DIY Skimmer in action

[georgeortiz]

Well,
I have my skimmer up and running on my 110. Matt had some kind words regarding the skimmer and requested I post when I had it up and running. Here you go. It is working rather well. I just changed the stones yesterday and cleaned all that green/black gunk out. The only drawback to this design is that I am periodically having to tune it. So I am constructing a beckett skimmer right now. I have just made the box and leak tested and everything came out A O.K.

[matt]

Hey George, it looks terrific. BTW, where are you getting your beckett? I need to order several; if you're in San Antonio, maybe we can go in together. BTW, there's a pic of one of my beckett skimmers on the general reefkeeping forum (you asked me to post one a while back) in the thread "protein skimmers".

You said you leak tested the box; the sad thing is, there's way more pressure on the box joints after the tube is one and filled. Once on a skimmer and twice on a reactor, I've had the box all sealed up and water tight, then put the tube on, filled it, only to find a small leak under pressure in the box. Big bummer....the cause turned out to be imported cast acrylic. (Now I use spartech polycast) Basically I had to cut the tube off, seal all the joints with weldon #40, and re-attach the tube.

Anyhow, good luck with the beckett project. How did you cut your circle in the top of the box? Circle cutter or a template? Looks really good.

[georgeortiz]

Matt,
Thanks for the kind words. Oh guru of acrylic. LOL :-D Anyway, I am pleased however, I have to keep adjusting the darn thing. I can adjust it from three aspects. Air intake, water flow in and water flow out. I have epxerimented with various ways of adjusting the device but, I eventually have to readjust the settings. The good part is that I am consistently getting good skimmate.

I was going to get my beckett 1408 off of ebay but, if you get some in I'll buy one from you or I can pitch in on your order.

Thanks for the tips on the water testing. I have gone ahead and tried to seal the box the best I can. As I add the different components I will also be testing for leaks so I am not caught by surprise.

[lax]

sorry to hijack, but ill jump in that order, i could use 2 or 3 myself.

[GeorgeH]

I have a single beckett skimmer sitting in my garage. I would be willing to part with it since I am finding better ways to skim. I have several prototypes of skimmers that I am working on to see what works best wil possably smaller pumps and get good results.

[matt]

Not a bad idea. Beckett has discontinued the 1408 foam head, which means that all of us will be looking for alternate skimmer designs. Care to describe your prototypes?

IMO, skimmers which rely on the water flow to introduce air (Bernoulli's principle) can possibly use small pumps, provided the pumps have strong pressure characteristics and the aperture for air induction is small enough. This scenario would allow enough velocity in the water flow to pull in a reliable air volume.

[phage]

what do you guys think of the mazzei injectors i see people talking about? I saw that they are a bit more (~45 bucks for the one that seems the most common to use), but people on RC were saying they work really well.

[georgeortiz]

Phage,
I haven't seen these yet I will check them out. I didn't know that Beckett was discontinuing the 1408 fountainhead.

[phage]

from what i've read on RC, they are a bit more expensive, but produce a really small, uniform sized bubble. They are originally designed for mixing fertilizer into a water stream. Beyond that, I don't really know anything about them

[georgeortiz]

Phage,
You peaked my interest and I started researching this device. A couple of things that jumped out. Most importantly the non issue of the correct housing for the mazzie itself. It seems like you can plumb the darn thing right in line. BIG plus!. Secondly it seems like you do not need to have a large pump to run the suckers. I am going to keep researching but, I think I am going to incorporate this device in the next skimmer I build. Especially since it seems beckett 1408's are on the way out.
Let me know if you find some good plans.

[phage]

Yeah, thats what I saw. I have a Mag 7 I'd like to use, and it seems the mazzei will let me do a much better skimmer with a pump that size. There is one thread on RC where a guy built one, but it didnt really have any plans.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=335736&perpage=25&pagen umber=1
From what i've read, it seems the 584 is the most common choice for a 500-700 GPH pump, but apparently there are lots of different ones that vary in the GPH/PSI they want for optimal performance.

[matt]

You need to be careful considering the output of mag pumps. They are notoriously over rated, and they lose flow under any sort of pressure. With becketts, and i suspect with these mazzei injectors also, it's the pressure performance of the pump that matters. For example, my small skimmers work MUCH better with an iwaki 40rlt (750 gph) than a mag 12. ("rated" at 1200 gph) What you want is steady flow under changing pressure; as the water has higher organic content, more bubbles are produced, and the drag increases. With mag pumps, this causes the water to slow down as it goes through the injector, exactly what you need to avoid.

[phage]

The threads on RC are saying good things about mazzei injectors *because* they arent like becketts and cause lots of back pressure. Also, the mag 7 was chosen for that particular model of mazzei using the pump output charts on reefs.org, which are supposedly real world usage, so the rating isnt really an issue in that case.

[matt]

If it's a device which draws air into a water stream using bernoulli's principle, it will work much better with a pressure pump. Regardless of the injector design, as foam increases in the stream, so does friction. That's what slows the mags down, not the design of the beckett. If it were just the injector, fine, you just choose a larger mag pump and deal with the back pressure loss. The problem is it slows down as the organic load goes up.

On a side note, I did find a bunch of beckett 1408 injectors, so I'm going to stick with them for a while, maybe try one of these mazzei another time.

[georgeortiz]

Just my two cents,
I have seen the threads on RC and they state that there are people using the mazzei injectors on thier systems successfully. The pumps were recommened by the manufacturer in conjunction with RC members involvement and best of all it seems that you don't need to worry about the housing for the injector. As soon as I get a chance I am going to put one together. The only drawback is that the injector is around 45 bucks as opposed to the 20 dollar beckett.

[GeorgeH]

I am creating a skimmer simmular to the CPR backpac with some improvements (useing a Maxijet 1200/900) and also making another that looks something like yours but with a smaller pump (maxijet 1200). I am playing with the ideas of a larger box and a 4" acrylic tube attached but being about 24" high on the tube alone. I am going to see what I can create that will work in a confined space of under 30" tall and a footprint of about 8"x6".

I really liked my Berlin Classic XL when I had one but wanted to make something a bit easier and more proficient. I did the popular mods with a venturi and a bigger pump but didn't care for the results. I'll be setting up a new tank in the next week or so and I'll post the pictures of the skimmers in action.

[georgeortiz]

Cool,
I can't wait to see what you have put together.

[GeorgeH]

I have one put together however I am attempting to get a hold of a MJ1200 to use for it. I figure that is a good pump that is fairly available for most people.