Needlewheel to Meshwheel skimmer mod

[Delphinus]

Hey Chin, yeah, actually I went and bought some acrylic tubing a couple weeks ago to try that mod too. I just haven't done it yet because I might have to reconfigure the pump on the skimmer to accomodate the spacing. Basically I'll have to patch one hole and drill a new one.

It seems that most meshwheels have the venturi as vertical. I have my pump oriented that way but the venturi itself horizontal before a 90 degree elbow. I'm thinking that's suboptimal but it's what I could do at the moment.

Nevertheless I'm getting an inch of skimmate every 12 hours. This skimmer has never done so well !! It's a little weak though (think green tea colour instead of the desired Coca-cola colour). I might step my feed pump down to increase the recirculation contact time. Currently my feed pump is a MJ12 (before all this I was feeding it directly via the overflows, .. this seems to be an no-longer-recommended approach .. too difficult to adjust for a consistent foam production).

Doug, yes you're correct, skimming will work to reduce salinity. The effect is negligible though (well .. at least, easy to compensate with your regular water changes) unless you're pulling out significant volumes of water.

My other tank, between the salt creep and the skimming, will lose about a point or two per month. Easily fixed with an extra cup of salt in my makeup water though.