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Automatic skimmer neck cleaner

Coral reefer

Past President
Anyone used one before? Thinking of buying the one from brs made for my skimmer. Reef super octopus xp5000. Curious of there are other cheaper options that people have positive experience with? Planning on making my own skimmate collector.
 
Avast was like same price so I went with one made for my skimmer. Avast has the DIY for like $80 less, but I'm too lazy for that. The whole point of the auto neck cleaner deal is laziness, and efficiency of skimming, which leads to more laziness... Less water changing etc!
 
I always thought the wet neck style skimmers were a nest idea... Wonder why they never went anywhere.

Gotta admit cleaning the skimmer is my one weak point. Haha

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The wet neck design is one where there is a thin sheet of water running down the neck if the skimmer. Google it. Good stuff and a pretty simple design really. The idea is the thin film of water helps the skimmer slide up the neck without sticking to it.

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Much like I don't feel accomplished unless that q-tip comes out of my ear with a some yellow gunk on it, I don't feel like my skimmer is working right unless I have to brush out the insides and have a cake layer of brown crap come out :D

I might look into one of those auto-neck skimmer dohickies eventually though, I'm not a fan of having a skimmer collection bucket though.
 
Gotta admit cleaning the skimmer is my one weak point. Haha

I'm not sure anyone likes to clean the cup! Trying to make it as easy as possible is the key.

On an episode of 'Reef Threads' Gary Parr was talking about using a foam paint brush as a cleaning tool. You know the disposable ones, wooden handle and usually grey foam 'brush'. Sounds like a great idea. Couple of quick swipes and you are done!

My skim cup needs cleaning today and I'll be driving right by the hardware store so it's time to try it!
 
Much like I don't feel accomplished unless that q-tip comes out of my ear with a some yellow gunk on it, I don't feel like my skimmer is working right unless I have to brush out the insides and have a cake layer of brown crap come out :D

I might look into one of those auto-neck skimmer dohickies eventually though, I'm not a fan of having a skimmer collection bucket though.

Haha, only a reefer could take satisfaction with poop-removal. :)

The skimmer collection bucket at first seemed like a great idea to me. I ran one on my 140g tank made from an Instant Ocean Bucket. I was never able to get a good seal on the overflow prevention device though.... My skimmer had a tendency to go nuts and overflow every now and then, and I can't count the number of times I came home to find a whole lot of water on the floor in the fish room and my salinity out of whack. So I'm definitely in the "empty it manually camp".
 
I'm not sure anyone likes to clean the cup! Trying to make it as easy as possible is the key.

On an episode of 'Reef Threads' Gary Parr was talking about using a foam paint brush as a cleaning tool. You know the disposable ones, wooden handle and usually grey foam 'brush'. Sounds like a great idea. Couple of quick swipes and you are done!

My skim cup needs cleaning today and I'll be driving right by the hardware store so it's time to try it!

That sounds like a decent idea.

One of the things I like about my Tunze nano doc skimmer is the little cleaning brush it comes with; makes it a breeze to clean.
 
My AquaC has a removable collection cup, but the neck is integral to the unit. Some skimmer, the neck and cup are a unit (like Coralife Super Skimmer, which is running on my fish holding tank). The AquaC, when I remove the skimmer cup for cleaning always requires that I clean the neck with something similar to that foam paint brush thing (I call it a sponge on a stick, that I bought like a decade ago)...the problem is that if the layer of poo is thick enough, when I'm trying to clean it... a slab of poo will just fall off the neck and into back into the skimmer body!

So, yeah, a skimmer that has a removable neck and cup is much easier to clean than one with a fixed neck and removable cup only.

I hate that the poo falls back in to be re-skimmed...such a waste of effort...

V
 
Yeah cup/body integration is very tricky, I bought a Coralife one some years back and never liked the fact the cup had a screw ring, EuroReef same thing, ASM had a twist lock setup which was a bit better but still meh. Then I found the holy grail, my Bubble Master 250, you want the cup off? You simply lift up. There is nothing physically connecting it to the body, there's a rubber/silicon gasket that fits and the weight of the cup is more than enough to keep the water from spilling out. Not sure if more modern skimmers use this idea or not.
 
Super reef octopus does! I plan on having my collection cup over my sump just in case it overflows it will not be on the floor. Hopefully it won't overflow, but better to be prepared.
 
On an episode of 'Reef Threads' Gary Parr was talking about using a foam paint brush as a cleaning tool. You know the disposable ones, wooden handle and usually grey foam 'brush'. Sounds like a great idea. Couple of quick swipes and you are done!

My skim cup needs cleaning today and I'll be driving right by the hardware store so it's time to try it!

I bought one of these yesterday from Home Depot to try out. Thanks for the idea!
 
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