kng Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 OK, I’ve seen a lot of people looking for the Piccolo skimmers and either not being able to find them, or having to pay close to $40 for one. So I thought I’d share what BrownisBetter has done in his 2.5 gallon office nano. He cut down a small Lee’s Skimmer and put it in his Top Fin HOB filter (no media). So far it has worked great (the skimmate is from less than 24 hours of running. Hope this helps some people who were looking for the Piccolo. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 the lee's a very good skimmer. it should perform better than the piccolo imo (never used it before). the lee's a true counter-current skimmer and a hella cheaper than the piccolo. the piccolo is more vogue because it's slightly smaller and has a catchier name imo. Link to comment
ChrisF Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 I tried the lee's, cut it down and all, but I couldnt get hardly anything out of it. I made a skimmer similar to the piccolo w/ the Lee's collection cup. Works much better IMO. The Lee's was too hard to get the two settings to work together properly. Here's a pic: http://reefcentral.com/forums/attachment.p...&postid=1520086 Link to comment
dickwayne Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 What kind of pump do you run with those? Is it an external pump, one of those cheap ones? Does anyone have a picture? Link to comment
Lunchbucket Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 they ONLY require and air pump!! hmm, interesting. i might have to see how my piccolo performs and then MAYBE do a test w/ a cut down lees. thanks for the info Lunchbucket Link to comment
kng Posted July 12, 2003 Author Share Posted July 12, 2003 ChrisF, To be honest, my full size Lee's in my 10 gallon set-up is not using both air lines. One is to run the airstone and one is to run the circulation. My airpump wasn't strong enough to run both, so I am just using the airstone. The water still gets pushed out of the top, so I know it's circulating water. Mine took about 2 days before is produced any skimmate this way, but now I have to empty it every day. (Produces about a half inch.) dickwayne, All you need is an external air pump to run both lines (not a powerhead or anything like some skimmers use). You can get one for about 10 dollars...I don't think it matters which one, other than personal preference, as long as it pumps air. Lunchbucket, Glad to be able to contribute to the forum...let me know how your experiment goes. Thanks, Kyle Link to comment
tinyreef Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 you can run the lee's off of one pump by tee'ing off the original pump line or get a larger pump like the tetra deep water dw-24 which has two separate lines (quietest and sufficient pressure imo). the circulating line doesn't need a lot of pressure. the valves regulate the air flow. i usually let the airstone run full out (no valve at all) and then throttle it back with the counter-current. you'll probably need to keep the valves on until the skimmer breaks in (takes about a month ime). the efficiency of the lee's dramatically increases with the counter-current. (i.e. you'll get sludge versus just skimmate) Link to comment
cmoreash Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 Lee's works very nicely if you can fiddle the knobs right, I had one, it worked good enough Link to comment
Lunchbucket Posted July 13, 2003 Share Posted July 13, 2003 ok anyone w/ a piccolo know how to get the damn tube at the bottom NOT TO KINK up??? just got mine today and i have to set it higher...hence the airline tube at the bottom kinks up...any advice?? Lunchbucket Link to comment
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