Skimming Principles

[tinygiants]

I saw that, but I just could not see spending 50 bucks for 5' of pipe, that a $30.00 pipe does the same thing, and I have 5' left over. As for adding a 1 foot section, I would ahve to buy the rubber boot connector. They are about ~$10.00 bucks. Depending on where I add the section, I may need 2 of them. My skimmer is not going to be pretty. It is going to be be neat, clean, and functional. A lot of the parts are going to be off the shelf parts. See snailmans sight (http://www.hawkfish.org/snailman/snailmandiy.htm)

If the design works as well as I hope and expect, I may upgrade for asthetics. However, do not fix it if it is not broke, comes to mind.

Dale

[barryhc]

It's not aesthetics Dale, it's observation.

Even an excellent design will show subtleties that were not obvious in the theoretical design. Even a "perfect" skimmer, if it were to exist, would have greatly variable functionality or effeciency, depending on water quality and feeding etc.

A skimmer is for an advanced aquarist, somewhat of a master indicator of "who knows what", and could be invaluable to various reef keeping parameters.

I for one would throw in a hundred dollars, for such observational feedback, of not only the skimmer, but of my reef system as well.

Just my $.01

> barryhc

[tinygiants]

And what exactly do you want to see? Bubbles? Turbulence? Volume of bubbles? Water level?

Are the commercial units large acrylic cylinders?
My buddy has used a PVC skimmer for years (before they were the norm, back when everyone used trickle filters). It is still running strong.

At the present time, I am inclined to believe I will be able to discern all I need to see from my breakdown points in the skimmer body. For me the proof will be in the skimmate production. < skimmate means the setup is worse than when I got > skimmate.

By using my gages, I will have much better data than feel good, looks good data. I will be able to tell how much air mixed with how much flow, mixed with how much dwell yeilds how much skimmate.

I am going to prove my design both the good and bad. I may very well need to add the view.

Dale

[barryhc]

Originally posted by barryhc
Even an excellent design will show subtleties that were not obvious in the theoretical design. Even a "perfect" skimmer, if it were to exist, would have greatly variable functionality or effeciency, depending on water quality and feeding etc.

A skimmer is for an advanced aquarist, somewhat of a master indicator of "who knows what", and could be invaluable to various reef keeping parameters.

This is for time frames too small to be anylyzed by skimmate production and effluent "quality". And for noting organics "binding" to the housing wall, "too far down" in the skimmer body.

I'm behind you all the way Dale!

> barryhc

[tinygiants]

Hopefully I will get the parts this week. I would like to do wet testing next weekend. We will see if Christmas deliveries and schedule allow that to happen.

[duhfactor]

The one disadvantage of using acrylic is the fact that in a see-through design, you have algae to contend with due to light being introduced into the skimmer. I hate that problem with my kent turbo skimmer. It skims o.k., but builds up a bit of algae on the main chamber walls because I had to put it in my sump which also has a built in refugium. When it has 10 hours of lighting at night in there, it's tough to stop the light bleed through. A PVC pipe would eliminate that problem. I was only thinking about buying a 1 foot section, but hadn't really looked into the coupler costs that much. I'm all over being thrifty..thats why I build my own equipment too. I still can't believe how well my calcium reactor works, especially considering that it was my first time. I have to turn it down to 6 bubbles a minute of CO2, and 45 drops of effluent per minute or the calcium goes off the scale!!!!!!! I bought a 10 # tank for CO2, and the needle still hasn't moved from full.....it has been a year. Keep it up Dale, it'll probably be better than any skimmer you've had before....I can't wait to see how the guages work out, this may be the answer to fine tuning the skimmer.

Damon

[goby1]

The pressure in the CO2 tank isn't an indicator of how full it is, al least until it is almost empty. A good way to tell is to weigh it.

How about draping a thick cloth around the clear skimmer to keep light out?

G1

[duhfactor]

Dale,
How are things coming? I found a local store with 8" piping. I found out that new sewer piping is equally capable as PVC, and all the fittings can be purchased locally as well, at a significant discount. Any problems encountered yet?

Damon

[tinygiants]

I have been sick lately, but my supplies are here. I should start this week. I will start a thread on it in the DIY soon.

[areze]

look foward to it. my whitewater pump arrives tomarrow, with all the final parts.

look foward to seeing how you turn out with your design.

take lots of pictures, I will be. assembly starts friday for me.

[duhfactor]

That's great Dale,
I'm going to be building an 8" skimmer right after your done if it works out good for you...I can't wait to see it take shape...hope you get feeling better.

[goby1]

Any progress? G1

[duhfactor]

Originally posted by goby1
Any progress? G1

Tinygiants started a new thread in the diy section Here

Damon

[tinygiants]

I need to change the stones out for fine pore ones.

[tinygiants]

I got the fine pore stones and retested.

i did get some super small bubbles. They are about the size of a . on your keyboard. I also got a large volume of small to medium bubbles about the size of the circles in the 8 on your keyboard. The bubbles had 2 different rise rates. The average bubbles rose at 7.86 inches/second. The micro bubbles rose at 1.67 inches/second.

My flow rates make very little difference in the bubble dwell time for the fast bubbles, but the micro bubbles take up to a minute to rise in my set up. I am still a long way from the 120 seconds.

The bubbles that Spazz got from his new needle wheel do not appear to be much smaller than my larger bubbles (opinnion). My small bubbles though are specks. They seem like grains of salt in the water.

I believe that the fine pore stones are in fact quite adequate for a good skimmer.

Dale

[BeanAnimal]

I see you have it in a big rubbermaid bin...wonder what that is for

[tinygiants]

That is my 100g sump.

[BeanAnimal]

So the skimmer is sitting in a sump in case it overflows?

[crazzyreefer]

so the extra fine stones would work correctly? I know they need 25 psi to run,, thats a problem....

[crazzyreefer]

so the skimmer using fine air stones need to be 90 feet? and the skimmer using ulta-fine stones needs to be 17 feet?

[BeanAnimal]

Crazzy.. I assume you are refering to the height needed to obtain a 2 minutes dwell time?

[tinygiants]

Originally posted by BeanAnimal
So the skimmer is sitting in a sump in case it overflows?

Yes and No. As a risk mitigation I decided to run my skimmer in the sump. If anything leaks or fails, it will just feed back to where I want it anyway. I had the space in the sump anyway.

I do not know if the extra fine stones would work correctly? I assume that if your compressor could overcome the back pressure they would.

Crazzy, I am not sure what you mean by your question on skimmer height. My fine pore stones produce bubbles ranging in size from micro bubbles to average small bubbles. Aquatic eco says they will produce .5 - 2 mm bubbles. I would guess that my stones are actually in that range. So skimmer height all depends on which bubbles you want to entrain. Water flow does have an effect on the bubble dwell. On the smaller bubble it has a a significant effect. In fact my water flow calculations look promising within the accuracy of my tools and equipment.

Dale

[crazzyreefer]

well ok.. if you wanted all bubbles to remain for 2 min in a fluid state, this would reduce the build up and reduce cleaning of a skimmer, make it extremely efficient, and remove all trace elements. if some of the bubbles were traveling for more than two min and others for 15 seconds then you would achieve great results but still have a skimmer than would need to be cleaned so that when the bubbles do collect the material that they would not break in removal process... on another note a wet neck... does this actually add to the dwell time?

[tinygiants]

Wet Neck does not add to dwell. If anything it reduces it by allowing the foam to travel up the riser faster. That is not necessarily a bad thing though. Since friction is reduced, you have a cleaner neck with less bubble loss.

[crazzyreefer]

yes but the bubbles are still in contact with the water...