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Coral Vue Hydros

A skimmer pump question


Markushka

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I have a red sea fish pHarm berlin skimmer collecting dust in storage. according to the manual it needs a pump rated for 500gph and 10ft head. now a pump like that costs 80$ at a reef supply store, and 50$ (including shipping etc from Home Depot). I also need a return pump ( another 30$) for my tank, now here is the question.... Can I use an overrated pump for my return and then plug my drain right into the skimmer and save 30$ and space in my sump or do I need to buy two pumps?

 

I'm going to have a herbie type overflow from the tank if that helps.

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Its a venturi intake. I do not know the draw because I never had it running. It does have a tube for the venturi intake and a tube for the pump input and two outputs above. I'll take some pics when I have everything set with the tank.

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So umm, what should I do? I wanna place an order with either tonight. I'll probably get the small pump, and hold off on the skimmer pump till I feel the need for a skimmer.

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Running your drain line from the display into the skimmer is not going to have enough pressure behind it for the venturi to work properly. The skimmer really needs it's own pump to feed it and work properly. A one pump scenario might be possible by seriously oversizing your return pump and teeing off that to feed the skimmer. Probably going to be a little tricky picking the correct size though... you may max out the skimmers input capacity, still have too much flow for the display and then end up needing a third outlet from the pump to bleed off any excess flow into the sump. I'd just wait till you decide you want to use the skimmer and then set it up with it's own pump per the specs stated.

 

Steve

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Running your drain line from the display into the skimmer is not going to have enough pressure behind it for the venturi to work properly. The skimmer really needs it's own pump to feed it and work properly. A one pump scenario might be possible by seriously oversizing your return pump and teeing off that to feed the skimmer. Probably going to be a little tricky picking the correct size though... you may max out the skimmers input capacity, still have too much flow for the display and then end up needing a third outlet from the pump to bleed off any excess flow into the sump. I'd just wait till you decide you want to use the skimmer and then set it up with it's own pump per the specs stated.

 

Steve

 

Thanks, I do have another tank that is draining to this sump so I could do three outlets, but I think I will just wait and get the skimmer pump when I get to setting up the skimmer.

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hey make sorry to have bailed on the ? left for the party. I'm betting that its an aspirating venturi with the air intake before the pump. these usually need to be run with an independent pump to function correctly. sorry I'll go into more when I wake up.

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The air intake is after the inlet for the pump. Thanks bitts, I'll go with the general consensus on this one and get a separate pump. Maybe if I'm feeling adventurous down the road I'll upgrade to a way bigger pump and split it 3 ways to feed the two tanks and the skimmer.

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with it working off induction then you'll want to base the choice of pump. on the head pressure of the pump & the way it handles the pressure through the flow curve. like if you have two pumps & one starts with twice as much head but looses it at twice the rate as the other. than the venturi won't perform the way it could. when you look at the big boys like AquaC, ETS, My Reef Creations, or Precision Marine running something like an Iwaki 55 or 70. they may loose half their flow at the point of induction. so if it's being powered by a small hobby pump such as AquaC'c remora with the mj 1200, then performance can be boosted by swapping the pump out. for something like an Ehiem compact 1000. simply due to how it handels the back pressure in comparison. splitting the pump then as you would guess has a substantial effect on this as well.

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