Beckett Enclosure

[Guest Kimo]

Hey everyone -

 

I have an OLD MR-2 by Andy at myreef, and I am tired of constantly having to soak my beckett enclosure to clean it out.  The beckett enclosure does not come apart, so I have to take the whole thing off and soak it to get all the crud out.  Since I can't get to the beckett, I can never get it completely clean.

 

I would like to build a new enclosure for the beckett.

 

I have some spare 2" PVC, end caps and a union I would like to use to make the enclosure.  Over the next week or so I will be trying out different designs.

 

If anyone has any advice/ideas, post them here and we'll see if it pans out!

 

Thanks!

 

Jamie

[Guest Kimo]

Ok - Here's something interesting that I saw on RC, and it looks reasonable!

 

One of those 1" PVC span fittings, with a union on one side and a body with a plunger kind of thing that moves in and out.  If opened all the way the beckett should just fit inside.  Drill an air hole and tap it, attach my valve and it's done...

 

 

That's the plan anyway...we'll see what actually happens.

 

J

[Guest Kimo]

Well, I hacked apart my MR-2 beckett enclosure, and pulled out what was left of the beckett.  Andy (of myreef) had glued it all together, so I had to cut the ends off to get it out.

 

So now I have a butchered beckett, and a new enclosure.  Luckily it all fit together almost perfectly.  I just had to sand a little of the beckett retaining ring (if you've ever seen one, it's the little black ring that holds it together on the narrow end).  That part fits snugly in the top (union) part of the coupling, while the large end fits inside the coupling, against the plunger part.  The coupling is fully expanded, BTW.

 

I drilled a little hole (1/8??) as close to the union part as I could (just above the holes in the beckett...This is important.  Any lower and when you shut the thing off it will leak from the air hole.) for the air to enter when the beckett is running.

 

I put a 1"  to MPT fititng on the plunger end, and a 1" to FPT fitting on the union end.  Using Unions and a ball valve I plumbed my MAG 18 to it using 1" regular and flex PVC.  I used 1" to reduce head loss, it has a 3/4" output.  The difference in flow from 3/4" to 1" is amazing.

 

It works OK, but the bubble size leaves something to be desired.  When I find the other beckett I have around I will try it with a non-butchered model using o-rings instead of the black retaining ring.  I think water is leaking into the beckett chamber from the output of th ebeckett, recirculating the water.  I also wonder if any backpressure is building up, reducing efficency.  Any ideas?

 

Overall I think this type of enclosure is VERY promising, and VERY cheap to make, requiring no special tools unless you want to tap the air hole and add a valve.  I plan to do this but have to get access to a drill with a 1/2" chuck.

 

Any feedback is appreciated, and I will work on getting some pics.

 

J

[chideloh]

I actually never had any problems with becketts being dirty except for the tiny snails that get stuck in there and I would have to get them out. I soaked it once and saw that there wasn't that much to clean up except as I said earlier for the small snails. I put a sponge filter at the inlet and that helped a great deal with the snails. I don't know what kind of junk you are cleaning out of your beckett but if the snails are the problems, you may want to try that.

 

I now have a down draft skimmer. I like it much better than the beckett style skimmer. Works well and much less maintenance.

 

HTH

[Guest Kimo]

Thanks for the comments David.

 

When I took the beckett out of the old enclosure it was full of crap.  Hard brown little bits, snails, small pebbles, a couple chunks of carbon, etc.  Needless to say it wasn't working really well until I did this.  I was getting frustrated with how difficult it was to take the whole enclosure off of the skimmer - Undo the tubing from the pump to the enclosure, unscrew it from the skimmer, then put it back again when I had soaked it.  I just ended up not cleaning it as often as I should have.  The way I see it, now it's EASY to clean so I'm more likely to do it.

 

Thanks again for the feedback.

 

Jamie

[chideloh]

That's good, Jamie.  You are right, the easier something is more likely you are to do it.

[Guest Kimo]

Just an update -

 

I got my hands on a new beckett, and I assembled it into the PVC repair coupling.  I took the two sleeves off of the ends, and used 2 o-rings on the inlet side and one on the outlet side.  It fit perfectly into the coupling, doesn't move and has a watertight seal so no water is pumped into the enclosure - It must go into the beckett.  The hacked up beckett allowed water to leak into the enclosure.

 

after using this enclosure for a few days, I must say it is a vast improvement to what I had before.    The bubbles are MUCH smaller, there is a large amount of stable foam, and I am getting more skimmate than ever before.  Why is it so much better?  Here are my thoughts:

 

1.) Smaller bubbles = More efficent

2.) Increased plumbing size.  Before, I had 3/4 tubing reduced to 1/2 90 deg. elbow into the beckett.  The increased head due to this was significant, and now that I have 1" plumbing all around I am getting more out of my pump.  DO THIS if you have a MR skimmer.  It makes a VAST HUGE difference, even if you go 1" until the 1/2" input of the beckett.

3.) Clean beckett.  There was some crap still stuck in the old beckett that I couldn't get out.  Now it's no problem - un-thread the coupling, remove some o-rings and clean it with a toothbrush.  No problem.

 

My tank already looks better.  I think this is VERY worthwhile if you have a beckett skimmer and have trouble getting to the beckett to clean it out.  This is true of all of the old MR skimmers.  The new ones have removable becketts, so no problem there.

 

Next I will add another beckett to my skimmer :p

 

Let's just hope I don't break something I can't fix.

 

J

[Sph2sail]

FYI... I have an old MR-1.  Same problem.  Beckett sealed in.

 

Andy at My Reef Creations sells a new injector for about $75.  Can be opened up and cleaned in a snap.  He sells them for 2 reasons... upgrading a single injector system like the MR-2 to a dual injector system AND to upgrade older skimmers.

 

I did this and am a very happy camper now.

 

s

[Guest Kimo]

Steve -

 

Yep - That works too, and I must say that Andy is really good about customer support.  However, his injector costs $75 plus shipping.  The injector I built cost ~$12.  If you're not into DIY, then Andy's solution is the best.  Me however...

 

...I am poor.  :p

 

J