I travel a lot and my wife hates cleaning the skimmer. I never thought I would find a self-cleaning skimmer head on anything less than a high-end Deltec.
Fortunately I came across this new device from AVAST Marine Works (formerly Grey Seas Aquatics). It is called a Swabbie and they make it to fit just about any skimmer.
Your existing skimmer cup just drops into a CNC channel that is either a standard size or specified by you.
Once you get your skimmer cup on, you just loosen this little screw on the wiper and adjust it to fit snugly up against the inside neck of your skimmer. If you have a cone skimmer, you can just tilt it to match.
Once you tighten it up, you are good to go...
Here it is in action...
Here it is after a few days dealing with the nasty skimmate I get from NP pellets and vodka dosing. The inside of the neck is perfectly clean. All the gunk is in the cup.
I drain everything down into an external waste container with a float switch installed. It stops the skimmer and sends me an email before I get an overflow.
I think this is my first reef purchase that actually make my wife happy.