Skimmer Water Height

[viper357]

Elrond, those Berlin skimmers, albeit look very nice, do not skim very well, I have the berlin XL, although it does work I don't think they are very efficient. Alan made a real super modification to his Berlin skimmer, it made wall to wall bubbles inside the skimmer, you can't see the centre or outer tubes through the amount of bubbles, unlike your skimmer right now where you can see all the tubes.

If you are interested I can tell you about the modification.

 

[palmerc]

The advantages of running a wetter skimmate it is supposed to remove more PO4. The disadvantages of a dry skimmate is gunk generally builds up in the riser tube of the cup and thus starts to impede skimming. The ideal way of setting a skimmer in is to have the gunk just forming on the top +- cm of the riser tube in the cup and then out into the cup itself.

Agree with the wet/dry observations here. I prefer to run wet for this reason - running dry I find that too much gunk builds up on the inside of the riser tube and I don't get much skimate in the collection cup.

I have tried running drier but it is a very fine between getting some dark skimate and getting nearly nothing whereas with running wetter I am constantly skimming gunk out, although lighter in colour

 

[Smithers]

My AM skimmer on my other tank is a pain to set. Either there is too much gunk in the funnel or it is wet wet wet.
trying to find that sweet spot for skimming is something I battle to achieve.

 

[SIMS]

Funny I just plug my AM in and it skims - never found a way to adjust the skimmer? Maybe you can share with me?

 

[Mekaeel]

What dissappeared Mekaeel? The foam?

no the cyano.
and the third quote on your post was by Elrond not me :razz:

 

[Alan]

Funny I just plug my AM in and it skims - never found a way to adjust the skimmer? Maybe you can share with me?

There are skimmers that you cant adjust the height of the foam, AM being one of them, Berlins being the other.

 

[sunburst]

My AM skimmer on my other tank is a pain to set. Either there is too much gunk in the funnel or it is wet wet wet.
trying to find that sweet spot for skimming is something I battle to achieve.

I have found that the shape of the AM1000 neck is very effective at isolating and then seperating the foam from the bubble column. So keep the bubbles low in skimmer neck

Sims you can adjust the height of the bubble column by turning the two black end caps on the water outlet. I have also attached a cheap needle valve commoly used on air lines to reduce the air intake ...which also raises the height of the bubble column....that is if you prefer to skim wet....

I stand to correction but i seem to remember reading in the Zeovit user manual...one of the recomendations ; among many, is to skim wet.

 

[Elrond]

Viper,

yes please... I tried putting a airstone infront of the inlet to the skimmer pump without any change, there is definitely skimmate though. I took everything out yesterday to swop the sump and I wish I had downloaded the picture to show you how much pooh there was stuck on the inside of the skimmer neck, about 2 matchboxes full simply hanging on the sides. Clearly its not low enough or pushing enough muck to the very top of the skimmer!

-E

 

[viper357]

Elrond

First thing you need to do is remove the venturi in the skimmer, to do this you must unscrew the little air nozzle that the airline is attached to on the skimmer inlet. You must then replace this with the blank screw in plug that came with the skimmer.

Now unscrew the big inlet plug where your pump attaches to the skimmer, look inside and you will see the venturi which you must unscrew and remove.

You have now removed the airline and the venturi of the skimmer.

Now you need to modify your pump slightly.

At the pump inlet (where the pump sucks in water) you need to make a small hole so that you can fit an airline through that hole, but it must be a nice tight fit. Make it as close to the impellor as you can. Cut your airline at a 45 degree angle. Insert the airline into the hole so that the open end of the pipe faces the impellor.

Here's 2 pics to show you what I mean.

That is basically it, what this does is make the pump suck air through the airline, the air bubbles get chopped up by the impellor and then go into the skimmer. You might need a slightly more powerful pump to achieve this, I used an Ocean Runner 2500 with great success. Also try to get the pump as close to the skimmer as possible and try not to have the pump more than 10-15cm below the surface of the water.

Alan was the initial inventor of this mod, hopefully he will also jump in and offer some advice.

 

[djmurray]

I raisen my water to just about half of the raiseing tube and find i skim nice and wet but dark

 

[AndreT]

Nice Viper, I did this as well with my Weipro.

 

[fisheye]

Question All,Does maximum skimming occur at the air/water inteface within the riser tube...therefore the water level should be at the largest surface area just below the taper?

 

[palmerc]

Question All,Does maximum skimming occur at the air/water inteface within the riser tube...therefore the water level should be at the largest surface area just below the taper?

The skimming comes from the contact of the bubble surface with gunk in the water column. The air/water interface has nothing to do with it, except as the place where the foam collects. In terms of practicality though a smaller air water interface at surface (such as the AM skimmer neck) "concentrates" the foam formed and allows it to be removed quicker. Imagine if you will a skimmer neck with similar dimensions as the skimmer body. It would take a lot longer for foam to start collecting in the cup, than with a smaller, tapered skimmer neck.

Clinton