Trying a new skimmer mod...

[Engloid]

I have the MRC-3 skimmer, with taller injection tube and reaction chamber. I had been noticing for some time that the amount of turbulence in the chamber was very high. On one hand, yes, it may increase the time a bubble is in the water... however, when the turbulence is taking bubbles from near the top of the chamber and mixing them all the way down to the bottom, it's not giving a gradual progression of increasing organics as you go up in the chamber. It's like a layered cocktail...pour vodka slowly on orange juice and the alcohol stays on top. Mix it, and you no longer have the highly concentrated alcohol on top.

I also noticed that a lot of the newer designs of skimmers have plates in them with holes drilled, so that turbulence is greatly reduced at a certain height of the reaction chamber.

So....my idea was this:
I cut circles of egg crate, stacked them, about 5" thick, tied with zip ties. A couple of them were trimmed to give a tight fit inside the reaction chamber. I didn't want to glue or do anything permanent. I put them in towards the bottom of the chamber. So far, so good. Turbulence is cut down to about half of what it was. Cheap, and works well.

I may also try the mod I have read about to turn the injection flow upwards, but I'm afraid that it will push so much upwards that it creates turbulence at the top again. Any thoughts?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Sounds like a plan. But I've seen DIY bubble plates installed in place of your egg crate. And I think that the egg crate is to big and doesn't put enough contact time on the bubbles and water.

 

[Engloid]

Sounds like a plan. But I've seen DIY bubble plates installed in place of your egg crate. And I think that the egg crate is to big and doesn't put enough contact time on the bubbles and water.

Either I don't understand what you're saying or I don't understand what you're saying.

My logic is like this.... If a bubble can hold 1 million particles of organics, you would want to remove it at that point, not continue mixing it in the chamber, with "cleaner" bubbles....then releasing the same number of clean as dirty. By having too much turbulence, this is what happens...which is why so many skimmer makers are now using the bubble plates.

A bubble plate, IMO, can restrict a lot of the vertical movement of the bubbles, allowing them to combine into larger bubbles. This is a problem with this skimmer. I sometimes get an occasional large bubble, maybe an inch diameter. From what I have found, it's caused by having the air valve open too far. Less air flow tends to give smaller bubbles. Egg crate has little horizontal surface to slow the vertical flow.

For analogy: Imagine putting 200 straws together in rubber bands and putting them vertically in the reaction chamber so that it's filled. Vertical flow is still not restricted, but turbulence will be eliminated. The result should be that the bubbles are dirtier as they get higher in the chamber, because they have been in longer.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I think I know where you’re coming from, but here are my thoughts on this proposal…..

Becketted skimmers require much more flow than the new fangled “cone” skimmers. They produce a tremendous amount of bubbles from this venturi effect.passing through the beckett. You will also note that becketted skimmers require pumps that far exceed the capacity of “coned” skimmers. Bottom line, there is no need to have a disbursement plate there to distribute the bubbles because there are so many to begin with. I would actually think that putting in a plate on a becketted skimmer would inhibit the bubbles. But I’m an idiot, and am just speculating on what I know about physics.

 

[Reefing Madness]

The holes in the egg crate, you just using it to divert the flow you were speaking of? Why not throw in the DIY Bubble Plate, to totally divert?

 

[Engloid]

The holes in the egg crate, you just using it to divert the flow you were speaking of? Why not throw in the DIY Bubble Plate, to totally divert?

What im trying to emulate is similar to skimmers with the bubble plate. Below it they have turbulent mixing. Above is a gradual vertical rise of bubbles. I didnt align the eggcrate pieces with each other and it has greatly reduced turbulence above....but without giving placse bibbles can grow. Seems to be wilorking more. I plan to add more and see whay happens. I 5hinkbim improving itdxnbutbwe will see.
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[Engloid]

A bubble plate acts as a set of tubes....very short tubes, the thickness of the plate.. Therefore, (for example, made up numbers) flow can go through them at about 85 degrees from the axis. With a longer tube, about the length of a typical drinking straw flow may only be able to go through at about 3 degrees from vertical. What this means is that a bubble plate will be less effective at stopping turbulence than my idea. It also adds more horizontal surfaces for bubbles to hit, and pause on, and possibly combine with other bubbles and become larger.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Hmm. I've never seen large bubbles coming from a cone skimmer utilizing a bubble plate.

 

[Engloid]

Hmm. I've never seen large bubbles coming from a cone skimmer utilizing a bubble plate.

I'm not using a cone skimmer, and don't have a needlewheel pump. This one puts out much more flow, and enough bubbles that I can get large bubbles sometimes. The problem is that it is about like a surge of bubbles rising to the top, rather than a slow rise.

 

[Engloid]

It's worked well so far. I have egg crate stacked up, probably 15 layers of it. It does reduce turbulence above them, which results in more of a steady rise of bubbles. The problem I want to resolve now is that the neck gets dirty FAST. I don't clean it like I should, but if I did, I'd be taking it apart about every 2-3 days. In a week, I get gunk buildup of about 3/16". I may think bout some kind of DIY neck scraper now.

Anybody have links to other MRC mods?

 

[Engloid]

Think its working?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Wow. Got my vote.

 

[Engloid]

I have about 4.5" of stacked egg crate in there, tied with the zip tie that you can see. I tried it at the top of that section, and it didn't work as well as at the bottom. I think it works best just below water surface.