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Oh on the air pump mine runs warm to, even when I had it outside is was a bit warm, try keeping the air intake line in a cooler place.

On the mods redeye, thats just a suggestion, if its running good just go with it.



MIke
 
Hey Redeye,

This is just an estimate... but your earlier combo cost:

Mag18: 145W
OR 3700: 2 X 65W= 130W
Total= 145W + 130W = 275W

New Setup cost= 78W (I'm not including the ozone since it wasn't there before)

You have reduced your electrical usage by a little over 70% and you've basically taken the heat out of the water since you don't have that airpump in the water. It is still quite amazing since your system is huge and you've got that 2 degree drop in water. That just goes to show, if you've got pumps in the water, somethings gotta cool them down. :D

Peace,
John
 
Hey Redeye,

So how's the airstone skimmer still doing? Are you still happy w/ its performance or have you been tweaking it to try to find the sweet spot?

Peace,
John
 
rufio173 said:
Hey Redeye,

So how's the airstone skimmer still doing? Are you still happy w/ its performance or have you been tweaking it to try to find the sweet spot?

Peace,
John
Click to expand...

Always thinking and tweaking. Stones are working great, I'm bleeding 15 Scfh right now and 75 Scfh going through the skimmer. It is really rippin and the foam head has settled down. I'm still thinking of streamlining the internals just to see if it makes a difference. That's the fun of it, right. :D


I just can't believe how much cooler my tank is now. It stays at a constant 78 all day even with over 2000 watts over it. Heaters do kick on at night to maintain 78. That in its self was worth the convertion, oh yeah, less electricity and better skimmer... bonus.
 
Good to see another happy customer of airstone skimming. :D I was getting so worried after all those other guys posted that their skimmer wasn't coming even close to the results seen by DonW and Mojo.

Looks like you found a good spot for those stones. That's about the airflow I hope to have my stones at. My setup should be just slightly different. I got the 1/2" threaded fittings so I hope that doesn't mess w/ the equation.

Peace,
John
 
Redeye,

One more question. It looks like you used both RO/DI line and then vinyl line to attach to the airstones. Why not use vinyl air line all the way? I guess it doesn't get gripped as well by the JG fittings?

Peace,
John
 
rufio173 said:
Good to see another happy customer of airstone skimming. :D I was getting so worried after all those other guys posted that their skimmer wasn't coming even close to the results seen by DonW and Mojo.

Looks like you found a good spot for those stones. That's about the airflow I hope to have my stones at. My setup should be just slightly different. I got the 1/2" threaded fittings so I hope that doesn't mess w/ the equation.

Peace,
John
Click to expand...

I have the 1/2" threaded also and if/when I reconfigure my internals I plan on going to those and running 3/8" hose.
 
John mine are all 1/2 in id ro hose, from the air pump to the 1/2 pvc manifold. Where are all these folks that it didnt work for??

Redeye did the cranking down work for ya??


Mike
 
Mike,

Reeffan and fishfood... something. They couldn't get theirs to skim and I think that fishfood guy was trying to get rid of his stones. I don't know what reeffan is trying to do w/ his stones.

They posted to your thread and you were trying to help, but to no avail. Those are the only ones that I know of since there are only really 5 people that I know who have tried it thus far (You, DonW, Redeyereef and the two others). You guys got it working great, but the other two guys failed. So a 60% success rate isn't too great, but who knows what the real problem was? User error? Bad pump? Stone mix up? I definitely would like to boost the success rate up w/ my skimmer. Hehe

Peace,
John H.
 
Ahh I thought Reefan was still working on it. I will shoot him a call. Its weird that they cant get it to work. Its been pretty much plug and play. Thier are some things you can do to fine tune it, but ....??


Mike
 
I know, it seems like at the least, they'd be able to get it to produce decent sized bubbles (and then tweak it from there), but they are getting giant bubbles, so I don't know what the deal is w/ them. I just hope I don't run into the same problems.

Peace,
John
 
DonW's skimmer is running real well over at one of our LFS's LR tank. That thing is the bomb, so you can bump up your rate a little :D
 
John I think folks are just cranking up to much. I know I did when I first got it going. The common mindset with most skimmers is that you are always looking for more foam, and with this that comes with the turn of a dial, so it instinct to crank it and crank it. The bubbles that come out of the stones are microscopic, so they are right coming from thier. As you crank up the air you are displacing the water or at least changing the ratio of air to water, as the air rate rises above the amount of water the bubbles join to early in the mixing chamber. Looking at reefans skimmer the unit body looked like it could only hold a gallon of water, now inject 1.5 to 2 cfm and your going to force more water out of that tube and the ratio just keeps making it worse.
Thats why I always say now its now a matter of making bubbles or foam anymore with these style units, its all about finding the sweet spot, or the correct ratio of air mix to water.

MIke
 
I agree Mike, but it was still worrisome because they weren't anywhere close to working... so I started thinking about it and I reasoned that it was all about matching the stones to the air input and of course the amount of air that you can inject into a given volume of water, but it was still nagging at me in the back of my mind, telling me that I would be the next one to fail. Haha

My question to you Big T is why did DonW give away his skimmer to a LFS? Also, that must be one of the cleanest LR tubs everrrrr!

Peace,
John
 
mojoreef said:
John mine are all 1/2 in id ro hose, from the air pump to the 1/2 pvc manifold. Where are all these folks that it didnt work for??

Redeye did the cranking down work for ya??


Mike
Click to expand...


What I noticed by breeding off a bit of air was less turbulance making the foam head more stable. I agree there is a sweet spot of air vs water. Trying to find it is the fun part. I think Air Pumps/stones give us flexiblity that we never had with becketts or needle wheels. With the later we're always looking for more air. With Air pumps we are trying to find the sweet spot of air and water.

I think by opening up my internals in my skimmer I can get less turbulance with more air and at the same time I'm going to up my water through the skimmer to see what happens. It seems to me we have so much more adjustiblity (is that a word :rolleyes: ) with the Air pumps/stones.

I love this hobby.
 
Yea Redeye I totally agree. The focus is now not on the ammount of foam we are getting (which is something we are always looking to get with other models) I am not sure if yours is the same way as mine, but I can get as much foam as I want with the turn of the dial. Instead with this type of skimmer you have the ability to be finicky with it and make it into the perfect foam. In my skimmate bucket its all foam and it takes a day or so before the foam breaks down, the cup rarely if ever has any liquid in it, just dence foam and solids.


Mike
 
I have been able to get wet or dry foam just depending on water level and air volume.

Mojo, I'm not getting as good of bubbles as you described. I wish you where closer so you could check out my skimmer and tell me what you think. Let me know next time you are over to see Kevin.

How are you adjusting your air output on your Air Pump? Are you bleeding off air or does your pump have a reistat of some sort?
 
yah I posted that a few weeks ago. Just wait and soon they will be the new thing on RC. If you get a chance to see one of these they are amazing. BigT which store is the skimmer at and does Donw sell those?
 
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