extreme_tooth_decay November 16, 2007 Share November 16, 2007 Greetings, As you may know, when you do a recirc mod on a skimmer, you then need to feed the skimmer, either with a new pump or some other way. Usually this means folks drill a new hole in their skimmer to feed it. I have noticed that folks usually drill the new hole towards the top of the skimmer. It seems to me like this is a bad place. Having non-bubbly water up there at the top of the bubbles seems like it would mess up the bubbles that are there. Wouldn't it be better to have it near the bottom? Or, better yet, feed the skimmer right near where the recirc pump is sucking water to recirculate (to get the new water bubbled as fast as possible)? Note for an ASM G3 (as an example), the recirc pump (SEDRA 5000) is 500 GPH and the recommended feed pump range is 150-200 GPH, so this would result in the recirc pump recirculating 300 gph and sucking in new water at a rate of 200 gph (if all of the new water was sucked in to the recirc pump) tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandy7200 November 16, 2007 Share November 16, 2007 Top feed = downdraft = more contact time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
extreme_tooth_decay November 16, 2007 Author Share November 16, 2007 Top feed = downdraft = more contact time. I guess it seems to me like the recirculation itself is giving so much more contact time, that the little bit of extra contact time added by the weak downdraft of 150gph isn't worth breaking up the bubbles at the top of the column...I'm certainly no expert though! tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandy7200 November 16, 2007 Share November 16, 2007 those bubbles are stronger than you think, they won't break. as that dirty water passes the bubbles the bubbles collect the crap on the way up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rioreef November 16, 2007 Share November 16, 2007 On a recirc mod, couldn't the recirc pump also be the source of input water too? Possibly done by having a reducing tee on the inlet side of the pump. The smaller opening would be drawing from the sump, yet also pulling water from the skimmer as most of its input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
extreme_tooth_decay November 17, 2007 Author Share November 17, 2007 On a recirc mod, couldn't the recirc pump also be the source of input water too? Possibly done by having a reducing tee on the inlet side of the pump. The smaller opening would be drawing from the sump, yet also pulling water from the skimmer as most of its input. I actually tried that yesterday. I like that idea a lot since you dont need to drill an additional hole, and don't need an additional pump. Unfortunately, it didn't work :( The way the Sedra 5000 is, I had to have the T between the venturi and the skimmer. When I had it like that, the venturi just didn't work. tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rioreef November 17, 2007 Share November 17, 2007 Tim, Is that because of where the holes are on the skimmer currently for the sedra. I have a Sedra 3500 pump and have not done any mods yet. If the hole (outlet from skimmer to feed back through Sedra) is drilled farther away, would there not be room for a tee there before the venturi part? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
extreme_tooth_decay November 17, 2007 Author Share November 17, 2007 Tim, Is that because of where the holes are on the skimmer currently for the sedra. I have a Sedra 3500 pump and have not done any mods yet. If the hole (outlet from skimmer to feed back through Sedra) is drilled farther away, would there not be room for a tee there before the venturi part? Hiya, Maybe I'll take another look at it. My problem wasn't distance, I did get it physically connected. It looked like: Skimmer----Venturi----Tee----Pump. When I had it like this, it just flat out didn't work. I don't know why, I'll look at it again. It would be better: Skimmer----Tee----Venturi---Pump But I had some problem getting this physically connected. Something about the venturi didn't want to fit. I'll look at this again too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rioreef November 18, 2007 Share November 18, 2007 It would only work if the tee was before the venturi. Let me know if you get it to work. Pics please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
extreme_tooth_decay November 18, 2007 Author Share November 18, 2007 It would only work if the tee was before the venturi. Let me know if you get it to work. Pics please. I got it to work, but didn't take pics. The venturi input is (barely) not the right size to attach to 1" pipe fittings, so to attach a "T", I slightly reamed out the inside of a T, then it fit. Then I set it up: skimmer---T---venturi....pump This did work. In the end, I wasn't sure how much was recirculating and how much was new water, so I actually just went ahead and did the traditional recirc mod. I was tired of messing with it. tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak November 18, 2007 Share November 18, 2007 I got it to work, but didn't take pics. The venturi input is (barely) not the right size to attach to 1" pipe fittings, so to attach a "T", I slightly reamed out the inside of a T, then it fit. Then I set it up: skimmer---T---venturi....pump This did work. In the end, I wasn't sure how much was recirculating and how much was new water, so I actually just went ahead and did the traditional recirc mod. I was tired of messing with it. tim the setup on the turbo floater upstairs goes, pump, venturi, input, skimmer body (yes it's a resirc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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