Help with skimmer

gar732 · Jan 1, 2011

Ok skimmer pros, I need some help. I'm making a cone skimmer that is about 20" tall all together. The base is 6" and tapers to 4". The collection cup is 6" tall by 6" wide and has a 4" neck. I want to mount the pump internally but that will leave about 11" between the bubble plate and the top of the neck. Will that be enough reaction time or should I make it taller so that it will have more reaction time? The pump by the way is a psk2500 with a white lighting pin wheel and an aquamaxx venturi just in case it makes a difference. Here are a couple of pics to show what I mean. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

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gar732 · Jan 1, 2011

skinz78 · Jan 1, 2011

I am not too sure but I do know the longer reaction time the better.

Sasquatch · Jan 1, 2011

longer reaction time has been replaced with brute force, 10 yrs ago we couldn't produce the kind of froth we can today,the question for you is?? " will there be a separate supply pump?" if you can recirculate the bubble pump you can slow the supply of tank water put through it thus increasing doc removal, I have Pablo Escobal's flow chart if you'd like just lmk

gar732 · Jan 2, 2011

There will be no other pump, just the sicce. Not sure I understand entirely, are you saying to recirculate the skimmer compartment in the sump? I'd like to keep it as simple as possible and I want to keep the footprint as small as possible also, not a ton of room in the sump. Thanks

Sasquatch · Jan 2, 2011

a recirculated skimmer just reuses the water in the skimmer, it dosen't draw from the sump, just means the water given to the skimmer is bubbled more times, it should work fine the way your going, Ive never had an in sump skimmer, always used remotes to free up sump room

gar732 · Jan 2, 2011

So should I go with the taller or shorter version, or should I do some thing completely different like the trigger systems or the avast skimmer?

skinz78 said:
I am not too sure but I do know the longer reaction time the better.

Is there such a thing as too much reaction time? I don't want to glue the thing together and then find out I should have done it another way.

I'm open to suggestions if anyone thinks some thing else will work better. Thanks

Sasquatch · Jan 2, 2011

some of the old airstone skimmers were 6 or 7 feet tall, thats long reaction time, it won't hurt either way, the bubbles get coated with whatever is in skimmate and rise up to the surface creating a head of foam, more bubbles equals more foam, either way you go it just needs to function and not bleed micro bubbles back to the tank, I think thats the biggest challenge, the taller it is just gives you a bit more room for the exit water to be clear

gar732 · Jan 2, 2011

Ok, got it. So I guess I'll go with the taller version then. Thanks for the input.

mojo · Jan 2, 2011

Both would work well. If its not too hard I would would go with the second.

gar732 · Feb 12, 2011

I've got this thing almost all wrapped up. The only thing left is the bubble plate. I'm debating between a 4" and 5" bubble plate, any suggestions?

skinz78 · Feb 12, 2011

Isn't bigger almost always better?

Sasquatch · Feb 12, 2011

and heres the issue, if the bubble plate fills too much of the area it will drag a lot of bubbles into the exit and spew them into the tank, hydro dynamics is never easy lol

gar732 · Feb 12, 2011

With the 5" plate, there is only about 1/4-3/8" all around the the plate. I'm guessing that will not be enough space and the 4" plate will be the better option?

jledon4 · Feb 12, 2011

gar732 said:
So should I go with the taller or shorter version, or should I do some thing completely different like the trigger systems or the avast skimmer?

Is there such a thing as too much reaction time? I don't want to glue the thing together and then find out I should have done it another way.

I'm open to suggestions if anyone thinks some thing else will work better. Thanks

there are many articles and people saying that on today's skimmers with all the power and pumps that people are putting into them the longest you should go is 4'. after this you might just be loosing space.