anyone run external skimmer?

[moga]

just wondering how you set up.. not in the sump nor hang-on the back..

 

how you set it up?

 

let me see some pics.~

[mling]

I am planning to change my setup of skimmer in the sump to an external location.

I am hoping to rely on good old gravity to move the water in and out of the skimmer.

Let's see what other have to suggest.

[Jason Rhoads]

I am planning to change my setup of skimmer in the sump to an external location.

I am hoping to rely on good old gravity to move the water in and out of the skimmer.

Let's see what other have to suggest.

 

I would love to hear how you are planning this setup. Would you mind sharing your plan?

[Incredible Corals]

You just have a feed pump that pulls the water from the sump to the skimmer and the output goes back to the sump. We have one on our frag tank if you want to come by and check it out.

[Brian Ward]

You just have a feed pump that pulls the water from the sump to the skimmer and the output goes back to the sump. We have one on our frag tank if you want to come by and check it out.

 

Yep, pretty easy setup. I ran one for several years. You definitely have to make sure that you have very little resistance for the water returning to the sump or you risk the water level in your skimmer being too high with no real way to adjust it.

 

Oh, and skimmer has to be recirculating. The return to the sump should be through the standpipe on the skimmer.

[mling]

I would love to hear how you are planning this setup. Would you mind sharing your plan?

 

I have it on this forum -> tank redesign

[mling]

You just have a feed pump that pulls the water from the sump to the skimmer an....

 

Any reason who you would not have the drain water from the DT flow directly to the skimmer using gravity ?

Is it not correct to assume that so long as the entry to the external skimmer is below the DT's water level, gravity will move the water to it ?

[Brian Ward]

Any reason who you would not have the drain water from the DT flow directly to the skimmer using gravity ?

Is it not correct to assume that so long as the entry to the external skimmer is below the DT's water level, gravity will move the water to it ?

 

I suppose this could be possible. Not sure if you'd get enough flow through the skimmer. Also, the skimmer is a form of physical filtration just like your filter socks. You really want the filter socks to filter out the large particles and then use the skimmer to bubble out the dissoved organics.

[ridetheducati]

A few years ago, I plumbed my drains directly to the H&S skimmer. 600-800gph directly to the skimmer. It was fabulous.

[steveoutlaw]

I know a number of folks who gravity feed their skimmer. You just have to make sure that the gravity feed will send enough water through the skimmer.

[basser9]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=fV_Lq6L8oPQ

 

Get out of the sump and you can go big an tall.......

There is nothing like a 6foot tall beckett.

Video is my skimmer the beckett in the left pic is a

external run beckett on SANJAYS tank.

 

 

 

Edited April 12, 2013 by basser9

[ohaverd]

I have a AC EV400 sitting above and to the left of my sump. A mag24 feeds it from the sump, and the skimmer overflow goes back into the sump past where the Mag24 is so I dont skim the same water over and over again.

[mling]

You use a Mag 24 and that is not too powerful ? How many GPH is that ?

While I want to pass a lot of water through the skimmer, in the sump, I am already constantly dealing with the skimmer overflowing due to too much water. I only have a only a Mag 2 return to the DT and using gravity from the overflow to feed directly to the Deltech 600.

 

I am thinking of making the Deltech 600 totally external, have a pump run water to the intake and the output from the skimmer to flow back to the sump via gravity. I was wonder what GPH pump I should use for that.

[ridetheducati]

Feed it 400-600 gph.

[taiscici]

I have deltec ap600 running externally. I used to have mag 5 going to the intake. I have since modified the skimmer a little, I now have water from overflow feed directly to the skimmer, replaced skimmer pump to bubble blaster 5000 and replace the output to bigger PVC so it can handle more input water.

[mling]

I have deltec ap600 running externally. I used to have mag 5 going to the intake. I have since modified the skimmer a little, I now have water from overflow feed directly to the skimmer, replaced skimmer pump to bubble blaster 5000 and replace the output to bigger PVC so it can handle more input water.

 

Currently I only need one of the 2 skimmer pumps the 600 comes with. Have you considered using the outlet for the second pump for "output", there by having 2 put puts ? Could post or pm me a pic of your skimmer ?

[taiscici]

You can have 2 inputs but it doesn't do any good when your skimmer pump only put out about 400gph and your input is 800gph. Here are some pics of my deltec and new bubble blaster pump. This pump is awesome it's so quite compare to the one came with the skimmer.

 

 

 

 

 

[mling]

Cool, thanks for the pics, taiscici. I see you did quite a bit of retro fitting to your Deltec.

Bubble blaster pump .... looks like the $55 I spend on last Friday at Petco for the 55G is about to turn into $550 in one week