skimmer works

[matt]

I just tested my new skimmer for John's new coral business. thanks to Henry for loaning me an iwaki 40rlxt for the test. Although it's clear from this test that the skimmer could use a bigger pump, ( like iwaki 70rlt) it still generated a column of foam about 30" tall, 6" diameter. I added about a tablespoon of pureed seafood (my coral food) to see how it reacted to an organic load, because I'm testing with a spare sump and about 15 gallons of ASW that i just mixed up. Anyhow, in about 5 minutes all the food was in the collection cup. WOW....I wish I had a camera, but maybe some kind MAAST member who has an interest in this would agree to taking a photo sometime this weekend.

I guess this answers the age old question, at least with regards to skimmers. Size does matter!

[kaiser]

Congrats on the skimmer. I would be willing to take some pics for You.

[Henry]

Hey congrats on the skimmer. Glad to loan the pump. Try to get some pics, I sure they will be pretty interesting.

Henry

[brewercm]

Matt,
I won't be in town this weekend but if you still need someone to take pictures I can stop by next week and snap a few. Let me know.

[z28pwr]

Sounds good Matt. I won't be able to go by your house this weekend (have some stuff tod do). But if you could take some pictures that would be great.

[matt]

here's a photo

[manny]

Whoa, that thing is friggin huge!!

[robertpower3]

How much do you charge for something like that Matt? It looks great!!!!!!!

[matt]

It's 46". The foam tube is 30" tall, 6" diameter. Yeah, the collection cup pretty much must be hooked up to a waste collector. On my little skimmer, I just have a hose running to a plastic bottle for waste collection. Ray took some photos for me; we got some of the thing in action. When he sends them to me, I'll post. Really the cool thing about a skimmer this size is how stable and calm the water flow at the top of the tube is. I'm going to add an extension on my little skimmer solely for this reason. When the foam tube has enough volume to really let the water slow down after going through the beckett, it allows the foam to stabilize and collect and increases contact time. I'm starting to think this is a serious design flaw in most commercially available skimmers; there's just not enough tube volume. The AquaC EV120, a skimmer which costs over $300, has a tube volume of about a pint. (Maybe a quart) This one has 4 gallons.

[cubera]

I must say.....LMAO-:) Matt has outdunne himself this time...I'm thinkin'....The skimmer will support about 300 gallons of the most heavily stocked system imaginable. We think it will do the job. I'll post some flicks when this monster starts making foam. I did some testing myself this last week with pumps. A little MAK4 did twice as much at 6' through 3/4" than an Iwaki MD40RLT and about 25% more than an RLXT through 1" at 4'. I love the 70RLT but it is a power hog. The MAK4 eats about .88 amps and does about 1100 GPH through 3/4" with 360 degrees in 'bend' at 6'. I'm going to try and run this skimmer on a MAK4 to start out with and if this won't get it I'll use a 100RLT and throttle it back some...maybe. Performance vs. consumption has been driving me crazy the last few weeks.....All because of Matt's monster...

[Henry]

Wow, Matt that thing is huge. Looks great.

Henry

[matt]

Thanks, Henry. how can I get you your pump back? It's clean.....

[captexas]

That can be the name of the line of skimmers he sells when he starts producing things full time! :D

[z28pwr]

That Thing is huge Matt. Congratulations.

[matt]

Thanks for the compliments, guys. I'll probably never do this full time; it is, after all, a hobby! Also, these skimmers were designed by Brian Ferguson, who already makes and sells them. (high dollar, I imagine) I learned about this stuff from a couple of MACO courses that he taught, and that I would highly recommend. Ideally, I'll find a few people interested in the reactors and skimmers; this will let me keep building them and refining the basic design on both the reactors and the skimmers. Next up is a reactor for Chris; on this one, I'll try to be getting as much efficiency as possible from a smaller size reactor. I guess this means more circulation than on my reactor; maybe we'll try reverse flow as well. With the skimmers, I honestly would not build another one as small as the one I'm using. It's a contact time issue. Maybe 14-16" is the ideal smallest tube size; this could give a skimmer about 30" tall, which could fit under a lot of stands. One thing that would be helpful is to take an informal poll about stand height (interior) and whether or not people care about fitting the skimmer in the stands.

[Henry]

Hey Matt, I'll be available on monday, I don't work on Mondays. Just give me a call.

Henry
210.269.5105

[Instar]

Can you control the percentage of water in the collection? I want my skimmers to collect Ammonia (NH3) and Phosphates, not my coral foods.

[matt]

Instar:

WELCOME! to maast. I'm not sure I understand you question completely, because skimmers don't collect ammonia or phosphates, but instead organic material in the water that breaks down into ammonia and contains some phosphates. But, the answer is, yes you can adjust the sensitivity of the skimmer by raising and lowering the water level. This effects the consistency of the skimmate. Also, sometimes people shut off their skimmers during feeding for a while. I find with my skimmer it's not necessary; the oils in the food inhibit the skimmer from removing much skimmate for a short while after feeding. But, with this big skimmer, I did put some food in the test sump. It was all in the collection cup in about 5 minutes. Keep in mind we're only talking about 15 gallons of water getting circulated through the skimmer at about 1200gph. So maybe that's not a good indicator of how it would function on a 200-300 gallon system. After John gets it plumbed in to his 300 gallon coral prop set up, I hope we'll get a report.

[matt]

Here's a pic of the skimmer shortly after I started it up. This is with no organic load in the water.

[matt]

Here it is about a minute after adding som efood. Keep in mind that I added about a tablespoon of food to 15 gallons of water. This might be somewhat like adding a whole pizza to a big tank!

[matt]

And finally, here it is about 5 minutes after addding the food; almost all of it is in the collection cup and the skimmer's back to normal. Josh, actually, that water was mixed up and circulated in a tub for a week or two. The foam was really stable before adding the food. I'm really curious to see how it reacts to a 200 gallon load; I guess we'll have to wait for John to get it up and running with some bioload before finding out.

[captexas]

That is just too exciting!

You know you're addicted when you get excited over a big tube full of bubbles


Hey Josh - put that neck brace back on and go lay down! I think that concussion is getting its second wind! LOL

[kaiser]

Just loosen up the neckbrace, take a paperback place it with the opening over Your mouth and breath in and out slowly in- and deflating the bag. :)

[captexas]

LOL, maybe that is it, he has the neck brace on too tight! Not getting enough oxygen to the brain! lol, just giving you a hard time Josh! :-)

[cubera]

Looks like the 40RLXT works pretty good...........

[mathias]

hmmm I like your exposed plug there hahaha.... and your homemade plug looks really safe also... hope it doesn't splash...

[matt]

Yeah, I ought to put the cover on that plug. And paint the windows. And finish the molding. And redo the kitchen countertop. And etc...