I'm glad you found the short AND didn't kill yourself finding it [emoji12] !!!Not really. I plan on reworking my skimmer. I'm thinking about adding a recirculating closed loop aeration pump to it.
I get pretty good results from it and good skimmate but could always do better. The cheaper route I may choose is to build a bigger venture and increase the output of my JCOD DCT15,000 pump to the skimmer as it is only running at 3/4 speed. I would have to increase my drain size too. Hey its only PVC and tubes and not buying another pump with two running. It is a good size skimmer 6'' by 5'.
I'm going to be using my 55 gallon tank I have empty as a quarantine tank and buying multiple fish. So I want the best skimming possible when adding in the fish.
I did figure out why I lost all but one fish awhile back. I had a hydra circ pump shock me in the tank and I assume the stray voltage that was tripping my GFCI was the cause. not sure if I had dormant ick in the tank or what but only my sailfin survived. all has been well and I have two fire fish I added about 8 months ago to test the waters and all is ok.
I will be adding in a UV sterilizer off the return as well.
I think your idea for the skimmer is great. I've when considering upgrading or upsizing mine but now with all the losses I don't see the need. Oh that's right the reason I didn't answer you right away was because my tank crashed again right after I received your reply to my post. I think the Caribbean green paly's that I have nuked my tank. Needless to say they're in the backyard right now. I have two acro's left and they don't look very good even the Monti's look pretty sad. All the LPS and zoa's are closed up. I also lost some inverts. Right now I'm on damage control and haven't hooked up my UV due to water change after water change.
On the bright side now I can do re aquascaping as soon as I get the rock made and cured. Not exactly how I wanted to go about it though.
Your tank looks really good I'm glad it's better now [emoji2]