Sea Clone Protein Skimmer
On a couple of websites, I've read that some people have been unhappy with the Sea Clone Skimmer. I've also read that some people have had to modify the skimmer in order to make it work. They've added airstones, cut the tubing down in the main tube and also in the collection cup.....
I find this perplexing as I have recently bought a Sea Clone, and it is working great!! The only thing I have done and still do when I completely clean the unit is, I add 3 drops of Stress Coat to the main chamber when the unit is off. This helps to "prime" the unit so it can begin foaming. Once the foaming action starts, it just keeps going and going and going.....
Check out the pic on my photo page...this is how it looked after the very first week!
After reading a bit more on the net, I've come to realise 2 things. That the company has improved this unit (mainly by upgrading the pump) and that some people don't know how to adjust this unit properly. When you are adjusting the air flow, you want it to be high. Very high. High enough to bring the water level down on the return bar (table/arm). You will get a sort of pumping action within the neck of the skimmer. This is good. Eventually this will start pumping the bubbles up the neck into the collection cup. When you just dump the cup, don't mess with the air flow! It may take an hour or so for the foam to start rising again, but be assured that it will do so without any tweaking!!

Concerns and Updates
My biggest concern for this tank is aggression. As most hobbyists know, damsels are some of the most territorial fish around and having a tank filled with them is bound to have some fighting.
So...in order to avoid having one fish picked on constantly, I am trying a method that has been used for years in the freshwater side of the hobby. In african cichlid tanks, they are often overcrowded on purpose so that no single fish is picked on. They all pick on each other to a certain extent, thus lowering the harassment and stress levels.

11/09/04 - That's why this tank has so much LR for the fish to hide in and why the stocking level is so high. Right now, there are 10 fish in there: 3 Three stripe damsels, 2 blue devil, 2 chromis, 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 yellow tang (not a damsel but she's staying!).
So far the dominance order is as follows: Yellow tang, the absolute boss. No one picks on her or shows her any signs of aggression. Yet she is placid enough not to bother the other fish at all. Next in line are the pair of ocellaris clowns. Since they work together as a team, they are not bothered by any fish in the tank. They do however show their dominace by chasing all the other fish (except YT) but because they are rather slow swimmers, the other fish easily outrun them. Next in line are the 3 three stripe damsels with the largest being the most aggressive and proceeding down to the smallest. They in turn chase each other and the fish below them. Because they are faster than the clowns, but slower than the fish below them, the lower fish tend to evade them pretty well. The 2 blue devils are next in line, they chase each other equally, and also the chromis. Since the chromis are the fastest fish in the tank and tend to hang around the surface rather than the rocks, they usually avoid all the other fish in the tank quite well. The largest chromis is more domiant than the smaller and will occassionally chase the smaller.
This sounds like continuous war, but the reality is mild, brief chasing with the majority of the time the fish spend gliding in and out of the rocks and swimming around lesiurely.

03/03/05 I wanted to say that the experiment with aggression is working out well. All the fish get along beautifully and even when they are showing dominace to each other it is very brief and very mild. Almost half-hearted in a way.
6/12/05 There have been some changes in the fish load. At first everything was great, but as the 3 stripes matured, they started to pick on the chromis. Once that started, it seemed like ALL the fish went after them. I ended up removing them from the tank. This set the balance off a bit and the least dominant blue devil became the next in line. The worst of it though came from the other blue devil so again, I had to intervene and remove the less aggressive fish. I did not remove the aggressor, because I feared that the remaining blue damsel must be tough enough to withstand the 3 stripes. Turned out to be the right choice!

My favorite link
Petfish