Got LifeReef ??? Show us your LifeReef Sumps, Skimmers, and Anything else you may have by LifeReef.

[Salahunreal]

Mine is dead quite. I can’t hear anything at all from my skimmer.
Best skimmer I’ve ever owned. VS3-72”

I also ordered a custom waste container.
I still have to install my apex optical sensors, but couldn’t resist installing it.
Had him make the flange with a hook for sensor
wires.

I couldn’t be happier with my lifereef products
I will be ordering a calcium reactor to match, later on down the road.

Thanks for sharing the pictures and all info. Much appreciated. I have a question about your waste collector. I see you have Tee on the venturi air inlet and have it connected to the waste collector. Whats the idea behind it?

 

[legionofdoon]

It pulls moist air into the venturi so it doesn't clog.

 

[Salahunreal]

Love LifeReef! Jeff is awesome.

Right now I'm only running his skimmer because I needed a Triton specific sump and it was just easier to work with my local guy, Building An Obsession here in Houston.

But on my previous build where I had a separate fish room, I went all out with Jeff, getting the skimmer, sump and refugium.
Was a great setup.

Are you happy with Triton method? how long you have been running it?

 

[Salahunreal]

Yes

So shall I ask Jeff to make the drain from the bottom instead ? why it was not designed like that in the first place? you will have no skimmate at all if your drain at the bottom

 

[User1]

A question
The white RO tube is for waste drain?

Ideally not recommended though. Reason is you can cause a flood, then lower water in the sump, then burn out the pump(s), and so the chain goes until something breaks. If you let the waste cup handle it in the example above an overflow or over zealous skimmer time line will drain back into the sump. No harm, no foul, no water level change.

To make life easier (the whole QOL thing) the line can be there but add a valve so that you can turn on / open to empty. Close to seal it off and let the cup do its job. That way you only remove the cup when you do your deeper cleaning.

 

[d2mini]

Are you happy with Triton method? how long you have been running it?

Nope. Look up my build thread.

 

[Salahunreal]

It pulls moist air into the venturi so it doesn't clog.

Sorry i was referring to this pic about the Tee of the airline from venturi. Why having 2nd airline to the waste collector. My guessing is to prevent pressure building up in the waste collector?

 

[legionofdoon]

I might be wrong but it may be a second drain.

 

[Salahunreal]

Ideally not recommended though. Reason is you can cause a flood, then lower water in the sump, then burn out the pump(s), and so the chain goes until something breaks. If you let the waste cup handle it in the example above an overflow or over zealous skimmer time line will drain back into the sump. No harm, no foul, no water level change.

To make life easier (the whole QOL thing) the line can be there but add a valve so that you can turn on / open to empty. Close to seal it off and let the cup do its job. That way you only remove the cup when you do your deeper cleaning.

So that's the science behind it. I did not see that at all. Thanks for the calcification. No plans then to change it. I will keep it as it is and maybe will add a waste collector only

 

[User1]

So that's the science behind it. I did not see that at all. Thanks for the calcification. No plans then to change it. I will keep it as it is and maybe will add a waste collector only

Yeah - if in doubt just shoot Jeff a email and he will clarify. I forget why I sent him a email a month or so back but I was asking for the thread size to add a drain line into a bucket. His reply was basically what I said above. Don't Then explained to me why. My skimmer from him dates back to 2000 and didn't have one but if you look at some of his skimmers today (http://www.lifereef.com/lgVS3-24.JPG) you will see the valve I'm talking about.

Open to drain. Close. Safe.

I do believe some people run them into buckets or other means but they have float valves, controllers, etc. This way you notice it full or high, open to drain, close, and you are done. If I missed the boat all together with another line on a different skimmer my apologies

 

[Salahunreal]

Yeah - if in doubt just shoot Jeff a email and he will clarify. I forget why I sent him a email a month or so back but I was asking for the thread size to add a drain line into a bucket. His reply was basically what I said above. Don't Then explained to me why. My skimmer from him dates back to 2000 and didn't have one but if you look at some of his skimmers today (http://www.lifereef.com/lgVS3-24.JPG) you will see the valve I'm talking about.

Open to drain. Close. Safe.

I do believe some people run them into buckets or other means but they have float valves, controllers, etc. This way you notice it full or high, open to drain, close, and you are done. If I missed the boat all together with another line on a different skimmer my apologies

You are totally right. I did not mention that I am making a wish list and among my wishes a holder for float sensor on the waste collector. I saw one of the posts here that requested a custom waste collector and float sensor was considered that will shut down the skimmer if waste collector was full


Thanks a lot for the feedback.

I

 

[markstubb]

So here's my take on the skimmate drain and collector. I do not think you want the drain on the bottom of the cup if you're running a -24. The majority of skimmate collectors on the market have their intakes about event with the output of the valved connection on the skimmate cup. I use, and highly recommend, the avast skimmate locker and it has an air pressure "float" at the top to sense when the collector is full. It's super easy to empty and clean, and has carbon on top to filter out any skimmate air. Having a small amount of waste inside the skimmer cup isn't a big deal at all, to me at least.

The only thing I just recently realized that I need to just noodle on a bit more is I have an outside air intake going into my skimmer cup, which then goes down to the venturi. I had assumed that the intake from outside was providing all (well reasonably all - it's not a sealed system inside the skimmer cup) of the air into the skimmer. Then I started to wonder why my pH wasn't going up as I had anticipated and realized that it was likely sucking air in through the skimmate output port, and then down into the venturi - likely bypassing my external air supply altogether. So I then connected my outside supply directly to the venturi and noticed my pH went up about .2 over night. Problem is now I don't have "humid" air going into the venturi to keep it clean. Will have to think through that one.

TLDR; the right kind of skimmate collector negates the need to manually empty the cup every few days. Add on an Avast neck cleaner - and oh boy, you're in for a good time. I hardly ever clean my skimmer now a days, and I only have to empty the waste collector once a month or so.

 

[Breadman03]

Problem is now I don't have "humid" air going into the venturi to keep it clean. Will have to think through that one.

I've considered having my ATO run into the Venturi air line. I use a DOS for ATO, so I wouldn't have to worry too much about it pulling water through the line and the DI water would surely minimize mineral deposits.

 

[markstubb]

The only problem with that, is I use a hacked up ATK (the sensors broke so I'm using an avast pressure sensor for the ATO) and there is a pressure float on the pmup output as a mechanical failsafe. With the DOS, it'll be fine as long as its not running, but there's no mechanical failsafe. Still a cool idea though!

And something else just occurred to me is that the length the valve hangs below the skimmer cup, you can probably connect directly to the bottom of the cup, but if you wanted to put the valve on it, it may hang down that much further.

 

[Breadman03]

The only problem with that, is I use a hacked up ATK (the sensors broke so I'm using an avast pressure sensor for the ATO) and there is a pressure float on the pmup output as a mechanical failsafe. With the DOS, it'll be fine as long as its not running, but there's no mechanical failsafe. Still a cool idea though!

And something else just occurred to me is that the length the valve hangs below the skimmer cup, you can probably connect directly to the bottom of the cup, but if you wanted to put the valve on it, it may hang down that much further.

What I did was set my DOS to pump a bunch of water over 24 hours, then observed how much was pumped. I then adjusted the profile to pump 1.5x daily usage, unless my ATO or ATO Emergency floats were triggered. Even if a float fails, I've got plenty of time to react to an issue since my email alarm will tell me if a float is stuck for too long.

 

[markstubb]

So you proactively ATO instead of retroactively. Interesting methodology. Thanks!

 

[haanstang]

Thanks for sharing the pictures and all info. Much appreciated. I have a question about your waste collector. I see you have Tee on the venturi air inlet and have it connected to the waste collector. Whats the idea behind it?

The second line with the tee is to relieve to air in the collector when the waste drains.
I since installed float switches to shut off the pump when full. I used the tee and tied it into the venture line so the skimmer draws in the smelly air instead of releasing it into the room. I did that so I wouldn’t have to run carbon on the skimmate locker

 

[Salahunreal]

The second line with the tee is to relieve to air in the collector when the waste drains.
I since installed float switches to shut off the pump when full. I used the tee and tied it into the venture line so the skimmer draws in the smelly air instead of releasing it into the room. I did that so I wouldn’t have to run carbon on the skimmate locker

I thought so. Thanks very much for replying back. May i ask for a picture if possible for the floating sensor how you attached it. I saw that you asked for a hook but can't understand how the sensor installed.

 

[Salahunreal]

So here's my take on the skimmate drain and collector. I do not think you want the drain on the bottom of the cup if you're running a -24. The majority of skimmate collectors on the market have their intakes about event with the output of the valved connection on the skimmate cup. I use, and highly recommend, the avast skimmate locker and it has an air pressure "float" at the top to sense when the collector is full. It's super easy to empty and clean, and has carbon on top to filter out any skimmate air. Having a small amount of waste inside the skimmer cup isn't a big deal at all, to me at least.

The only thing I just recently realized that I need to just noodle on a bit more is I have an outside air intake going into my skimmer cup, which then goes down to the venturi. I had assumed that the intake from outside was providing all (well reasonably all - it's not a sealed system inside the skimmer cup) of the air into the skimmer. Then I started to wonder why my pH wasn't going up as I had anticipated and realized that it was likely sucking air in through the skimmate output port, and then down into the venturi - likely bypassing my external air supply altogether. So I then connected my outside supply directly to the venturi and noticed my pH went up about .2 over night. Problem is now I don't have "humid" air going into the venturi to keep it clean. Will have to think through that one.

TLDR; the right kind of skimmate collector negates the need to manually empty the cup every few days. Add on an Avast neck cleaner - and oh boy, you're in for a good time. I hardly ever clean my skimmer now a days, and I only have to empty the waste collector once a month or so.

Understood. The drain valve will remain as it is with no changes then
I was also planning for the Avast waste collector and swapiee but I saw one post here with custom waste collector from LR. Two inlets for that collector, one to drain the waste from skimmer and 2nd to release air from collector to skimmer. So this can replace the awesome Avast waste collector. I would need the swapiee though but I need to solve the height issue in my cabinet. I will check with Jeff if shortening the skimmer two inches would affect the skimmer performance or not

Regarding your issue with outside air, having air pump like the ones that comes with the sand vacuum gravel cleaner pump with inlet and output, would that solve your issue?

 

[Salahunreal]

What I did was set my DOS to pump a bunch of water over 24 hours, then observed how much was pumped. I then adjusted the profile to pump 1.5x daily usage, unless my ATO or ATO Emergency floats were triggered. Even if a float fails, I've got plenty of time to react to an issue since my email alarm will tell me if a float is stuck for too long.

ok so I really tried hard to understand this idea as it sounds really interesting but i couldn't I read it couple of times but i need to see how its connected. Do you have a build thread or pictures for this setup connection. "Pretty please "