Bakerman
Community Member
All,
First, let me thank you for the TREMENDOUS amount of info here. Great, great stuff. My first post, so please be gentle.
I'm moving into the world of SW. This will be my first SW tank, but far from my first tank. Been researching reefs for years, and I'm finally in a position financially, physically, etc. to make it happen. Quite excited.
I've decided on making my own PVC skimmer, counter flow, ceramic airstone, gravity fed. I know opinions on these vary far and wide, but that's not the reason for the post.
Here's something I've noticed. LOTS of discussion on various ways of setting them up, but I always see the incoming water introduced via an elbow or something similar directly into the top area of the main chamber. This seems less than optimal since you don't want to disturb the slow, laminar water flow, and any mechanical intrusion such as this, not to mention the comparatively high flow of water in a concentrated area, would seem to do just that. In a very bad spot where protein load is already high I might add.
So thinking about it, I've come up with a rough idea and first draft which I'd like to propose for comment/feedback. This diagram is mostly skematical, so please don't look for the finer details. But basically I suggest breaking the main body of the skimmer into two pieces, separated by ~1", and connected by two back to back reducers effectively creating a pooling chamber which the incoming water can be introduced to. In my example here, the main body would be, say, 4", and the reducers in the middle would be two back to back 4x6" reducers. The bottom portion would need to be extended into the lower reducer. In my final build, the top portion would be clear acrylic, and the external trap would be variable height to adjust the water column height in the skimmer body.
I believe this may provide a few benefits. One, no mechanical obstruction to flow. Two, a very low velocity on water introduction which is circumferential instead of point, and three, it maaaaay provide some "washing" of the skimmer body walls and provide a buffer between the bubbles and the PVC walls themselves maintaining an impact free zone around the outermost edges.
More details to work out, sure, but thoughts? Any big glaring issues? Wasting my time?
First, let me thank you for the TREMENDOUS amount of info here. Great, great stuff. My first post, so please be gentle.
I'm moving into the world of SW. This will be my first SW tank, but far from my first tank. Been researching reefs for years, and I'm finally in a position financially, physically, etc. to make it happen. Quite excited.
I've decided on making my own PVC skimmer, counter flow, ceramic airstone, gravity fed. I know opinions on these vary far and wide, but that's not the reason for the post.
Here's something I've noticed. LOTS of discussion on various ways of setting them up, but I always see the incoming water introduced via an elbow or something similar directly into the top area of the main chamber. This seems less than optimal since you don't want to disturb the slow, laminar water flow, and any mechanical intrusion such as this, not to mention the comparatively high flow of water in a concentrated area, would seem to do just that. In a very bad spot where protein load is already high I might add.
So thinking about it, I've come up with a rough idea and first draft which I'd like to propose for comment/feedback. This diagram is mostly skematical, so please don't look for the finer details. But basically I suggest breaking the main body of the skimmer into two pieces, separated by ~1", and connected by two back to back reducers effectively creating a pooling chamber which the incoming water can be introduced to. In my example here, the main body would be, say, 4", and the reducers in the middle would be two back to back 4x6" reducers. The bottom portion would need to be extended into the lower reducer. In my final build, the top portion would be clear acrylic, and the external trap would be variable height to adjust the water column height in the skimmer body.
I believe this may provide a few benefits. One, no mechanical obstruction to flow. Two, a very low velocity on water introduction which is circumferential instead of point, and three, it maaaaay provide some "washing" of the skimmer body walls and provide a buffer between the bubbles and the PVC walls themselves maintaining an impact free zone around the outermost edges.
More details to work out, sure, but thoughts? Any big glaring issues? Wasting my time?
