Bak Pak skimmers water level

[airangel]

Noticed that my Bak Paks return is trickling back into the tank....the level is just at the point where it can flow thru the black plastic tubing....is the water level supposed to be higher and return to the tank with more force?

 

Anyone with a bak pak give me some help on how much flow is supposed to be retuned into the tank and is the water level supposed to be just at the point to overflow into that plastic return piece??

 

Thanks

[airangel]

Bump......

 

Anyone using one? Really need to know how high the water level should be in the back where it returns to the tank. Thanks

[PrimoPromo]

Mine's a little past halfway up the return. Might want to look at cleaning the power head on it. Which power head are you using?

[airangel]

Hey thanks for responding. It has a MJ1200 on it. There is that bulkhead looking part on it, wondering if my water is supposed to be higher than it, right now the water level is obviously high enough to go back into the tank thru it but wondering if there should be more flow.

 

Ok, just measured, my water level in that chamber is 3" down from the top of the unit.

[PrimoPromo]

That sounds about right. As long as it is not completely covering the output bulkhead you're good. The return on a bakpak is really not considered part of your water movement turnover just because it's such a slow rate. I found that if I had the bubble trap on the output side that it would just flow over the top and I saw a little but of surface turbulence with it, but not much.

[justbob]

I used to use a Bak Pak and still have one around somewhere. You may already know this trick, but if you run some airline tubing with a wood airstone attached (and air pump of course) up through the body of the skimmer, you should double the amount of junk the skimmer produces. Just an idea if you have not heard of this.

[airangel]

Primo

No bubble trap but guess the amt of return is about right then. Thanks for confirming.

 

JustBob

Nope, never heard of it. Just stick tubing with wooden stone right into the already bubbling mess you mean? I've got tubing and pumps, will need to get wooden airstone.

 

Thanks

[justbob]

Primo

No bubble trap but guess the amt of return is about right then. Thanks for confirming.

 

JustBob

Nope, never heard of it. Just stick tubing with wooden stone right into the already bubbling mess you mean? I've got tubing and pumps, will need to get wooden airstone.

 

Thanks

 

Yup, just keep the stone low in the body of the bak pak. That way you'll get a bunch of tiny bubbles adding to your existing skimmer bubbles. The key is the wood stone, because it creates such fine bubbles, just like skimmer bubbles you are already getting. I forget how long the wood stones last before they go out, but it's definitely worth doing to increase the skimmers performance.

[lulaface]

Yup, just keep the stone low in the body of the bak pak. That way you'll get a bunch of tiny bubbles adding to your existing skimmer bubbles. The key is the wood stone, because it creates such fine bubbles, just like skimmer bubbles you are already getting. I forget how long the wood stones last before they go out, but it's definitely worth doing to increase the skimmers performance.

 

+1 I keep two wood stones in there and get great skimmate. I also hang a bag of carbon in the output side just below the outlet tube. It make the water level on that side higher and it seems to make less of the drain noise and bubbles on the way out.

[airangel]

JustBob & LulaFace

Ok, will see if I can find some locally or I will order them. So LulaFace can I just use one of those T pieces to hook multi stones up to the one air pump? The carbon bag INSIDE the skimmer chamber below the bulkhead like part or INSIDE the AquaPods back chamber where the elbow return is (I'm not using the elbow)

The bakpak is producing a ton of bubbles with the MJ1200. Do you run the unit empty (no blue stuff etc)

Thanks