How often do you clean the whole skimmer?

About every two -three months. I just did mine this afternoon. Use fresh water but no soap. I just wash all the junk off everyhting with some hot water and put it back together.
 
Every three to four months. I run it in hot water and vinegar overnight, then disassemble the next day and clean everything I can reach.
 
I have a small hang on back prism skimmer. I take it apart and run it thru the dishwasher w/o soap every few weeks. Seems to work pretty good and is a lot easier than scrubbing all the nooks and crannies.
 
I have to give my skimmers a acid bath every couple months. I can grow a solid 1/4 inch of coralline over the entire skimmer body. The ER and ASM skim much better after a good cleaning.
 
Muratic acid from the pool section in albertsons, $3.99.

I use a cup or two in a 5 gallons of water. I break the skimmer down and let it sit for about 30 minutes, then let it sit in RODI for about an hour.

CAUTION
NEVER POOR WATER INTO ACID, ACID MUST BE POORED INTO WATER SLOWLY.
Also be very careful not to get any pure acid on you , wash it off immediatly if you do. Even the diluted mixture burns my skin when removing the skimmer from the bath. WASH IMMEDIATLY or use gloves


This also works for impellors that are coated in calcium.


OHH yeah, you can also use vinager but it takes a couple days to soak.
 
Umm...I've cleaned the body of mine once this year. I know..bad me...bad! I've got an entire colony of duster worms in mine that my daughter loves to look at. Since they are attached to the sides of the skimmer body, you can see what goes on inside of their tubes. :roll:
 
When it stops performing well I clean whats needed to make it perform again. Usually this just means cleaning out the venturi with some boiling tap water. nuke a coffee cup for 2 minutes then let the venturi suck a little through at a time, it doesn't take much and I wouldn't let it suck all the water through, just a little bit :)


The pump gets removed and cleaned once or twice a year.
 
I take it apart and run it thru the dishwasher w/o soap every few weeks said:
I hope you realize that the drain tube of your dishwasher still has soap residue even after several soapfree runs. you may be building up toxins in your tank slowly. make sure you have a QT large enough to house everything in your current tank.
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