at my apartment and one of my co-workers was hooked the moment he saw my 55 gallon SW tank. I could tell he was very enthusiastic and I tried to steer him in the right direction for equipment, I told him to buy a CPR Aquatic Cyclone Bak-Pak 2R, but as often is the case for a new person to the hobby, the impatience of starting the hobby got to him.
The next day he was at a local fish store and bought a 55 gallon tank package that included a Seaclone 100 skimmer, recommended highly by the local fish store employee. I hope to write an epinion someday on why some local fish stores sell sub-standard equipment, but that is for another time.
He called me up to ask for help on setting up his new toy and I went over to help out. At the time I had never heard of the Seaclone 100, but it had cool packaging. It also included a maxi-jet 1200 pump, a quality pump, so that was encouraging. We set it up and it started producing a lot of cool bubbles, so looked good. Looks can be deceiving! I told him about skimmers having a break-in period of a few hours to a week before they are efficient and went home.
What followed was a nightmare. He called me a week later saying it wasn't collecting anything. So I went over and sure enough there was nothing in the collection cup. He had the venturi nozzle nearly closed, so I opened it up and suddenly there were plenty of bubbles.
To make a long story short, I was over there a couple of times a week trying to help him get it to work for a couple of months. It either would skim OK, but release a large number of micro bubbles into the tank or it would skim nothing.
I then discovered the online world of SW aquarium websites, including http://www.reefcentral.com, and posted a question on how to tune the skimmer. I quickly found out that lots of "experts" thought they were junk and my friend had made a bad purchase. Shortly afterwards his seaclone sprung a leak and he said to the heck with it, time to replace it.
He got a AquaC Remora HOT Skimmer as a replacement and it ran beautifully.
The Good:
When you decide to throw away this skimmer(because it would be wrong to sell it used to another aquarist!), you can keep the nice quality maxi-jet 1200 pump for other uses and scavenge some of the plastic pieces for spare parts.
The collection cup is larger than some other small skimmers, but it doesn't collect much from the inefficient design, so not really that good a point.
The Bad:
Nearly impossible to tune properly and the venturi line clogs quickly. The construction on this skimmer is below average.
Once you are in the hobby for a while, you judge good skimmers by the quantity of skimmate produced, how much it stinks and how dark it is. In all three criteria the Seaclone skimmer does a poor job! If you manage to tune it properly to where you have stable skimmate production, it is typically small quantity, doesn't smell bad and is a yellow or light brown. GOOD skimmers will produce dark brown to black skimmate.
Summary:
Some things in the aquarium hobby are cheap AND work good. This skimmer is just cheap. The pump is high quality, but the rest of the design is below average. Sure you only pay $60 on ebay for a new one, but you can buy a CPR bak pak2 or Remora for around $100-$120.
Unless you are EXTREMELY patient and luck out with the planets aligning and your seaclone works great, if you buy this skimmer, it will end up costing you $160-$180 dollars because you'll throw it away and buy a bak pak2 or remora.
Save the $60 and get something else!
The newly updated Seaclone Protein Skimmer is taking the science of fishkeeping by storm. Features an exclusive Turbo-Venturi Injection System, an ......More at Petsolutions
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