In the meantime! skimmer mod question!

[Jermz79]

I am waiting for NanoBob to get caught up on his 12gal DX models. In the meantime I was thinking about just doing the cassette tape mod, but am not sure if I completely understand the whole thing!

 

NanoBob explained it to me a little and I thought I had it, but I guess not!

 

So....

 

You get a cassette tape holder and sperate the pieces ... channel some grooves into the top of it and stick it over the intake grate, voila it is held in place by the suction! What I don't quite understand is when the water rushes over this the grooves basically break up the surface scum and then trap it ... where does it get trapped? In the first chamber ... if so I'm assuming that you will have to have sponge and only sponge in there right? How often do you pull the sponge to clean it? If not sponge what do you use to trap the GUNK?

 

Maybe someone can explain it in leighman terms for me!

 

 

Sorry NanoBob ... I thought I had it!!!!!!

 

 

Jermz

[NanoBob]

That's ok. we'll try again...

 

Most of the surface "scum" is so small you won't have to worry about it getting trapped in anything. The important thing is breaking the surface tension. As for large pieces, let say flake food, they simply flow over/thru the skimmer into the first chamber though the intake grate. I have one sponge in the first chamber on top of a bag of chemi-pure. I clean it once a week. To prevent flake from going into the filter compartments I just shut down my powerheads until the food is gone. Other than that there aren't too many "large" pieces of debris on the suface.

Hope this cleared it up a little.

Bob

[Jermz79]

o.k. so if I have LR rubble in the first chamber and then put a sponge over it ... then place the skimmer mod on that would be sufficient or do I have to remove the rubble? I don't run any chemi-pure ... should I be?

 

You also said something about the chambers running dry because of evap. that was a bit misleading as well .......

 

HaHa ... man where was I yesterday, HELLO MCFLY ANYONE HOME!!!

[NanoBob]

 

Any skimmer that covers up the intake will, if there isn't enough water, run the back chambers dry. Think about it, the return pump that feeds the display is in the bottom of chamber 3 and draws water from that chamber which draws water from chamber 2. Chamber 2 is fed by chamber 1. And chamber 1 is fed by the intake grate. Well if you have a skimmer covering that intake and the slots on the skimmer are above it you need to have enough water in the display to feed over the skimmer. And where is the water coming from that's in the display??, chamber 3.

Now that you are totally confused!

 

In a nut shell, water evaporates out of a tank. By setting a skimmer over the filter intake you in effect set the display water level and any evap that takes place happens in the back chambers.

 

Bob

[Jermz79]

o.k. think I'm getting it now!!! So int hat case wouldn't it be better to set the skimmer mod a little lower or would it then serve no purpose?

 

and as far as what you keep in chamber 1 ... would my LR rubble and sponge be sufficient? Or do I need to ditch the rubble for some Chemi-pure or something?

 

Basically what this skimmer does is breaks the surface of the water like a comb kind of right? Then as the water flows through the intake the sponge cathes the nasty and lets the clean flow?

 

Am I catching the drift or not?

[NanoBob]

Yep you got it. Rubble and a sponge are fine in the first chamber. There are any number of combos that people use back there. Some use chemi-pure, some use purigen, some just use rubble and chaeto without the sponge or chemicals. Do a search and you can find the best for your setup.

By lowering the skimmer you do in a sense defeat the skimmer. Remember the more water in your system the more stable it will be.

Bob

[Jermz79]

O.K. I think I'm golden now! Thanks a bunch ... and keep me in the loop on your progress, yours looks so much better than the cassette!