New Skimmer

[mojoreef]

I'm leery of the 6" neck, and 10" cup. I'd want to experiment with a 4" neck and a 8" cup. Saves on material, and small enough to fit in the kitchen sink

OK

Would a 6" tall neck, and a 6" tall cup be too short? Keep in mind that the taller the neck, the shorter the main chamber (to keep under the self imposed 48" height).

Well the mixing is going to go on in the box, keeping the water line right at the box/main tube interface. So I wouldnt have a problem sacrificing a little main tube to get a little longer neck. I have found that you will get surges of about 6 inches on mine (a wet skimmers wet dream,lol) So lets try a 8 inch neck, cup to what seems approprate.

The 2' or 3' of main tube concerns me a touch- But going to a 72" tall skimmer does raise the price. A 10" tube runs about $53/foot in short sections (1/8" wall) or $110/ft in 1/4" wall.

I got the 10 (1/4) for 76 bucks at Lairds plastics. Brent raise the box not the tube that way you get more mixing chamber, the 10 inch tube is just for foam lift and seperation.

Anything special that should be done in the mixing box? Baffles, etc, or just an empty box with mounting points for the air stones?

I thought about putting curves into the corners of the box, but shined it. They might help with a circular motion for the water but I am not sure. Your thoughts??

Do you have an estimate of how many GPH you are flowing though it? 1.5" in/out is not a problem

I have a 1 inch in and out maxed.

The carbon cup might be best as an add-on external item. Since this is an external setup (due to height mostly), having the carbon cup mountable on the sump might be nice.

I was thinking on the ouput but ya lets leave it for now.

What kind of line are you using from the air pump to the skimmer? The pump just has a 1/4" barb the web site says.

I have a 1/4 inch id hose coming from the airpump to a BH in the box, from their to the stones its all 1/2 pvc

So stand the stones up vertically, not horizontally?

Well the stones are only going to be 3 to 4 inches and far enough apart in the example I gave, I dont see a problem, do you?? horizontal would put some pressure on the fittings but not much, either way I guess would be ok. One of the things that has surprised me on this unit is the power of the bubbles to create force and movement in the water. What I was thinking was if you took my example and made the width apart of the stones be equal to the tube sizeyou could create a vortex in the center of them and a radicle flow outside of them.

Good idea on the wash-down of the cup. That can be tied to a solenoid tied in to the house water to get a nice high-pressure spray.

You would be surprised at how little pressure is needed to make these things spray.


John I would say its safe to assume that I am getting at lease 3 cfm.


Mike

 

[ldrhawke]

OK
.......

I have a 1/4 inch id hose coming from the airpump to a BH in the box, from their to the stones its all 1/2 pvc

...............

John I would say its safe to assume that I am getting at lease 3 cfm.


Mike

Mike,

How many feet of hose are you running. At 3 cfm air flow in 1/4" hose you have 5 psig of pressure drop per 100 ft. If you have the air pump 50 ft away in the garage, you may be eating up a lot of energy and will be restriction the air flow to less than 3 cfm. A larger 3/8 or 1/2 " hose would take a lot of load off of that little compressor if you are pushing 3 cfm through it.

 

[mojoreef]

ldrhawke I shouold o get a airflow meter just to check it out. I moved the air pump in the fish room and shortened the line. Its a little cold out here so theair I was sucking was below freezing. Once the pump was hooked up it wasnt as loud as I thought, definately not any louder for me then the rest of the stuff in the room.lol
I ran the air pump aboout 80 feet away using a 1/4 id hose, I dont have a meter so I am guessing but I did not notice any difference in bubbles being produced from 2 feet away to 80 feet away, I still had to crank the pump down. Also the pump just runs full out, I put a little hole in the line to release air so it wouldnt back pressure.

Mike

 

[ROWAUSA]

any pictures of this beast?

 

[mojoreef]

Here ya go

http://mojoreefs.homestead.com/files/280_001.htm

 

[reeffan]

Mojo, pics not working. Is there another link?

thanks
reeffan

 

[ROWAUSA]

wow. don't you just love guys with a budget that big. I was wondering about the p/skimmer you were building.

 

[mojoreef]

they worked for me jon


mike

 

[reeffan]

Hmmmm, i keep getting the darn red X with all black image. I wonder why i can't view your pics...Let me try to log-in and out.

reeffan

 

[rufio173]

Hey Mike,

Any pictures of the type of skimmate you are getting from your new souped up skimmer?

Peace,
John H.

 

[edgerat]

yeah so saw this new airstone skimmer in action today.... AT LESS THAN HALF output on the air pump it was creating what I would consider INSANE bubble amounts, just for ***** and giggles Mike cranked it up and the damn cup almost blew off the top of the thing. Depending on the airstones maintenance schedule which is yet to be determined I would say that this is a very efficient design. oh and his tank is almost as impressive as the bubbles in the skimmer

 

[mojoreef]

Rowausa just go back in this thread and it has all the pics from building it and it in operation.

John you want me to take a pic of the skimmate, lol??? Thats a tough one as it drains right away into a 7 gallon bucket. I will discribe it, hopefully that helps with what you are looking for. First I like wet skimmate so I get alot of solids in it, when I poured out the waste bucket I would say about 2 out of the 5 gallons was solids where I had to get a garden hose to get it out, the very bottom of the bucket, (2 inches) was stuck on really hard. The balance of the 3 gallons was a liquid that looked like black coffie in the bucket but was a little lighter when I poured it out. You owe me know John I still cant get that stence out of my nose!!lol

Issac I would agree that the proof is going to be in how long the stones go with out having to be cleaned. So far so good. The foam really is nuts, I put another out put on the skimmer box so I could crank up the input water, I figure I am processing around 2000 gph now or somewhere close to that.


Mike

 

[rufio173]

Mike,

Thanks for the info... Another quick question... how long does it take to fill that 7 gallon bucket?

Peace,
John H.

 

[mojoreef]

Hmmm a couple weeks. I could adjust that to slow it down or speed it up if I wanted I guess by turning up the air. But right now it looks pretty good where its at. The bucket only had about 5 gallons in it also.

Mike

 

[reeffan]

OK, i went to Mojo's place to take a look at his Skimmer and i was STOKE. I never saw a skimmer that big that produces at least 3-4 feet foam. Oh yeah before i forget, it's powered by "AIRSTONES". I've been a Beckett fan and it made me think twice. I was thinking before i got there, why would he use airstones? I thought those things are stone age..lol. But man, MOJO got it all figure it out.

I do admit, i was thinking twice on how the airstones would work (compare to the old ones). Well, i saw them with my own two eyes and those airstones poduces enormous foam without having to crank up the air all the way. Im also concern about cleaning the airstones and MOJO said that airstones that he's using can last a year before even cleaning it and they're not disposable like the old airstones. That beats my beckett skimmer, which i have to clean the injector at least once or twice a month. Heck, i'd be happy to clean those airstones every six months.

Well, thats my story....i guess im going in my garage and make me my own airstone skimmer.....

oh yeah, special thanks to MOJO.

Reeffan

 

[edgerat]

Did he crank it all the way up for ya??? hehehe I almost fell down when I saw the foam shoot up the 5 feet of tubing like that.... its the coolest skimmer I have seen.

 

[reeffan]

He did actually.....Dude, i dont even know what to say when MOJO crank that airpump =). He can probably add another mixing tower and still get a good amount of foam. That thing rocks....

reeffan

 

[dgasmd]

Well, I guess I ahve a proposition for those of us that have already expensive big skimmers. HOw about just retrofitting the stones to the existing skimmer??

 

[edgerat]

I was thinking about doing that or just trying to make my own skimmer. I lack the skills and the tools with acrylic to do this myself though.

 

[mojoreef]

Its funny when folks first see it. It was the same for me when I first turned it on. Holy S*** as I madly scrambled to turn it down as it blew both waste lines across the fish room.

Alberto I think you could for most but it would depend on the design of the skimmer.

Mike