The Skimming beast is dead....Long live beast ver 2

[mojoreef]

John the way it is set up right now its working great but thier are two things I dont like. Oe is that I am loosing alot of realestate in the bottom of the skimmer, about a foot and the other is that all the bubbles are concentrating at the heads of the stones and thier is the presence of some slightly larger bubbles. the smaller stones will allow me to go horizontal and from my testing the bubbles are all very small and uniform. The skimmer stand about 6 feet


Scot you could feed it directly like that no problem. To reduce the larger bubbles just have the pip enter the skimmer and instead of being open on the bottom, cap it and drill several 1/2 holes along it and from all sides


Mike

 

[scot]

Mike,
How much flow are you feeding the skimmer?

 

[rufio173]

Mike,

You should definitely get a flowmeter when you get those new stones. It would be nice to know how much airflow you are actually putting through those guys!

Peace,
John H.

 

[mojoreef]

Scot Mine is taking in about 2000Gph I would estimate.


John I have one...and just for you I will put it to the test, lol ..the new stones came in today but I am as sick as a dog so not going to play today, but soon.



Mike

 

[jlehigh]

Hey Mike have you seen the circular manifolds in OceanEquatics catalog? On my next tanks skimmer I was going to use an 12" acrylic base with their circular manifold and shorter stones. It would look like an Airstone Daisy from the plan view

Get better! It's too darn nice outside this week!

 

[mojoreef]

Shoot me a link??


Mike

 

[jlehigh]

Here it is:
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/9671/cid/2272

btw: the paper catalog also showed an 8-way version as an option

 

[mojoreef]

I would just use 1/2 pvc piping, alot cheaper and it would allow you to make it as you wanted. If you use ozone they go cpvc


MIke

 

[jlehigh]

Are you thinking like a 1.5" pipe reduced on one end for the input, capped on the other side, then drilled and tapped around the diameter?

I would think that would work...

 

[mojoreef]

No I just made mine out of regular 1/2 pvc. how many stones are you going to use??


Mike

 

[wrightme43]

Steve,

I need to make a flange in the next few days. I came up with a way even easier than my thread. I try to get some pic's for you.

Don

Any luck yet, Don? I know your busy, and I was just wondering. And Brad, I didnt steal the tube, I asked for it, and the guy just gave it to me. I ended up with 3x 4ft pieces. I probley would of stolen it, if I had thought of it though. That would be bad though. Go to jail for sneaking up in the middle of the night and chopping out sections of the drive thru. LOL

 

[rufio173]

Scot Mine is taking in about 2000Gph I would estimate.


John I have one...and just for you I will put it to the test, lol ..the new stones came in today but I am as sick as a dog so not going to play today, but soon.



Mike

Thanks Mike! You truly do make the world a better place. haha

Peace,
John H.

 

[jlehigh]

Sorry for the delayed response Mike. I was thinking of using six to eight. I have not done the math, really just toying with different concepts. Several things have to happen before I go into production mode (minimum 12mo lead time). The next generation jlehigh tank should be sweeeet.

 

[crazzyreefer]

Mojoreef/mike, I have a question for you, you seem to be the guru of the large air skimmers, I followed you over here form Reef central.... yea you have a stallker...... need some advice, the skimmer im building is

reaction/mixing chamber is L 21" X W 8" X H 18" and the Tube is square and is 8" X 8" X 40" hight making the unit 58" tall over all, it will be gravity feed model with about 1500-1600 GPH Im looking into the White Water Pump LT19
2.5 cfm @ 51w or Sweet Water SL44 3.0 cfm @ 43w are these too big? the pump will be instaled remote with 10' of line, my question is which one would be better, or is there another one you would sugest, and how many airstones,/ size of stones would you sugest?

I few other minor questions, I noticed your new skimmer dosent have baffels, are they not needed? And you ditched your wet neck for a spray down, didnt the wet neck keep it clean? is the foam better without the wet neck? wouldnt it have been better to use both?

Nicholas Oberzire

 

[mojoreef]

Rufio It buried the airflow meter, so something over 200 scfh.

Hiya Nic good to see you onboard!!!!!! On the skimmer do you have it built already??? if not I would make the mixing chamber much bigger and shorten the riser tube. I have found since making the same modification I am getting very strong skimmate.
On the air pumps its a matter of noice, the LT 19 is noisier then the sweetwater, Hope fully Rufion still has his link to another model that is cheaper then the sweetwater and alot more cost effective. On that pump I would run 1 twelve inch stone maybe two at the out side. If you wish I have a couple of those stones I could send you, I had to go with 6 inch models because of size restrants.
No baffles required. On the wet neck I opted for the spray down system, which so far is working ok but not as good as I want it to. The wet neck kept the neck from having to clean it for about 4 to 5 weeks, the spray down doing it every day for a minute keeps it clean for about 2 to 3 (estimate so far). I think its a pressure problem, still working on it but just might go back to the wet neck.
As per foam Nicholas that is something I dont really worry about, If I crank mine up all the way the foam hits the ceiling.


Mike

 

[crazzyreefer]

Ill take you advice and make the chamber larger, the lights come in on tuesday then the acrilic will be ordered, Lights...what do you need lights on a skimmer....its a long story.... Ill take pics of it being built should be interesting, not your average skimmer....give me a pay-pal address and ill take both of them, hay any spare air pumps floating around?...

 

[mojoreef]

LOL no air pumps my friend but you can have the stones for free. Start up a thread on the new skimmer I want to follow that one.


Mike

 

[crazzyreefer]

thanks mike, will do got to learn how to post picks here first

 

[rufio173]

Ill take you advice and make the chamber larger, the lights come in on tuesday then the acrilic will be ordered, Lights...what do you need lights on a skimmer....its a long story.... Ill take pics of it being built should be interesting, not your average skimmer....give me a pay-pal address and ill take both of them, hay any spare air pumps floating around?...

Man, you are going to blow something up! Haha Take care and post a link once you start up the thread. You have piqued my interest w/ the lights.

Peace,
John H.

 

[crazzyreefer]

mike run a air line to your mag with a valve so you can dial it in, it will boost the pressure for cleaning, sort of like when you turn the water back on after fixing you sink, air in the line will give more of a splattering through your jets but the effect is about 4X the power, a mag 36 dosent have the PSI needed so this mod should help the Mag 5000 has better power but for the money, a pond style pump that is rated for 10,000 gph and 40 feet will work without air, but with air, its like a pressure washer and will etch the acrlic vary quickly, in my prototype the washdown pump is in the skimmer, it cavitates some, but it only runs for 5 min a week, tell me how it goes.

Nicholas