digz Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Here is something I want to build for my 20H (planning stages). I want it to incorporate a HOT fuge area, a Protein skimmer, and a surface skimmer. I was thinking of making it out of acrylic. Any suggestions on increasing the function of the overall plan? Maybe tips on how to make the PS more efficient, or how deep/wide to make the in tank surface skimmer? The only way I would go ahead and do this is so that I can incorporate all three aspects of the design. Also, how thick of acrylic for these specs : 20L X 4W X 12H (subject to change). Or... if buddha ever comes out of retirement... and wants to give me a price quote... Link to comment
digz Posted March 17, 2004 Author Share Posted March 17, 2004 Correction -> Induction method baby. (TY buddha) http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...ra&pagenumber=3 Link to comment
bones_bones Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 If you can get buddha out of retirement, I would definately buy one!!! Link to comment
onthefly Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 Mo' betta with the bubble trap! What size are you thinking about? Link to comment
digz Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 Maybe 20 inches long total, 6 for the skimmer, and 14 for the fuge area. 4 inches deep, 12 high for the fuge, 14 for the skimmer (need to bring the top higher then the level in the fuge). Im just pricing out acrylic for right now, and looking for cardboard to make a mock-up of the entire structure. What kind of pump should I use for this? Also, how big should the surface skimmer be? Link to comment
Reefer_Buddha Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 one thing to remember is you need to light the fuge. One reason the original remora is black is to keep algae from growin in the skimmer. When i first put my fuge on next to my nanomora i noticed stuff starting to grow in the collection cup from light bleeding out of my fuge being lit all the time. You might need to make the skimmer part of the fuge out of black acrylic and its about $2 more than clear acrylic. Link to comment
digz Posted March 19, 2004 Author Share Posted March 19, 2004 Maybe Ill make the acrylic black where the skimmer/fuge areas are seperate, and then spray paint the outside of the skimmer area. But I dont know, stuff growing in the collection cup doesnt seem like a big problem to take care of. Link to comment
Undertheradar Posted March 19, 2004 Share Posted March 19, 2004 Youre last pic is worse. I take it that you want to use the pump as the air-mixer for the skimmer (venturi skimmer?). Youre skimmer is all screwed up...the baffles are all wrong (what do the diagonal ones do?) and the input for it doesnt make any sense. Here... Link to comment
Undertheradar Posted March 19, 2004 Share Posted March 19, 2004 the intake on your design has a flaw...it doesnt allow you to maintain a constant water level...so if you have too much water in the tank, it wont skim...yet, if you have too little...it will run the pump dry. A better idea would be to have the fuge use an overflow style intake...running through the fuge...and then geting pumped into the skimmer column...causing a higher water level in the skimmer that would overflow back into the tank. Link to comment
digz Posted March 19, 2004 Author Share Posted March 19, 2004 Hrm, Ill look into that. I was taking the skimmer idea off of the ramora and buddha's nanomora idea. Link to comment
digz Posted March 19, 2004 Author Share Posted March 19, 2004 Wait.. what is wrong with the water level? I see nothing wrong with it. Overflow to a pump, pump into the skimmer, skimmer into fuge and fuge back into tank. The fuge will sit higher then the tank -> gravity fed back to tank. Only problems with it (as with almost any surface skimmer) would be evap causing a lower water level. But there would have to be so much evap... anyways, I realise my baffles are a lil off. I call GG on MSPAINT. Ill try and draw some beter skimmer plans. I think it will end up alot skinnier too. Link to comment
Undertheradar Posted March 19, 2004 Share Posted March 19, 2004 if there is a pump inside a skimmer box, like what you have in mind, and like what the HOB skimmers use...it doesnt really skim, and like you have to admit, it is at the mercy of evaporation to maintain that water level. Remember, in a multi-level or sump type setup, it is always the lowest water level or body of water, that lowers as water is taken away (evap). So if you had the main tank and a sump under it, then the sump level would go down when water evaps. Now, in the case of the 'pump-in' HOB fuges and skimmers, unless there is a sump as well, the main tank becomes the lowest body of water. So when water evaps, the fuge stays the same, yet the main tanks water level is what varies. Now, if you add an overflow box to the intake pump of the fuge on one of these...the inside of the overflow box, in fact, becomes the lowest water level in the system. That means that any water that evaps would directly effect the water level inside the skimmer box. This can be a huge problem as any nano-reefer would have to admit...we have alot of evap. Amounts of up to a gallon a day are not uncommon. Will your overflolw box have at least a gallon in it? I think not. So how do we get around this? Well, One is with an auto-top-off in the skimmer box. This would keep the water level constant in the skimmer box. The downside is that this means you will have to have a larger box than you might desire. Big enough for the pump, a float switch, and enough room to allow for the water turbulence to calm so the float doesnt just keep bobbing up and down all day long due to the water flow. Not the most practical. There is the more common method of simply keeping the water level in the main tank high enough so the skimmer box never runs out of water. The disadventage to this is that the box is no longer truly surface skimming, know what I mean? It is simply an normal pump intake that happens to be close to the surface...but isnt really drawing from the surface. If the water level is high enough, only a small amount of the surface might really be getting drawn. The plan I drew up for you has a TRUE surface skimmer, as the water going into the overflow box has to do just that...overflow. As evap takes away water, the water level in the fuge goes down. This would allow you a much better range with regards to evaporation level. It has a True surface skimmer, a skimmer, and refugium. There is one better design, perhaps the ultimate sump/fuge/skimmer setup...but you will just have to wait and see it when I post pics of my new system...maybe next month. Link to comment
digz Posted March 19, 2004 Author Share Posted March 19, 2004 I see now, but I really dont think it would be that large of a problem, I think I can get around it by creating different sized "teeth" in the surface skimmer, but putting in a float switch wouldnt be that much more work. Besides, your design doesnt allow for pods to enter the main tank. Based on other fuges/skimmers, I think Ill be alright. Link to comment
Undertheradar Posted March 20, 2004 Share Posted March 20, 2004 Ahhhhh, you have identified my major gripe as well...how do you use a sump but also have a fuge that overflows into the main tank to allow for good plankton/mysis/pods to overflow into the main tank... oh well, heres the basic idea of what I have been using on a larger system...and will be using in a smaller scale on a 25 and 10 gallons... It has a wave system. It has a skimmer. It has a true overflow. It has an auto-top-off. It has a plenum/dsb area. It has a fuge that overflows into the main tank. Link to comment
digz Posted March 20, 2004 Author Share Posted March 20, 2004 Wow that is hella' complicated, but a nice design! Im actually considering just making an area in the fuge for a remora to sit, but Id really like to create a compact all-in-one design that I can just hang off the back of a tank. Link to comment
digz Posted March 21, 2004 Author Share Posted March 21, 2004 Here is what I was talking about: I could throw a few peices of acrylic inside the overflow to help protect it from the water comming in, and the teeth of the overflow could be cut at different lengths (the longer ones are skinnier) just to be sure that, for whatever reason, water is getting into the overflow. Link to comment
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