Square vs Cylinder

[mcarroll]

I was thinking about building a square skimmer with baffles to reduce the flow

Baffles give you a longer path, but may increase velocity. Increased volume is what you want if slowing the flow is your goal. (Of course, you can do both.)

Think of a winding river (fast but long) vs the Mississippi River (slow and direct). Both could be the same gph. To complete the example, you can also make a "winding Mississippi" if you want.

I suspect you may get excessive air buildup within the baffle system unless velocity is pretty high to carry bigger bubbles through to the reaction chamber/neck of the skimmer.

The bottom line IMO is to keep it simple and just make sure your design is matched to the size of pump that you want to run. (4x display volume is a good rule of thumb for flow rate of both sump and skimmer.)

I think if I were going to DIY I'd knock off an AquaC. Extremely simple designs that are highly effective and do not require a special kind of pump. (I personally like to remember that the first skimmer was a lowly airlift tube in an undergravel filter…and it worked well. LOL)

-Matt


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[WesF]

With some of the skimmer designs the skimmer pump will pump in the air water into the cylinder from the side so the circular chamber allows the foamy water to smoothly rotate around the body as it rises.

But with newer skimmers that use bubble plates I don't think it's as important to have a cylindrical body because the bubbled rise straight up instead of in a corkscrew pattern.

 

[fragmatic]

Here are some pictures of my DIY skimmer from a old Vertex reactor. You will quickly see skimmers are NOT rocket science.

The first picture shows the whole mess skimming away. It stands at about 24" tall ...AND... was making soup within an hour of install... so much for skimmer break-in periods!

Here is a picture of the barrel showing the input from the needle pump, the bubble mass (gives an idea of bubble hang time, most IMPORTANT), the air adjustment, and you can see where I placed my exhaust.

In this picture you can see my collection pot at the top. Inside is the PVC reducer bushing with a piece of plastic florescent light tube protector for a protein riser. Clearly skimmit is flowing over the riser and into the pot. ..OK... yeah.. It clearly shows my flub up job with the heat gun..(I lived over it) . but this sucker gets it done!!! In an earlier post I think I said my collection pot was a candy container but looking at the picture I remember it was some brand of cheese fuffs... perfect! ..if you don't melt it..LOL.. The heat gun reason was to warm the round hole I cut in the bottom of the cheese puff container so it would fit the outside of the PVC reducer bushing well.... ummmh... don't do that... the polyurethane cheese puff container portions that the heat hits shrink faster than a speeding bullet...

The last picture is of my version of a skimmit collection bottle. The point of this picture is to show the needle pump inside this wing of my sump to the left of the bottle. The PVC "L" in the foreground is part of the piping from the needle pump to the skimmer barrel.

 

[psionicdragon]

Aw man! thats some nasty skimmate! lol

Out of curiousity, why did you not use the "inlet" pipe as your exit and the "outlet" connected with a tube as your skimmate removal?

Here are some pictures of my DIY skimmer from a old Vertex reactor. You will quickly see skimmers are NOT rocket science.

The first picture shows the whole mess skimming away. It stands at about 24" tall ...AND... was making soup within an hour of install... so much for skimmer break-in periods!


Here is a picture of the barrel showing the input from the needle pump, the bubble mass (gives an idea of bubble hang time, most IMPORTANT), the air adjustment, and you can see where I placed my exhaust.


In this picture you can see my collection pot at the top. Inside is the PVC reducer bushing with a piece of plastic florescent light tube protector for a protein riser. Clearly skimmit is flowing over the riser and into the pot. ..OK... yeah.. It clearly shows my flub up job with the heat gun..(I lived over it) . but this sucker gets it done!!! In an earlier post I think I said my collection pot was a candy container but looking at the picture I remember it was some brand of cheese fuffs... perfect! ..if you don't melt it..LOL.. The heat gun reason was to warm the round hole I cut in the bottom of the cheese puff container so it would fit the outside of the PVC reducer bushing well.... ummmh... don't do that... the polyurethane cheese puff container portions that the heat hits shrink faster than a speeding bullet...


The last picture is of my version of a skimmit collection bottle. The point of this picture is to show the needle pump inside this wing of my sump to the left of the bottle. The PVC "L" in the foreground is part of the piping from the needle pump to the skimmer barrel.

 

[psionicdragon]

Another Option that I have is doing something like this:

http://www.reefspecialty.com/virtue...ef-octopus-2000-external-protein-skimmer.html

I have a skimmer body that hasn't been used for awhile and could use it to create that with a box on the bottom.

 

[fragmatic]

Aw man! thats some nasty skimmate! lol

Out of curiousity, why did you not use the "inlet" pipe as your exit and the "outlet" connected with a tube as your skimmate removal?

I may be confused but will answer as I understand the question.

The bottom PVC is the exhaust to the sump. The PVC in the mid section is the micro bubble and water inlet from the needle pump. The tube to the bottle is the drain form the catch bowl so I can simply dump the skimmate.

Yes, it is nasty inside. ..some of what you are looking at may be algae inside the reactor tube because of the intense lamps at the refugium on that side... I need to shade it.. good point!

It is wise to exit your water to the sump at the bottom so you draw bubble free water. I pump my micro bubbled water in at that height to cause the maximum bubble hang time. I did several experiments before I determined the location of the input.

The magic IMO in a skimmer is:
> lots of micro bubbles
> bubble hang time
> a funnel shape at the top for the large bubbles with protein on their surface tension to be pushed up
> a smaller column for separation of micro bubbles and protein laden bubbles
> removal of the exhaust at the bottom so you do not introduce micro bubbles into your sump
>> and in my case.. I wanted to build one that does not sit in my sump or refugiums eating up valuable real estate .

 

[psionicdragon]

how well does it keep your phosphate and nitrate down?

 

[mcarroll]

All properly working/sized skimmers will remove about the same percent of junk from the water...and n ratios end up the about the same too.


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[Otter_rs]

It's all about total surface area and water/bubble contact time, and to a small extent, waste collection. It is nothing more than that. Some designs use certain shapes to optimize that ratio.


Brent \><{{{{*>
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[fragmatic]

how well does it keep your phosphate and nitrate down?

If you are talking to me.. I have no chemistry problems.... period.

BUT.. the skimmer is not going to get it done if you do not have shovel loads of bacteria in PLENTY of live rock.