properly tune a skimmer - how to?!

Milad · #1 10-19-2010, 04:17 PM

i put a "gate valve" on the air intake of my skimmer to reduce the bubble size. Was i not suppose to do that? I got the bubbles really small doing that.

What is the bubble height suppose to be? and what is bubble height?

whatcaneyedo · #2 10-19-2010, 04:39 PM

You shouldn't need a valve on the air intake. The bubble (foam) height is the level that the bubbles inside the skimmer rise to. If you want to skim wet adjust your output so the collection cup fills every couple of days with light colored watery skimmate. If you want to skim dry adjust the output so that the collection cup fills with very dark thick skimmate after several days. If you get a lot of buildup on the inside of the riser tube it means you could stand to have to foam height higher.

The episode 88 series is all about euro reef skimmers and how they work http://www.lafishguys.com/

Hangfire · #3 10-19-2010, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

The episode 88 series is all about euro reef skimmers and how they work http://www.lafishguys.com/

I watched all 7 episodes and learned a lot, especially on cleaning and breaking them in.

Hangfire · #4 10-19-2010, 08:18 PM

One question that didn't get asked was what effect the water level in the sump has on the operation of the skimmer. I'm running mine at between 7 and 9 inches of water, sort of a no less and no more range. I know my skimmer is still breaking in, but it just overflows like crazy, even when opened right up. I'm running carbon in the hopes of pulling out and surfactants that may have gotten into the tank. Any other suggestions?

Doug · #5 10-19-2010, 11:13 PM

Despite the belief that bubble size affects the skimming, unless its burping large bubbles, I have never seen it affect my skimmers. I always ran the air wide open on mine. The one that it did seem to matter was a very efficient beckett, running on a Mag 24.

Sump water level also seems to matter little, unless its to high. When lower, as long as one can raise the skimmers water level, then its easier to control wet verus dry skimming. To high of a water level sometimes hinders running a drier foam if thats what one wants.

Milad · #6 10-19-2010, 11:20 PM

MAG 24!?!? wtf kind of skimmer was that

Aquattro · #7 10-19-2010, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milad

MAG 24!?!? wtf kind of skimmer was that

All my beckett skimmers ran off either a MAG 24 or MAK 4. They like lots of water

Doug · #8 10-20-2010, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milad

MAG 24!?!? wtf kind of skimmer was that

Yep, like Brad said. It was just a 28in. tall beckett. I ran it on a Mak 4, then switched to a Mag 24. Better performance. My friend runs it still on his 180g. he is running a Panworld 200 on it.

It my opinion, many beckett users under drive their skimmers and although they are working well, skim much better when driven by a larger pump.

Of course the difference the is power consumption but there was not the selection of efficient skimmers like today available when I ran mine. Still, I have watched over most of Mikes variety of skimmers and had a multitude of my own and that beckett could out skim or at least compete with most of them.

That just my opinion on becketts however and not the main topic of concern here.

Most of the in sump needle/mesh wheel skimmers I have used or seen used, have both level and air adjustments on them. As I said, my preference, was to run the air wide open, unless its very violent. Set the water level for close to wet skimming but not overly wet.