External Skimmer Setup

[Mikeltee]

I just purchased an external skimmer to free up room in my sump and am now scratching my head. Does the skimmer need to be mounted over the water line so that the reaction chamber can be fully controlled? The plan was to mount it directly beside the sump. After pondering it for a bit, it looks like if I was to do this, the outlet valve would be about 4" below the water line. I would have to send the outlet up over the sump's edge which I estimate is a good 8" rise. Will this effect the skimmers operation? I'm not exactly sure how an external works. Every video I come across has the skimmer mounted over the water line. Even if the return is off, the water level would still be a good 4" below the neck of the skimmer so I am not concerned about an overflow.

Another question I have is where to place the pump for the skimmer's intake in regards to the skimmers return. It would work out best if I placed the skimmer's pump near the skimmer's return. Would I be doing myself a disservice by doing this considering that a majority of the water the pump takes in was just skimmed? My pumps skimmer will be running roughly 280gph and my sump's return is 400gph. It's an oversized skimmer (150g skimmer for a 130g display(actual 90g w/displacement). I'll probably end up running it only half the day so that it doesn't strip out all the nutrients. That is TBD...

I suppose another option is placing the skimmer's output into the sump's return chamber, but considering that there is a baffle, I think this would mess things up. I've ran reactors before when the pump with outside the return chamber and the return was to the return chamber and it messed things up. Now I pull and push my reactors from the return chamber.

@vetteguy53081 please advise. I do believe that you ran one for a couple years.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I just purchased an external skimmer to free up room in my sump and am now scratching my head. Does the skimmer need to be mounted over the water line so that the reaction chamber can be fully controlled? The plan was to mount it directly beside the sump. After pondering it for a bit, it looks like if I was to do this, the outlet valve would be about 4" below the water line. I would have to send the outlet up over the sump's edge which I estimate is a good 8" rise. Will this effect the skimmers operation? I'm not exactly sure how an external works. Every video I come across has the skimmer mounted over the water line. Even if the return is off, the water level would still be a good 4" below the neck of the skimmer so I am not concerned about an overflow.

Another question I have is where to place the pump for the skimmer's intake in regards to the skimmers return. It would work out best if I placed the skimmer's pump near the skimmer's return. Would I be doing myself a disservice by doing this considering that a majority of the water the pump takes in was just skimmed? My pumps skimmer will be running roughly 280gph and my sump's return is 400gph. It's an oversized skimmer (150g skimmer for a 130g display(actual 90g w/displacement). I'll probably end up running it only half the day so that it doesn't strip out all the nutrients. That is TBD...

I suppose another option is placing the skimmer's output into the sump's return chamber, but considering that there is a baffle, I think this would mess things up. I've ran reactors before when the pump with outside the return chamber and the return was to the return chamber and it messed things up. Now I pull and push my reactors from the return chamber.

@vetteguy53081 please advise. I do believe that you ran one for a couple years.

I ran an ice cap and if I recall, it was about 4-5" below the water line and pump was internal

 

[danreef55]

I have run AE Tech external skimmers and they need to be installed above the water line. Unfortunately AE Tech is no longer in business. Once you get an external skimmer dialed in they are excellent. Also it is easy to hook up a 5 gal waste container. I am considering an external skimmer on a rather large system. There doesnt appear to be many alternatives these days. Any suggestions?

 

[Mikeltee]

I have run AE Tech external skimmers and they need to be installed above the water line. Unfortunately AE Tech is no longer in business. Once you get an external skimmer dialed in they are excellent. Also it is easy to hook up a 5 gal waste container. I am considering an external skimmer on a rather large system. There doesnt appear to be many alternatives these days. Any suggestions?

I'm really liking this one. The return Plumbing is the only thing that needs to be over the waterline BTW... I do have an issue with turning it on that might be avoided if I had the base over the waterline. For some reason the water level gets real high for about 2 seconds causing about a cup of water to spill over the side of the cup into the collector. Not a big deal as I'm not turning it off much. I went as far as separating the feed pump with the needle wheel pump and put a DEFER statement on it so that it won't overflow.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I highly recommend Ice Cap Ki or K2-50. They look and work like a full size smimmer

 

[Mikeltee]

I highly recommend Ice Cap Ki or K2-50. They look and work like a full size smimmer

I didn't even know Icecap made skimmers. Their HOBs look really nice. I went with a Aquamaxx Bullet 3 for my 40g and it's excellent. The only drawback is that the pump is in the skimmer so you need to prime it of you lose power. I don't ever turn mine off so it's not a big deal. I probably would have gone with one of these icecaps though if I knew about them.