Does your skimmer do this???

[TroyPham]

http://www.dubspeedracing.com/photopost/data/500/skimmer.jpg


it's been over flowing like this for a couple of weeks now. it's to **** efficient. haha

if anyone needs a custom skimmer let me know.. it's not pretty put it works **** good.

that is about 7hrs of foam not including what has already drained from the collection cup

[greatwit]

What kind of pump and air injection method are you using?

[TroyPham]

the water is being pumped by an hd 40 that is split to my return to the tank. i'm pushing about 175-200ghp through the custom venturi set. i'm collecting about 14-18 oz. of thick skimmet every 24hrs.

[snoop]

You might want to put a drain on that beast it looks stinky. Is it beckett,needle wheel, or airstone driven.

[TroyPham]

it has a drain. i'm draining it into a 2g jug. it's just venturi driven and will have a recirc. needle wheel added sometime in the future. i've been testing a couple of diff. needle wheel designs but nothing working as i expected yet. it's still foaming like crazy now. i've enlarged the drain hole on the cup hoping it would help but still over-foaming.

most people complain about not enough foam....... i've got to **** much. i've adjusted pump flow, air flow, and drain hole.. my next step is to build a diff cup. i am skimming really dry. but most people that skim dry don't have this much foam.

[Wryknow]

I think that you need a sealing lid on the top of the skimmer. You want the foam to bubble up over the top but then collapse back down into a liquid in the cup for storage and removal right? It looks to me that the foam column is just continuing on up the path of least resistance and over-flowing your skimmer cup. To much foam is a good problem to have at any rate :)

[TroyPham]

yea, i've weighted it down and it comes out of the vent hole on top. i'm gonna make a diff. lid for it and see if that helps.

[hobogato]

the beckett skimmer i built for my tank does that sometimes, so i use electrical tape around the rim of the cap to hold it down and over the vent holes. the skimmer still vents through the drain attached to the collection cup so it still works properly. the electrical tape stays fine as long as you dry the outside of the collection cup b4 you tape it and make sure the tape goes all the way around and back onto itself. can post a pic when i get home if you are interested.

[dwdenny]

TroyPham do you have plans on how you built that thing I would love to build one my self was thinking of using PVC which looks like what you did for the body.

[TroyPham]

yea it's easy. everything can be had at lowe's, home depot, and a place that sells abs sheets or acrylic.

the body is 6" pvc 12" tall. the riser is 3" extrude acrylic and is 8" tall. all the other pluming is 3/4" pvc and a piece used for the venturi i found at home depot. i'll have to find the name of it and pic and post it for ya. the rest is just cut,drill, and glue.

i'll make a full list of parts a little later.

i'm sure u can use a mag 3 or 5 to run it. maybe even a 2.5. i'm gonna add a recirc. pump to it in the future to test.

i'm planning on makeing a taller body skimmer to give the water/bubble more contact time. i'll remember to take pics of it to do a diy.

[TroyPham]

more pics of the skimmer running in just h2o


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/bagedtaco/P1010106.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/bagedtaco/P1010107.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/bagedtaco/P1010108.jpg

[dwdenny]

That is great thanks TroyPham. I could scale it down as well for my 65g system 40g breeder and 25g sump(about 57g working gallons)