Skimmer question

[hawkinsrgk]

I have recently bought a new SWC skimmer and have been trying to find out the best flow rate through the sump for the skimmer. I was able to get the answer but as usual the answer confused me.

Answer from Luke - Luke has tested this with several different flow rates and has found that 4X seems to work the best. In my case that is 720GPH.

Answer from SWC support - 800GPH

So based on that .... If the water pump for the skimmer is 660GPH what would be the benefit of having a flow rate higher than that going through the sump? My question isn't really specific to SWC, but skimmers in general.

PS for anybody looking to buy a skimmer - When it comes to customer service Luke is the way to go (SWC Skimmer). He gave me a call on Saturday while he was driving to answer any questions that I had about the skimmer. He was out of the skimmer that I wanted but cut me a deal on a demo one that he had on one of his tanks. Overall top notch.

Thanks
Randy

 

[luke33]

Hey Randy, thanks for the kind words. I thought i said 6x's works the best : ) I think 4-10x's is fine but i run at 6x's the flow rate. More confusion......lol This is a very open thing to chat about as you'll pry see 4-who knows. The best answer is whatever works best for your setup.

 

[hawkinsrgk]

Hi Luke
Your welcome. I just wanted to pass the word of how great the experience was.

Looks like I quoted you wrong on your suggestion of 6X (1080GPH), sorry about that. I don't think it changes the main point of the question which is what is the benefit of having a higher sump flow rate than the skimmer pump flow rate. Just trying to understand what I am missing. For example if a sump flows 1000GPH and a skimmer pump flows 500GPH, then to me at least 500GPH would not be skimmed therefore any sump flow over 500GPH is a waste. From everything that I have read and asked I know this example has to be wrong, but trying to understand why.

 

[Sasquatch]

its about how much unskimmed water is made available to the skimmers intake, there is a formula somewhere for this but imagine a gallon of water, take out 1 quart and replace with new water, this is 25%. do it again remove a quart and replace with new, this is not 50% because you removed a quart of 75% old and 25% new, so it would require a LOT of 1 quart changes to replace all the original water. Now instead of changing water, substitute the "skimmed" water for the replacement water, the % of turnover through the sump simple allows the skimmed water to be flushed out of the sump quicker ensuring a constant supply of dirty water, can't believe I managed to drivel this out lol

 

[hawkinsrgk]

Thank you Sasquatch

I found the article that your talking about but its quite complicated... several different variables to try to understand. :nerd:

 

[Sasquatch]

Thank you Sasquatch

I found the article that your talking about but its quite complicated... several different variables to try to understand. :nerd:

lol, no kidding