My Mojo Special

[scot]

RedEyeReef,

How deep in the water column are your stones, not counting foam? Mine will be about 5', I'm trying to size air pump and stones. Are you bleading off any air now?

Thanks
Scot

 

[RedEyeReef]

recommendation for a pump and 1 or 2 stones for a ER 6-2+ knock off. say i wanted to make it like yours??

Lunchbucket

I'm no expert, Mojo has more experience here. I would say 2 - 3" fine pore stones (maybe pair of 6"ers if you have room, you don't have to use them to their full potental). Its like driving a sports car, you don't have to drive over 100 mph everywhere you go, but it nice to know if you want too all you have to do is drop your foot.

I like the sweet water linear II's. They are more money but very quite and effiecent. Maybe SL 14 or 24. I would go a little bigger on the air pump since it is so easy to bleed off some air to find that sweet spot.

Another thing important I learned here is placing the stones correctly in the skimmer makes a big difference with bubble size.

I have even wondered about hooking an air pump into a NW? I think it would cavitate easily though.

 

[RedEyeReef]

RedEyeReef,

How deep in the water column are your stones, not counting foam? Mine will be about 5', I'm trying to size air pump and stones. Are you bleading off any air now?

Thanks
Scot

It is hard to tell where the water ends and it is just foam, but I would guess about 26".

I'm not bleed off any air right now since I openned up the internals in the skimmer and went with the 6" stones. She is running wide open.

 

[scot]

When you were getting 95Scfh, were you bleeding off any air? Do you know what the air flow is now with the new stones? Do you think an 8" tube could handle more air?

Sorry for all the questions, you have the exact air pump and stones I was looking at for my set up.

 

[RedEyeReef]

When you were getting 95Scfh, were you bleeding off any air? Do you know what the air flow is now with the new stones? Do you think an 8" tube could handle more air?

Sorry for all the questions, you have the exact air pump and stones I was looking at for my set up.

95 Scfh was when I was running the 4 - 3" stones and only 1/4" tubing to each stone. Then it was only hitting 95 when I shut off my bleed valve and I only ran it that way for a day, it was to restricted. I started bleeding off 36 Scfh in fear I would rip the diaphram in my pump.

With the biggger stones and tubing I'm getting 105 scfh and no bleed off.

I don't think an 8" tube could handle much more air, and I know you don't need more. I really think the key to air driven skimmers is not how much air and can't get through it, but finding its sweet spot. I think consentrating on getting the smallest bubble you can is more important. My newest configuration is giving me the smallest bubbles by far. The 105 scfh is just a good byproduct.


Good luck, you won't regret your change.

 

[mojoreef]

YOu know I have screwed up the pump and stone reccomendations so many times I am skiddish. I shot rufio a pm to make the call for ya lunchbucket.



MIke

 

[Big E]

I've been following this for a while & am going to give it a try also. I have an ER CS-83 thats 8"x 26" & an old counter current skimmer 6"x38". I'm going to run both with water entering from above in the counter current style.

I was thinking of using 1 or 2, 6" stones with the Whitewater Pump LT19. Any opinions?

 

[RedEyeReef]

I've been following this for a while & am going to give it a try also. I have an ER CS-83 thats 8"x 26" & an old counter current skimmer 6"x38". I'm going to run both with water entering from above in the counter current style.

I was thinking of using 1 or 2, 6" stones with the Whitewater Pump LT19. Any opinions?

Should work fine. I would go with 2 stones not working as hard then one really working. Take the time to orientate the Air stones horizontial and square edge pointing down, and don't run too small of tubing.

I know the Whitewater pumps are good but rufio is a better one to comment on the LT19 being the right size. I think a little over sized is good because you can bleed off excess air.

Good luck.

 

[rufio173]

Hey LB,

This is what I would try to retrofit an ER skimmer. I would get 2-3 of the 3" stones ( go for the ones w/ the 1/2" threads on them)... fine pore of course. Don't get the barbed fittings as I think the threaded fittings allow for more mounting options.

Take some PVC (cross PVC fitting w/ some tubing) and tap them for your stones and a 3/8" JG fitting (so it might look like a 3/8" JG fitting on one end of the cross and the stones on the other ends.

Buy one of the pumps that Redeye suggested from sweetwater as I believe they are dead quiet and can be used in a living area and they have a good rep.

You should also make sure you include a bleed line in your setup to make sure you can adjust air accordingly to get the best bubble size out of those stones.

Another good source is probably the employees at Aquatic eco. Seems like talking to them really helped out both Mike and Redeye.

Peace,
John H.

 

[RedEyeReef]

Buy one of the pumps that Redeye suggested from sweetwater as I believe they are dead quiet and can be used in a living area and they have a good rep.

I can't hear my Sweetwater Linear II with my ear next to it. I have to put my hand on it to feel it vibrate to know it is running.

 

[rufio173]

Big E,

The LT19 will most likely be more than enough for your purposes and you will most likely need to bleed off a substantial amount of air to get the stones to produce the bubbles that you want. I believe that Mr. skimmer, which is 12" by about 5' tall used 1 LT19 to drive 4 6" stones, so it most likely will be overkill on a skimmer of your size. However, if you take into account Redeye's success w/ 4 6" stones and his SL56 on his 40" tall 8" diam. skimmer, then I think you'll agree that different configs. can all work very well.

I think the more stones you have, the more control you have over control of bubble size by varying airflow and just gives you wider margins. Oh yeah, take some time to look at the pump curves for the different pumps on aquatic ecos site.

Peace,
John H.

 

[Big E]

Thanks guys..........sounds like good suggestions. I was looking for something a bit larger than needed, so if it works I can go with a larger mixing chamber in the future.

 

[Travis]

RedEye, any updates on your skimmer? How is it performing? Have you had any other issues with it?

 

[RedEyeReef]

RedEye, any updates on your skimmer? How is it performing? Have you had any other issues with it?

Still bubbling great. I am bleeding off 35 SCFH to lessen the preasure in the chamber. I use O3 and run everything leaving the skimmer through carbon, the back presure was making the water level fluctuate so until I figure out how to safely get more air out faster I'm bleeding off some air.

After race season (motocross) ends I plan on testing some wood air stones to see if I can get my bubble size smaller.

Its still producing nasty stuff.

 

[Travis]

Thanks. Can't you just drill a larger outlet hole in the collection cup to let the air out? Maybe it is being restricted because of the carbon you are running it through. I found this to be an issue when I used to run carbon on the outlet of my MR-6 due to using ozone. What I ended up doing to fix the problem was this: The collection cup drains into a 6 gallon bucket with a toilet valve to shut it off when full. I added a 1.5" PVC line from the bucket to outside my house. This exhausted all of the air from the skimmer outside so I didn't even have to worry about using carbon. Another benefit is that it helps with humidity by exhausting that humid skimmer air outside.

 

[RedEyeReef]

Update.

I installed a G-4 skimmer for fun in one of my sumps. For the price I think it is a great skimmer, just don't drop it. In 3 days it hasn't pulled out a thing, my air stone skimmer hasn't stopped pulling.

Air test.
Air stone skimmer 85 Scfh while bleeding of 20-25 Scfh.
G-4 with Sendra 5000 pulls in 13 Scfh.

I put the bleed off tube into the venture of the Sendra for fun and the air came out the intake of the pump shutting down any air going into the skimmer body. I then put the bleed off tube by the pump intake to suck air through the needle wheel but the pump quickly started cavitating.

Something interesting I thought I'd share.

 

[RedEyeReef]

Update:
I changed my 4-6" air stones on the Jan 12th and just rebuild my air pump today. The amount of air had drop over the last 3 days, put in rebuild kit and right back to previous numbers, 85 skimmer, 25-30 bleed off.

I have noticed with my air stone skimmer and NW side by side, the air stone skimmer is a true work horse, pulls tons of gunk (as much or little as I want). But the NW is more finesse, it pulls a lot less skimmate but a little more on the stinky side.

 

[Maxx]

How do you feel this skimmer performs when compared to all other skimmers you've used on your tanks?

Nick

 

[RedEyeReef]

From a pure "pull the gunk out" stand point the Air Stone skimmer is better by far. Then throw in less heat tranfer, less energy consumption, and less maintanance. Where I see my NW (I've had a ER, TF Multi 1000, & this G-4) come in better is quality of gunk. I also think I would have to run 2 or 3 G-4's to keep up with my one Air driven skimmer that is only a little bigger in size then one G-4. I have read from Calfo that it is good to run two different types of skimmers. After watching these two work side by side since last September I completely agree.

This is only my operservation.

 

[Maxx]

I didnt see the discussion with Calfo re: using two different types of skimmers. I realize this should probably be directed towrds him, but could you paraphrase? Why the two different skimmer types?
I find this interesting, since I had been talking with a friend recently about that very thing.

Nick