how long for the remora to break in?

[Maverick00]

Hey guys, ive had this remora on my tank now for nearly two weeks (monday) and im still not impressed with performance. I decided to get this and retire my coralife super skimmer and im starting to wonder if that was a mistake. I must say the remora itself looks alot better sitting on the back of the tank than the SS did but this thing is only pulling out tea colored water and hardly any thick "mud". The collector cup is at its highest setting. Anyone that has one of these have any tips on getting the most out of this thing?

[mws]

Did you run it with hot/warm water for 10 min before you put it in your tank?
I did this and still mine took about two weeks to start working properly.

I remember it takes a while but then it runs like a clock . Mine stops skimming for a few hours after I feed the fish, I don't adjust it or anything it just comes back to normal on it's own.

It will also will react to the clue/epoxy, so try not to use it for now.

[zum14]

If i remember right mine was the same thing, 2 or 3 weeks for the thick stuff to show up.

[Wayne]

Did you run it with hot/warm water for 10 min before you put it in your tank?

+1 For hot tapwater (don't burn yourself though). I do this with all my new skimmers and it greatly reduces the "break in" period by washing off production byproducts.

[Lampshade]

I've heard that putting some vinager in with the tap water will help even more. Water itself won't get lots of the oils off, vinager will help this. Good luck with your new skimmer.

[Abe]

actually I have mine for about 2 years now, I only get tea colour water as well but I didnt put it in hot water to break it in ( didn't know back then :) ) so i am wondering if it will do anything if I do it now or maybe I should get another skimmer.

[Madreefer]

I used a Remora Pro for a few years on a 72G slightly overstocked predator tank. Mine was the same as Abe's, had never produced anything sludgey at all. Tea colored water is all I ever seen. Skimmer was highly recommended by a reputable sponsor of the site. Way over rated IMO.

[reefwars]

I've heard that putting some vinager in with the tap water will help even more. Water itself won't get lots of the oils off, vinager will help this. Good luck with your new skimmer.



+1 vinegar will help breaking it in bigtime or change the pump out for something with some more power imo brown water is a sign your skimmer isnt doing what it should or doesnt have the power to do it, even in a wet skim there should be some solid waste.

[mike31154]

I'm afraid I won't be much help to you, except to add my more or less negative experience with this skimmer. I'm back to an old school wooden air diffuser skimmer after having tried a Remora C Pro with mag 3 pump for about 6 months or so.

Thin tea is all I ever got and a hell of a lot of noise from the injector with the mag 3. I don't like the design of the pump hanging from the intake tube, too much weight there with a bigger pump and that's how I ended up cracking mine. The lid on the collection cup warped as well, material too thin or cheap I reckon. I'm glad it's gone to be honest.

[Maverick00]

thanks for the replies! when i bought it i gave it a quick wash with warm water in the bathtub. I have a piece of sponge on top of the injector nozzle that isnt affecting the actual stream, i wondered at first if this was the problem but it looks like alot of people use this technique to quiet it down. Ill give it another week i suppose and see what happens, maybe take it out and give it another wash with water/vinegar that was mentioned. its frustrating pouring out colored water when i remember getting 1/16" thick of sludge out of the inside of the super skimmers collection cup.

[Maverick00]

Well after posting here i decided to rip the skimmer out and give it another wash. i had it running in the sink for over an hour with water vinegar combination, then another hour with freshwater. After rinsing/cleaning it out for a final time i dried it off and reassembled it and hung it back on the tank. Still nothing. I called up the LFS i bought it from and was told i could try adjusting the height of the pump which would change the microbubbles in the skimmer. After another week of playing around with it i dont see any difference whatsoever. I was told by the LFS there would be a restocking fee or they'll let me upgrade to a remora pro for just the added cost of the skimmer. Does anyone that use the pro model see sludge accumulate in the collection cup or just the tea colored water like alot of people seem to find? Im not sure what to do here, return the remoras and hook back up my coralife SS or does anyone have a better upgrade recommendation from the coralife SS in the same price range as the remora? Thanks for the replies.

[Abe]

Actually I have the rumora C pro, I have changed the pump and the distance of it to the PS but still the only thing I get is tea like water, I am planing for a replacement. any suggestions?

[Magma]

this is discouraging to read as I just bought this yesterday for about 199$ and it does make a noise when it injects into the system kinda annoying to hear because its in out living room, and it took all night but im getting some nice thick bubbles now, just a matter of waiting to see if i get tea colour water or not.

I had the red sea prizm (i know horrible) but it pulled a thick paste almost...

[mike31154]

Well after posting here i decided to rip the skimmer out and give it another wash. i had it running in the sink for over an hour with water vinegar combination, then another hour with freshwater. After rinsing/cleaning it out for a final time i dried it off and reassembled it and hung it back on the tank. Still nothing. I called up the LFS i bought it from and was told i could try adjusting the height of the pump which would change the microbubbles in the skimmer. After another week of playing around with it i dont see any difference whatsoever. I was told by the LFS there would be a restocking fee or they'll let me upgrade to a remora pro for just the added cost of the skimmer. Does anyone that use the pro model see sludge accumulate in the collection cup or just the tea colored water like alot of people seem to find? Im not sure what to do here, return the remoras and hook back up my coralife SS or does anyone have a better upgrade recommendation from the coralife SS in the same price range as the remora? Thanks for the replies.

As far as I know the only difference between the standard and Pro Remora is the pump size. Mine was a Pro with a mag 3 pump and like I described in my earlier post, it was not a stellar performer for me. Back to counter current wooden air stone. I didn't want to pipe in on the whole washing thing earlier, but doesn't that negate the so called 'break in' process that's supposed to make a skimmer work better?

And your LFS wants to charge you what for an upgrade to Pro? Find yourself a used mag 3 pump and voila, you have a Pro, with the added noise a bigger pump will make on that thing. You'll probably have better results at a lower cost modifying your super skimmer with more air stones or something.

[mws]

Well after posting here i decided to rip the skimmer out and give it another wash. i had it running in the sink for over an hour with water vinegar combination, then another hour with freshwater. After rinsing/cleaning it out for a final time i dried it off and reassembled it and hung it back on the tank. Still nothing. I called up the LFS i bought it from and was told i could try adjusting the height of the pump which would change the microbubbles in the skimmer. After another week of playing around with it i dont see any difference whatsoever. I was told by the LFS there would be a restocking fee or they'll let me upgrade to a remora pro for just the added cost of the skimmer. Does anyone that use the pro model see sludge accumulate in the collection cup or just the tea colored water like alot of people seem to find? Im not sure what to do here, return the remoras and hook back up my coralife SS or does anyone have a better upgrade recommendation from the coralife SS in the same price range as the remora? Thanks for the replies.


Why would you worry about it on a 33gal tank. You don't want your water completely striped anyways. Put in on and forget it. The longer it's there the better it will perform.

[Maverick00]

sry magma :neutral: let me know how the break in goes with yours, i hope you have better luck. i found the noise did go down slightly in a couple weeks, but a sponge some kind covering the injector compartment makes a night and day difference.

@mike31154 yeah thats a good call mike, ill ask around here to see if i can find a stronger pump

@mws i wasnt aware i could overskim?

ive thrown my old SS for the time being and im already seeing minor sludge buildup. i also started seeing some hair algae showing up recently, i cant really blame it on the remora as i knew it was under a break in period but out comes the phosban reactor to hopefully axe this new issue.

[Magma]

yah I noticed the injector makes a lot of noise even when I asked like 5 times "is this a loud skimmer?" and answer was no no really quiet etc.

Hope it calms down once it breaks in and I think I will try and find some foam to stick in there now.

[tuck]

I was happy with my remora skimmer and I had it running for a year and a half. It took a long time to break in, 2-3 weeks. After adding anything to the water, food, epoxy, garlic, conditioner, ect. it took an hour or so to kick back in. I got a nasty really strong coffee looking stuff in the collection cup.

[mike31154]

Actually one thing that may improve the Remora's performance if you're not using it already, is a surface skimmer or pre skimmer box, particularly if your unit is hanging in the display. This will ensure the water going into the skimmer is being pulled from near the surface where most of the proteins tend to collect. Pretty sure Remora sells the skimmer box, but it's huge and when I was using the Remora, I simply used one of those $20 bobbing surface skimmer thingys available at virtually any LFS. Hook the pump intake to this little device and there's an adjustment lever down the center that allows you to tweak how much water is drawn from the surface. The lower section of the device will also take in some water and is a bit of a fail safe in case the bobber screws up, I think. Not as clunky and intrusive as Remora's box and probably a little less efficient.

http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/product-info.php?product_ID=pf-acpskm

I also need to correct a statement made in an earlier post. Just noticed on JL site that the Pro is a few inches longer and an inch wider than the standard model. My bad, sorry for the misinformation. You can still get a larger pump for the standard Remora if you wish though.

[Skimmerking]

Why would you worry about it on a 33gal tank. You don't want your water completely striped anyways. Put in on and forget it. The longer it's there the better it will perform.

I agree on this one with a small footprint why even bother doing a 5 gal change is huge to a 33 gal, or a 10 gal change. Doing a 5 gal change every week will cancel out anything bad. If you seriously want to know.

[Maverick00]

I agree on this one with a small footprint why even bother doing a 5 gal change is huge to a 33 gal, or a 10 gal change. Doing a 5 gal change every week will cancel out anything bad. If you seriously want to know.


defiantly thanks for the info, perhaps i was getting alittle worked up about what i was seeing in that &^%$ collection cup rather than whats actually needed. Thanks again for the replies everyone.

[Skimmerking]

Maverick just because you are pulling light color tea skim out of the tank doesnt mean that the skimmer isnt working. It's pretty much menas that the tank does not have any extra nutrients to take out....

[Magma]

mines been up for about 3 days now, and after not having a skimmer it for about a month (damn thing broke) im getting a thick paste in the bottom of the cup and im still getting tea coloured water as well.

[Maverick00]

Maverick just because you are pulling light color tea skim out of the tank doesnt mean that the skimmer isnt working. It's pretty much menas that the tank does not have any extra nutrients to take out....

I took out the remora and threw in the coralife SS and within 24 hrs it's already started to pull out sludge so yes I'm assuming there is stuff to be pulled out the remora isn't getting.

That's awesome to hear magma, are you running that surface filter as well?

[burgerchow]

been using mine for almost 2 years now on my 55 corner bowfront fowlr tank. piece of garbage. Even after 2 years, only have little bit of slime pulling out.

should have gone to a cpr backback or bucked up for a deltec.600

[Magma]

That's awesome to hear magma, are you running that surface filter as well?

nope just the maxijet 1200 pump and the skimmer, didnt even move the O ring yet to adjust the cup.