Beckett Skimmer
 

I've been researching beckett designs for a little while, but there is still a few things I'm not quite sure about.

Here's what I have in mind:

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/me...m/Skimmer1.jpg

Its a rough picture, I haven't yet decided on the height or width of the tubes yet, but thats more or less what I want.

Is the injector housing position ok? Too high? too low?
I'm going to be attaching a elbow (pointing downwards) to the output. Is the baffle position alright? or am I going to end up pumping a whole lot of bubbles into the tank?

Any general advice on height? This is going to run on a 30 gallon tank with a 15 gallon sump with two clowns and an algae blenny and a few corals here and there.

Thanks for the help,
-Richer

It looks fine. Height will be limited by your stand if you're putting it in the stand. Remember, when it turns off, all the water in the skimmer has to have room in the sump. Other than that, make it any size you like (or can afford).

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I like your design, its very simple which is often better. Could you explain to me the benifits of having the injector force water downward through a tube into the square chamber?

As opposed to something else you mean? Just about all beckett skimmers do this. It's basically about contact time ... the more contact time, the more protein binding, thus, presumably, the more export.

Would the skimmer work as well if you didn't have the box, but instead you had the tube from the injector go into the reaction chamber near the bottom? (basically it would look like a U shape)

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As opposed to say, injecting from the side or something else because I've seen other skimmers without that type of intake.

Those would work fine too. Take a look at the "XL" series of Precision Marine bullet skimmers ( http://www.precisionmarine.com/html/xl.html ) or, say, even Titus's skimmers ( http://www.canreef.com/store/skimmer.php )

I would venture that it's a little easier to construct using the box at the bottom, because then you need only worry about bulkheads through a flat surface instead of a curved surface.

Another thing to consider though is that beckett skimmers tend to burp from time to time. This mixing box might help address that. Basically, you want the foam to be level. If there's any waves or sloshing, it may be hard to get a predictable setting.

But, those are just theoretical. Basically, if you can get foam, you can get skimming. There are no real hard and fast rules per se.