Beggining of in wall tank!!!!UPDATED PICS
 

Ok i am going to take you all along for the ride as I, well me and my dad, build an in wall 210 or so gallon tank. 66x24x30. The tank will sit in my furnace room and be seen from my TV/Movie room.

Lets begin with some pics of the DIY beckett skimmer.

all the pieces
http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/136skimmer.JPG

the almost complete thing i still need to make the beckett houseing
it is about 5 and a half feet tall, i had to buy a whole lengh of tube so i figured id just use it all
http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/skimmercomp.JPG

THE WALL
http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/thewall.JPG

the back of the wall my dad went a little nutty with the saw.
http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/backwall.JPG

this is all going to be power outlets most with GFCI outlets.
http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/powertobe.JPG

this is what i have down so far it is going to be my refuge and a bit tub for top off water will sit beside it and a sink for whatever i might need it for
http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/refuge.JPG

This is it for now and comments or questions are welcomed.

That's one Scary skimmer!

Do you have any baffles in the lower box?
Seems like an odd shape :razz: skimmer :razz:

Ive got piping going from the skinny tube up into the larger one. It does look a little odd, its a 6in tube and 2.5in. Hopfully it works :mrgreen:

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You'll probly need one serious pump for that skimmer. Have you considered a needle wheel pump rather than a becket injector?

Re: reply
 

It shouldn't require any larger pump than a normal beckett skimmer. The height of the skimmer does not matter because the injector is up very high and therefore not going to have much backpressure on it.

He's going to get crazy contact time though! :eek:

I,ve never heard of this needle wheel thingy before care to explain, whats its benefits over beckett and cons.

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Basically it doesn't just suck in air like a venturi style pump, it has extrusions (needles) on the impeller that break down the existing bubbles further. The result is a finer foam. The benifits are less maintenance and smaller foam.

Rich tg just got a skimmer that utilizes the needle wheel pumps and boy does it ever skim. I'm considering buying one my self.

Re: reply
 

I agree that he is going to need one hell of a pump for that one. seeing the down tube is 2.5" and so high a normal pump will be hard pressed putting any amount of bubbles to the bottom against the water colume, and if anything it is going to make big bubbles instead of small ones. I agree that some sort of recirc or needle wheel in the bottom may be required. you would almost be better off turning it into a counter current skimmer at that hight.

Steve

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I guess you could always cut the down tube to a lower hight if it doesn't work, still looks like one hell of a skimmer though.

Well once i get it finished ill test it with my mag 18 and see how it goes.

one way to keep the bubbles broke up that might work would be to fill the 2.5" tube with bio balls.

Steve

Re: reply
 

I disagree with you steve. My skimmer is set up very similar but not as tall. It's close though. I use a similar style tube setup after the injector but in 2"pvc. It has no problems producing too much bubbles.

I added a swirling mod. a few weeks ago with a 3/4" T and 2 x 90's to the end of the tube sitting in the main riser and the skimmer produced about 1/2 to 1/3 the bubbles. There was that much restriction.

Now I suppose we should clarify what we consider "one hell of a pump" because i'm using a mak 4 and it's working great! That's not exactly "one hell of a pump but it will do. :biggrin:

I also hope no one is taking me to be a jerk but i'm just having some productive conversation and talking about my own experiences.

Cheers

Re: reply
 

how tall is yours? I am judging that his is 5' tall at the top of the injection tube as for a Mak 4 I think that that would be seriously under rated for that skimmer.. heck it is underrated for the one Brad just built and it is under 2 foot injection tube (if I recal what I cut for him right.)

but we will see if it works or not when he tries it.. but I guess the real question will be how well will it work.

Steve

We can all agree a mak4 is a " normal " pump for a beckett injector ... a mag 18 although higher in rated gph is not pressure rated so wont be as effective ... so all that is going to happen is if he uses a " normal " pump is to get the water column that high he will have to restrict the output end of the skimmer to adjust his foam level in the reaction chamber.

He will as CanadianMan has stated get really good contact time but wont be able to process as much in terms of gph as a similar skimmer with a shorter reaction chamber.

we will have to see. It isn't so much the reaction chamber I am concerned about .. well ya that to but I am taking about the down tube that the Beckett is going to fire into. that is a long way for most pumps to push air down which will cause the bubbles to coalesce into bigger bubbles. contact time its self is a deceiving term as bubble size plays a big part of it also. if you have two identical skimmers except one puts out large bubbles the other puts out small bubbles the one that puts out smaller bubbles will have more "contact time"


Steve

The idea of the down tube has been in use for a long time to actually increase the number of smaller bubbles by having the bubbles that would naturally float up crash into the ones coming down and thus create even smaller bubbles ... I have seen this explanation in more than one diy skimmer design so wont bother to get something to quote from ... if you dont believe me just surf the net for diy beckett skimmers and a few of them will give a detailed explanation for each stage of the skimmer design.

I cant remember seeing your beckett skimmer listed on here though ... what pump do you use and how high is your reaction chamber Steve ?

the taller tubed skimmers usaly used bio balls in the tubes to prevent the bubbles from combining.. this is a valid option.

right now I am running a bullet 2 clone with a max 4 but I am just finishing up my new skimmer which was shown here
http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewto...hlight=skimmer

I am also looking at a new pump as this is only slightly bigger then Brad's new one and his ran much better with a larger PSI rated pump than it did on the Mak4. I am also looking at making one of the Beckett's into a recirc instead of a sump feed to increase the foam production with out increasing the flow through the skimmer.

Steve[/img]

While I have seen reference to bio-balls on one beckett design ... the majority of them are " bio-ball free " :eek:

the recirculating beckett is a interesting idea however ... I have seen this mostly in the pinwheel designs.

As far as pumps go you will definately want 2 mak 4's to run a dual beckett ( especially if one is for the sump and the other for recirculating )

a mak 5 would be best but who has the $$ to run one on each beckett ? :rolleyes:

so you have been building this thing since March ? ... gonna finish it before Xmas ? :razz:

PS ... here is the skimmer design for my next DIY project

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...&pagenumber=53

http://www.weatherson.com/index.htm

he uses a iwaki md100rlt ( 2150/hr ) ... which is a little less than running 2 mak4's ... no bio-balls though hehehe

well I hope to hehe, if work would quit sending me to Haiwii and San Diego and such I probably would have been don't by now. :mrgreen:

Steve

Steve, 's :biggrin:

My skimmer, from bottom of box to top of collection cup is 4 feet tall. So 48" and my beckett sit's just below my collection cup. The 2" pvc tube comming down from the beckett is about 30" tall, takes a 90deg bend for another 12", takes another 90deg bend up into the main tube and through another 6" of pipe.

It works :razz:

Ok i think this post got moved because i dont remember placing it in here but anyways where is some very slow progress.

A nice big hole
http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/137-3713_IMG.JPG

The new outlets with 3 GFCI's and 6 regular outlets for a total of 18 plugs i hope i have enough but i still dont think i will. All these outlets are on two breakers dedicated to the tank.
http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/137-3715_IMG.JPG

and a little horsing around
http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/137-3711_IMG.JPG

Next up the stand for the tank to sit and the sump oh yeah and building the tank.

Is that the furnace room, wont that get too warm?

haha no way that is by far the coldest room in the house. It has a cold air intake and a fan connected directly to the outside.

Looking good man... looking forward to it's progress.

Is that a picture of your family?

Scott

They are my girlfriend in the top left my dad my sis and me.

LOL
 

Your the polar bear, right. So who is the guy on the bottom right, hunting trophy, LOL. Looks great so far, can barely wait to c it all installed, good Luck.

Adie

Too funny - that's one good-looking bear...

Good of your Dad to get all ambitious with you - bonus! :biggrin:

Yeah hes pretty exited as well. But its easy to get exited when you spending my money :mrgreen:

Bet he has said to himself once or twice while you were growing up " what goes around comes around " :razz: :mrgreen:

Yeah most deffinitly, now hes thinking when I'm never aloud to move out cause he would have no idea how anything works.

Hahaha oh the joy of Karma...

My Dad would be all over this project like a fat kid on a cupcake! He's a big nerd when it comes to carpentry.

Scott
P.S: That is definitely one hot polar bear :razz:

Decided to update on the progress, I can finaly say everything is complete and the tank is being filled as we speak. Although at the rate its going ill be lucky if its filled by christmas.

http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/137-3769_IMG.JPG

The oceansmotions 4-way attached to sequance reeflo dart
http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/137-3771_IMG_2.JPG

An overflow and return
http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/137-3774_IMG_2.JPG

The web site you are trying to access has exceeded its allocated data transfer. Visit our help area for more information.

:mrgreen:

Want to see pics! Post them up in the canreef gallery, and link them from there.

Stupid geocities ill see what i can do.
Here they are in real bad quality till the others are working again.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...284tanknew.jpg
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/data/500/1284OM.jpg
http://www.canreef.com/photopost/dat...84overflow.jpg

Sean love the pic and tank, Looking really good i remember when i put my 280 into the wall What a time that was 6 guys to move the tank around 20 ft . I always wanted to have the return lines in the overflow i like those. I was going to do ot on my 62 gal but totally forgot to tell them.

looks good

mike

Ok a few updates well the tank is done and everything is running expet the skimmer(i need to buy some pipes).

Whole tank
http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/138-3855_IMG.JPG
oh and those heaters will be moven the to the sump

Heres the lighting suspended over the tank 2 400w sun aquatics 10,000k and soon to add 2 48" actinics. All MH are in reflectors cant quite remember the name but spyder comes to mind.
http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/138-3856_IMG.JPG

a fun pic
http://www.geocities.com/seanward84/138-3863_IMG.JPG
Not sure what kind of clam this is, but if someone can tell me that would be great.

Maxima?

looks nice man, I'm jealous :)

hanging out here makes my 105g seem SMALL :( curse the day I thought a 33gal would be suffice.

Well even my first SW tank was a 77 it seemed really big to me at the time . But even with this tank i think one day i will have bigger. :mrgreen: .