# SWC XTREME HANG ON TANK - the Awesomeness



## Bayinaung

*SWC XTREME HANG ON TANK SKIMMER - the Awesomeness*

Hey guys,

I just want to write a few notes about this SWC Xtreme HOB or HOT skimmer. The following RC thread is like the only review of this Canadian made skimmer on the whole world wide internet so I thought I'd add a few more notes regarding this. Since I love RC so much, I will not add any further information on there but add additional information here.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1674734

I've had it for a while on my new salt water setup after buying it second hand. The previous owner sold it to me partly because of the noise. It was noisy after I set it up. My tanks are in the living room, and any noise coming from aquariums in late in the evening isn't acceptable. I had posted on RC asking people for help on why it was making a lot of noise and got no help. I was on the verge of putting it up for sale when I decided to tinker with it a bit more.

I just found two things that made the noise DISAPPEAR. This SWC Xtreme Hang on Tank skimmer now purrs instead of rattling. Its sound is in fact lower than the sound of the water gurgling out from the skimmer. It is a freakin dream. I don't have any skimmate on this yet because my tanks are virtually new with low bioload.

So here are two things I did that's made this skimmer purr:

1) I wrapped plumber's teflon tape a few times around the end of the skimmer pump shaft. The teflon tape that was on it had worn down really thin and was not noticable when I pulled out the shaft. I put on new teflon tape, half a mm thick on the end of the shaft and put it back into the pump. I let it run for an hour and I noticed most of the rattling noise was gone.

2) second thing I did is this - this skimmer needs a siphon start initially. If there's any air at all in the siphon pipe from the tank into the skimmer, it's going to make some noise. I noticed that whenever I restart and hear noise, I just used a pump and hose to pump a lot of water into the water inlet chamber before turning on the skimmer. This seems to remove any air bubbles in the siphon pipe and makes any noise go away.










the above is a diagram of the SWC Xtreme HOT skimmer.

It is a HUGE skimmer, and it's quietness astounds me. The previous owner says the thing is a beast when it comes to pulling out skimmate. When my bioload is higher and I begin to get skimmate I will post pics. In the meantime, you can see what the skimmate looks like at the RC post.

It's amazing. Aquaclear makes more noise than this thing. I am quite happy, and this one's a keeper.


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## Bayinaung

I did extensive research before getting this. no red prism marine land aqua c etc etc for me. 
This skimmer is a Porsche of a skimmer, and will compete with any in sump skimmer in performance and noise in its class. 


And best of all, instead of an ugly sump, I get to have a display refugium with the use of this. Zero footprint!


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## Greg_o

Let's keep the negativity out of a review alt. Sounds like a great skimmer and Canadian made to boot!


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## Flexin5

I'm glad your happy with your skimmer but I wouldn't say that a sump is ugly, if anything it saves you from having eye-sore equipment in the display. And I would highly doubt that a small hang on back skimmer would compete with a vertex, reef octopus, or the like in pulling out skimmate, bubble size and oxygen exchange.


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## altcharacter

First and foremost, this wasn't a review Greg. This was a thread on how to fix a product. 

Also, I can guarantee my tank with no tubes or heaters or ATO's sitting in the tank looks much better than any HOB system. Also the extra 20g of water in my sump helps with water quality. Lastly, I am definitely not jealous


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## ameekplec.

Cleaned up thread.

Review or not, optimizing the function of the skimmer is probably helpful to someone out there who can't use a sump for what ever reason. And those of us lucky enough to have space, well, these are useful for pop up QT tanks and such


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## altcharacter

Yeah I never thought of it till Now that they would have a use in certain tanks. Sometimes you just have to open your mind


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## Bayinaung

It is getting quieter, if that was possible. I live in a one bedroom apartment. if I leave the bedroom door open at night all I can hear is the sound of gurgling water. It sounds so peaceful, it just doesn't get any better than this.

I should point out the third additional thing I did to keep things quiet:

3) take a block of cheap biofilter sponge material, cut it into 1 inch thickness, and afix them on the side of the bubble plate tightly after making sure the bubble plate is level on the pump. This will make sure that the bubble plate a) does not come off during start up and b) will not rattle against the side of the reaction chamber should it become ever so slightly off-level due to constant interaction with bubbles. photo below, credits to herozero (sorry just too lazy to stop and take a pic of my own skimmer):


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## Bayinaung

I have a fairly brand new setup the skimmer is running on: 35 gallon and 30 gallon long tanks stacked on a stand. (pics to follow). The SWC Xtreme Hang on Tank or HOB is on the bottom 30 long tank.

The tanks had been cycling fishless for a month or so with complete rockscape. (Prior to that I had cured the live rock for 2 months in the sun, then 2 months in RODI water with several water changes).

During that time I was tweaking the skimmer, and it wasn't running at all. then added five mollies to help speed it up a bit. Mollies were in there for 2 weeks. I began running the skimmer off (during evening) and on while I was figuring out the noise situation. now it's on 24/7 for... maybe a few days?

bioload really is still light, 5 mollies, to which I added a purple firefish, a blood shrimp, and two yellow tail damsels yesterday. basically 9 inches of fish so to speak. This is the skimmate I'm getting thus far. It isn't much yet, but I'm stocking up slowly. If the fishes are fine, then corals will go in.


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## carmenh

Am I allowed to bump this and say that I've got one of these for sale?


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## altcharacter

You already did! That's like getting someone pregnant and asking after if they wanted kids


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## liz

altcharacter said:


> You already did! That's like getting someone pregnant and asking after if they wanted kids


Too funny!


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## carmenh

Haha what's the old one about begging forgiveness being easier than asking permission?


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## Bayinaung

altcharacter said:


> You already did! That's like getting someone pregnant and asking after if they wanted kids





liz said:


> Too funny!


I'll double that! lol


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