Cone skimmer not working

Raidendex · Jan 16, 2011

Well to begin with I have this skimmer
Royal Reef Aquariums

And after playing around with different water levels I was unable to ever make it work well for a while. Best I can do is maybe run it for 3-4 days and then all of a sudden it will overflow the cup within seconds.

At this point I don't think issue is related to water level, how much gate valve is closed etc. Mainly I think it's the pump itself is too strong or volute/impeller mod is not quite right. I do have two of these pumps both result in similar overflow issues. Both do have same impeller with mesh on it however volute is a little bit different. Pump is Quiet One 2200

Anyways looking for any suggestion as to what I can do to make this skimmer work :) Took some dimensions as well as a few pictures.

Total height - 18.5", Bottom diameter 9", Neck 4", Collection cup - 8". Cone height to neck - 11", Neck up about - 8". Inlet from the pump is about 2" from the bottom.

I guess best way about fixing this would be to get a different pump, but I'm not too sure what kind of pump would fit it well.

Thank you for your help!

cmcneil · Jan 16, 2011

For that size body a tunze 9420 hydrofoamer would probably work.It produces about 900lph of air.

Raidendex · Jan 16, 2011

Thank you for the reply! Is there some sort of formula for how much air/water pump pushes vs how big body of the skimmer is?

cmcneil · Jan 16, 2011

there is some science to it but generally for a 4" neck you will need somewhere near 900 lph of air for the skimmer to work properly depending on body diameter and hieght.if you only put say 600lph of air to a 4" neck the skimmer might work but not to max potential.the larger the neck,the more air needed to produce a stable foam head.the same goes for too much air,then the skimmer gets turbulent and doesnt skim properly.there are a few stock pumps you can buy in the 900 lph range,sicce has a couple to choose from as well as the tunze i mentioned,also the bubble blaster pumps.

mojo · Jan 16, 2011

That pump actually pulls really well. I have found though with the short nature of this skimmer that I had to run it pretty low. Around 6 inch water level. Run it with the gate valve wide open for a week. Sounds like it was too high and would then kick in and over flow. I have ran a cs 200 with both hte quiet one pump and a sicce psk 2500. Its actually a pretty god skimmer.

Mojo~

cmcneil · Jan 16, 2011

mojo has tested just about every skimmer known to man at this point,so take his advise and try running it like he said above.

Raidendex · Jan 16, 2011

I had it as high as the top of the pump at water level and it would still overflow from time to time =\ but I guess I can try just need to move stuff around so I can fit 2 skimmers in the sump. DOn't want to run iffy one by itself :)

mojo · Jan 16, 2011

I wouldnt run two skimmers as they will compete. I actually had the same skimmer and it running on a buddies 220 g right now. He upgraded from a 125 to 220 and is still running this same skimmer.

The downside on this skimmer is the smaller exit piping. it has a hard time letting the water exit the skimmer itself.

As mentioned above a tunze 9420 would be a much better pump for this skimmer. It has a wide base about 10 inches and a nice taper up but the way this was built and the reason it was built is to make a great skimmer at a cheap price . I am going from memory here but I belive its only about 18 or 19 tall. The tunze 9410 would probably work ok on it too.

The skimmer pump is where they tried to save money. It actually has a tapered volute and they heat it up and form it so it doesnt have directional issues. But check to be sure their isnta hole in it. it can cause the pump to very in performance too.

just some random thoughts for you to try.

mojo · Jan 16, 2011

oh, also take off the 90 and the short piece of pvc coming out of the gate valve. not needed and causes more back pressure in the body. Something this skimmer doesnt need. Have you talk to chris ? the guy who made these for royal ? he might be able to help you more if the above mentioned doesnt help.

Mojo~

Raidendex · Jan 16, 2011

Thank you for the replies once again! The reason I added the 90 degree elbow is because I was running it so high that it was out of water so was splashing a bit much but I removed it now since it's lower in the water. I just finished installing it into the sump it's in about 4.5" of water (overshot 6" a bit with the new skimmer stand but I guess will see if that works) with gate valve fully open. Will see what happens in a week or so.

As far as talking - the guy who originally bought the skimmer talked about it to the royal reef and they sent him a diff pump but for whatever reason in his tank the thing would overflow in seconds even with fully open valve, not 100% how deep he had it in water but I don't think it was more than half way if not less. But anyways...

And as far as running two skimmers I think I should be ok for a bit have about 300g system minus rock/sand and I only have euroreef 120 skimmer which is probably unable to handle the system too well. If in a week I'll see any positive results from cs200 I'll shut euroreef one off for a bit see what happens

mojo · Jan 16, 2011

THe guys at royal reef get them from chris. He makes them by hand. you can even pull the gate valve off you wont have any adjustment but fine tune it with water level.

Raidendex · Jan 16, 2011

Don't really know who Chris is :tongue:

laynframe · Jan 16, 2011

My skimmer kept over flowing even though I placed it at different water levels in my sump. When it finally broke in, it stopped over flowing and works great in 7" of water. took three weeks to brake in too. just my 2 cents.

Raidendex · Jan 16, 2011

Ok thanks for that info. Guess I'll let it run for a while. Don't think I had it in for longer than maybe 2 weeks at a time few times that I tried to make it work :)

Raidendex · Jan 21, 2011

Well skimmer been running in 4.5" of water fully open for about 5 days now.

It is actually skimming a bit of something even fully open

Here are a few pictures.

Cone

And this is what Euroreef is doing in the same time.

Raidendex · Jan 22, 2011

Heh ... did a water change this morning and had to shut both skimmers off. QuietOne pump didn't want to start back up at all, felt minor vibrations from it but not much else so I just took the whole thing out for now. Will wait until I can buy that Tunze hydrofoamer to install it back in again.

Troylee · Jan 22, 2011

Raidendex said:
Well skimmer been running in 4.5" of water fully open for about 5 days now.

It is actually skimming a bit of something even fully open

Here are a few pictures.

Cone

And this is what Euroreef is doing in the same time.