Protein Skimmer, maybe need a mod?

[roscoe]

C'mon Mark..... I'm sure you've seen plenty of pics and in person. you know these things rock!

 

[Skimmy]

Question Skimmerwhisperer...I have the Extreme 160 which sits atop the Sicce needle wheel pump; are you saying that the Sicce pump is too powerful for the body of the skimmer? The reason I ask is because I have it running right now on my 65g that I just set up. It has been running for 5 days(today is the 5th) and even when running the skimmer 100% open, it is overflowing with bubbles into the cup. I have no way of turning it down at all. It's almost like there are too many bubbles in the skimmer!! I have never seen so much reaction in a skimmer chamber at all. Since the overflow is so consistent I haven't been getting any skimmate and I have to just let the cup drain back into the sump since it would literally empty the tank if I had it draining to anything else....I don't want to hi-jack the thread but I thought it was relatable.

sorry i missed this....
what you want to do is decrease the level of water the skimmer sits it, so if it's in 9" of water, bring it up to being in 7" of water and see if that doesnt mellow some of the pump power.

 

[jrgilles]

OK, sorry I'm so slow. Here are some pics of my installed SWC 160 Cone skimmer.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jrgilles/SWCSkimmer?feat=directlink

And here are some pics of my DT that I just took also. Color is kind of off. Need to learn how to use my GFs superior camera... or install photoshop

http://picasaweb.google.com/jrgilles/DT031410?feat=directlink

 

[Skimmy]

a couple of q's/suggestions;

why is the water level so high in the sump?? is there room for the extra water in there when the system is shut off?

and why 2 overflow boxes on a 75g??? one is more than enough...
what return pump are you using?

also, those powerheads would serve you better in a gyre configuration instead of opposing eachother. (look up gyre on youtube)

also, one of these might look a little less distracting for a return:
http://www.championlighting.com/home.php?cat=482

 

[jrgilles]

Hey Skimerhiperer, thanks for the comments (I am a bit of a noob).

Sump: Thought the water level seemed fine when I made the sump. Came across a lot of 14" high sheets of plexiglas, so thats what I used to make the baffles. There is plenty of room in the sump for more water, if I were to shut the return pump off, the sump would fill and still have room for another 10-15 gallons after the siphon broke from the return pump.

2 overflow boxes: Same reason I have 2 drains on my fuge (even though it is only using one). I put it in for flood insurance, incase 1 clogs. Actually ended up using a herbie style drain on the DT tank, so it is actually utilizing the back up drain to a small extent, since I've backed up the primary so there is no air in the system.

Return pump: I am using an eheim 1262 for my return pump and love it.

As for powerheads, I currently have them aimed towards each other, and also each intersecting water returning from the sump to give a turbulance effect. I've read a bit online about flow, and it seemed a turbulance like this was the best way to go until I get a more advanced system. (ie, not good to have a current constantly going in just one direction.) So, all my water collides. I use a big xenia I have to analyze the currents, and it seems pretty turbulant now.

I just hooked up an apex aquacontroller and was going to add in more powerheads to have an alternating current. Was going to pick up some korelia's at blue sierra, but had a thread here and realized the really aren't made to be turned off and on a lot, and I shoudl save up for tunze pumps, which are a bit too much for me to get right now.

So, leaving it turbulent for the time being until maybe my birthday where I'll get a few controllable heads.

Gotta run to work, but when I get there, I will look into this gyre configuration. I just added a lot of new rock and did some aquascaping yesterday, so the current probably needs some more work.

Thanks a lot for looking through my pics and telling me what you think. If there is anything else you see that looks off, i'd love to hear it. gotta run

 

[jrgilles]

Ah, the reason the water was so high in the return part of my sump in that picture was because I just added 30 lbs of live rock. Had to take some water out. It was a few inches above the line where my sump switches turn the ATO on/off.