My Mojo Special

[RedEyeReef]

OK, last night I told my wife the usual story, "no honey, it will only take me an hour or so." Well six hours later my skimmer conversion was done.

My skimmer is a Barr Aquatic custom 8” dia, 40” tall, beckett (powered by a Mag 18), and two OR 3700 needle wheel pumps. I average about 45 Scfh of air and it skimmed great. My reef is 360 gallons and whole system with refugiums and sump about 500 gallons.

Mojo gets the credit for this:
I converted my skimmer to Air stones. An Eheim 1250 at about 300 gph supplies the skimmer, a Sweetwater Linear II SL 56 powers four 3” fine pour Air Stones, that thing is so quite but runs a bit warm to the touch. Well I now get double the air (90-95 Scfh) and about 25% less electrical consumption. I have already noticed my tank runs two degree cooler just from removing the 2 OR’s and Mag 18. I also added Ozone to the skimmer.

Recap, 25% less energy, double the air, and less heat transfer to my reef.

Unscientifically looking at my bubble size they do seem a little bigger now then with my old skimmer arrangement. This thing pulls the gunk out, I’m still trying to dial it in. It can fill my 2 gallon waste collector much faster and wetter if I’m not careful.

I plan on monitoring it for a few days but am considering upping the water flow through my skimmer with the next size up Eheim (600gph) I also want to try and get my bubble size smaller. ANYONE with ideas on this???

I did take pictures and will try and get them up later tonight.

 

[mojoreef]

Woo hoo!! With the ozone you got to watch it as it will hit a point where it will kill the skimmer bubbles, look for the bubbles to reach the top of the water column and then just pop, if you see that dial the ozone down.
One thing I have noticed is that if you turn the air down and the bubble column comes down, with in an hour (sometimes less) the foam is right back on top. What I do is keep lower ithe foam until I see no violence (big honkin bubbles working thier way through the foam column) then just set and forget. Play around like that, once you find that sweet spot you really dont have to touch it any more


Mike

 

[bradreef]

can't wait to see the pics. I am thinking of adding one of the sweetwater pumps and ceramic stones to my skilter 400. That will be one bad beast and running polyfiber pads also.

 

[rufio173]

Redeye,

That sounds great. I wanted to ask you... How are you calculating energy consumption. I imagine you would be saving a lot more than just 25% on energy because 2 OR3700s w/ a Mag18 equals a lot of power consumption.... at least over 200W.

Now, the SL56 from what I can tell from the aquaticeco site runs at about 50W. The eheim costs you about 28W. So, where does that extra 100W come from?

How much larger are the bubbles? It's understandable because you were running both the OR and the beckett skimmer so you probably got ridiculously fine bubbles.

Pics would be extremely helpful my friend.

Peace,
John

 

[rufio173]

More questions redeye!

1. How do you have them connected to your pump?
2. Manifold?
3. How are they mounted? (vertical, horizontal, 45 degree angle, any other angle?)
4. What size airline did you use?
5. Are you using a checkvalve?
6. Where are you keeping the waterline?
7. Will I fail med school b/c I can't leave the reefing alone?

Peace,
John

 

[RedEyeReef]

Redeye,

That sounds great. I wanted to ask you... How are you calculating energy consumption. I imagine you would be saving a lot more than just 25% on energy because 2 OR3700s w/ a Mag18 equals a lot of power consumption.... at least over 200W.

Now, the SL56 from what I can tell from the aquaticeco site runs at about 50W. The eheim costs you about 28W. So, where does that extra 100W come from?

How much larger are the bubbles? It's understandable because you were running both the OR and the beckett skimmer so you probably got ridiculously fine bubbles.

Pics would be extremely helpful my friend.

Peace,
John

Thanks Mojo for the tips, I need them. I will try and back the bubble down. I am using very little ozone, 35% on a Red Sea 100 on a 500 gallon system. I will watch for the bubbles popping.

John, I don't have away to test the actual power consuption. You are right, 50w SL 56 and 28W from the Eheim, maybe I'm less then 25% of the watts I was using previously?

I'm working on the pictures right now.

 

[RedEyeReef]

I hope this works.

 

[RedEyeReef]

Some more.

 

[RedEyeReef]

More questions redeye!

1. How do you have them connected to your pump?
2. Manifold?
3. How are they mounted? (vertical, horizontal, 45 degree angle, any other angle?)
4. What size airline did you use?
5. Are you using a checkvalve?
6. Where are you keeping the waterline?
7. Will I fail med school b/c I can't leave the reefing alone?

Peace,
John

I made my manifold out of 1/2" pvc and 1/4" tubing runs from that to my air meters. Airpump and air meters are mounted well above the skimmer.

As you can see, the air stones are crammed into my mixing chamber.

The Ozone is flowing through all Ozone safe tubing.

I am still playing with water line.

 

[RedEyeReef]

Oh, yea. I didn't graduate college either and make more money then all my friends.

 

[rufio173]

Oh, yea. I didn't graduate college either and make more money then all my friends.

Those suckers.

Thanks for the pictures redeye. Those 4 ports for your two recirc. ORs really came in handy. Nice organization from the airpump. You've really got those suckers crammed in there. Hehe.

Keep us up to date on it's overall performance. How quiet is the pump... I'm just wondering because I'm wondering how the reeftech stacks up against it. Any noticeable hum?

I got to tell you, you really put me at ease because I was getting worried because a lot of other people have been getting ridiculously large bubbles from their diffusers and since your setup will be fairly similar to mine, it really helps put my mind at ease.

Peace,
John

 

[RedEyeReef]

Those suckers.

Thanks for the pictures redeye. Those 4 ports for your two recirc. ORs really came in handy. Nice organization from the airpump. You've really got those suckers crammed in there. Hehe.

Keep us up to date on it's overall performance. How quiet is the pump... I'm just wondering because I'm wondering how the reeftech stacks up against it. Any noticeable hum?

I got to tell you, you really put me at ease because I was getting worried because a lot of other people have been getting ridiculously large bubbles from their diffusers and since your setup will be fairly similar to mine, it really helps put my mind at ease.

Peace,
John

No large bubbles and I can't hear the Air pump. I'm surprised how quite those Sweetwater II's are.

 

[mojoreef]

Yea it is weird about some folks getting large bubbles. Here is a couple thoughts.
>When the stones are flat they form larger bubbles on the underside of the stone prior to being released, this also happens when they are lating on say a peice of eggcrate or simular surfaces.
>Same thing could apply when they have a surface over them or are staked on top of each other.
>Because of the huge ammount of air now being used the bubble production is impressive, I think some folks get cuaght up in this and keep the unit cranked up way to high and dont spend the time to crank it down and dial it in.
>I also think something that gets lost with the new huge ammount of air is the ammount of water that is mixed with it. With out enough water the bubbles will blend into each other and form bigger ones. this continues up the tube until the tube runs out of water.


Redeye here is a thought if you wish. If that skimmer was mine I would remover that cup that is sitting on top of the stones, I would also reorintate the stones so they are more independant of each other, even if it meant facing them straight up. Now I dont know how you have them plumbed so that might be impossible but I thought it was worth saying


good luck


Mike

 

[crazzyreefer]

95 Divided by 60 =1.58 scfm or cfm, more or less like the pump im getting in, are you running it full open? what gages are you using to monitor the scfm? or they the posted rate of the manufacture?

 

[rufio173]

crazzyreefer,

If you look carefully at the last picture in his first set of posted pictures, you will see a bank of flowmeters. That is what he is using to measure airflow.

Peace,
John H.

 

[rufio173]

Honestly, that looks like a very nice bubble size. I'm sure most would be happy w/ it. If you have to squint to distinguish bubbles, I think that's either a very good sign (tiny bubbles) or a bad sign (you're losing your sight! )

Peace,
John H.

 

[RedEyeReef]

Redeye here is a thought if you wish. If that skimmer was mine I would remover that cup that is sitting on top of the stones, I would also reorintate the stones so they are more independant of each other, even if it meant facing them straight up. Now I dont know how you have them plumbed so that might be impossible but I thought it was worth saying

good luck

Mike

Mojo, thanks for the input. I have thought removing the middle mixing chamber and mounting the 1/2" thread stones I got to the back side of the bulb heads with 3/8" tubing coming it. I don't know if the bigger tubing will help since the tubing size goes to 1/4" when going through the Air flow meters? If I lose my middle mixing chamber and have the stones screwed in horizantally into the back side of my bulkheads, where should I orientate my income water flow? I have wonder about a pvc Tee's and 45'ed to make the water swirl on the way up?

Also my Air pump runs warm to the touch. I can hold my hand on it but it is hot. Is that normal for this air pump? I'm getting a total of 95 Scfh from it. Does that tell anyone the PSI this air pump is pushing? I'm wonder how hard or not hard it is working?

rufio173,
The bubble size does look a little smaller today then when I first hooked it up. I will get the randon large bubble floating up. I hope it is not my eye sight, I just got mine fixed. No more contacts...

 

[mojoreef]

Redeye I have never seen one of Brents new skimmers up close so I dont know what the box configurations look like. But here is what I was thinking. Gut the box, take the input water a plumb it to the bottom of the main tube, then all the way to about the half way point of the main riser tube. For the water output just have a pipe at the lowest point in the box, proibly thier already. Then for the stones I would hard plumb them using the four holes already thier for what I guess were the recirc pumps.

Concept, If you feed the water from higher in the chamber it will force the water to travel through the bubble curtain to get to the output. This is the idea behind counter current and a much more effective way to process water. Baffleing is not required either when you do it that way. Also if the holes (from the recir pumps) are viable you can do a manifold out side the skimmer (should be easier) and then just screw them in on the inside, that way they will support themselves better and you wont get those big bubbles forming from air building up. Again I have not seen it close up but it looks doable from the pics???

One last note, dont waste to much time on air flow now, you got tons, what you need to do is to look for the perfect spot for foam production


Mike

 

[rufio173]

Maybe in a few years when I can afford the procedure, I'll get mine done as well. My roommate got his eyes done like a year ago and he had to get all these drops because he said his eyes would dry up because of the surgery. All is well now though although he has noticed a slight regression, but I'll take a slight regression any day over contacts or glasses. Hehe

Oh Redeye, when will you ever be happy w/ your skimmer?

Peace,
John

 

[RedEyeReef]

Mojo,
What you advise is very do-able. Now I have to rip it apart again. Yeaaaah, oh, I mean dare.

rufio173,
I had to do the drops for the first two weeks, but after that I just tuffed it out. I don't like being dependant on anything, but God and family of coarse.

As for my skimmer, I am extremely happy, it works great. I just like the RnD to try and make it better. I can't believe that my tank runs two full degrees cooler by losing the Mag 18 and two OR 3700's.

You should see how much I change my lights around.