Beckett protein skimmer

[nobody]

It has taken me over 2 years from the time I decided to build a beckett style protein skimmer to actually build and put it to work

A little over 2 years ago, I bought a beckett injector from Rick, 5" and 4" acrylic tubings from another member, and black acrylic scrap from yet another member.

The original concept that inspires me to do the work is here. After talking to Ken (quangtam7), and looking at his Trigger System skimmer, I decided to make everything removalble so that it's easy to fix and clean. A co-worker helped cut the flanges with his lathe, but I've accquired enough skills to cut them with a Dremel tool set now.


Materials costs, not including my time:

Acrylic tubing 20
Black acrylic 15
Scrap acrylic 10
Beckett injector 15
Neoprene gasket 10
Nylon screws/wing nuts 15
Gate valve 10
PVC plumbing 10
Flexible hose 10

Total cost 115

Here are the pictures:

The base:

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Different sections of the riser tube

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Stacked up

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Fully stacked, dry

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Leak free after a couple of weld-on fixes

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First test, Mag12 pump

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First test, Mag7 pump

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Mag 7 is now used to power the skimmer

Day 1

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Day 7

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Collector cup with shut off (again idea taken directly from this forum)

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[Ashlar]

Interesting!! I understand how the beckett injector works, but how do you control the amount of air? Is there any kind of valve to dial in the wetness? (maybe I'm just blind.)

Awesome work!

 

[Gargoyle12]

The it should be control by the gate valve on the return.

 

[Ashlar]

Ahh.. I was reading http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-03/fm/index.php and it mentioned a closed housing over the beckett injector, and a needle valve to control air flow.

 

[Gargoyle12]

Some people do that but most just run them wide open for the air as it will pull in what it needs.

 

[nobody]

I find it much easier to let as much air in as possible and control the dry/wet skimming by throttling the skimmer water return.

Here is a pic of the air in take. Note that the beckett nozzle is very noisy, so I pipe the intake into my garage. Another approach would be to build a silencer for it.

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[acan_aggie]

you should use a needle vavle to adjust the amount of as it also adjusts the size of the micro bubbles. If you take a look at any commercially downdaft or beckett skimmer they all have air adjusting vavles

 

[acan_aggie]

also a valve will help quiet the noise a bunch.

 

[nobody]

@acan_aggie wrote:

I'm not sure I follow this... You appear to be saying that less air results in smaller bubbles. However, doesn't less air mean less bubbles, which means less skimming?

BTW, noise is not an issue because I pipe the air intake out of the room and into the garage. It has the added benefit of taking fresh air (less CO2) in

Thanks,

 

[Ashlar]

Khoa, I think it comes down to a quantity != quality of bubbles.

The pump moving water through the beckett valve induces air that gets chopped up by the beckett. A beckett typically scales up with flow, so that more flow = more bubbles.. up to a point. If you can control the amount of air entering the beckett, you can control the size of the microbubbles to a degree.

You want as many _small_ bubbles as you can get. Sometimes that involves throttling the air back a bit. This is especially important if you use a very powerful pump.

In any event, a valve is cheap, and it might let you 'dial in' the skimmate a bit better without having to run it 'wetter'.

 

[nobody]

@Ashlar wrote:

Since I have a small tank (72 G), I'm very sensitive to the added heat that gets introduced by having another pump. I currently have a Mag12 as a return which tee off into my Ca reactor, and another DIY phosban + carbon filter. A Mag7 is powering the skimmer. This is not optimal, but total pump wattage is already at 180W! I used to be able to maintain tank temperature at 79F with just the Mag12 + 2 fans blowing during halide time (11 hours). I now have to the the fans run 24 hours and the temp is at 80F.

My next task is to find a cooler pump with the same GPH, but so far haven't found any. Rick gave me some good pointers, but the Eheim pumps appear to generate the same amount of heat, at least per spec anyway.

Any other submersible pumps that anyone would recommend?

@Ashlar wrote:

Agreed. I'm happy with its current operation, but I should at least give it a try.

 

[melev]

Nice job. I like it.

 

[quangtam7]

@nobody wrote:

Best submersible pumps, imo are Hagen Powerjet pump, they are saltwater safe, run quiet cool and use much less power than any other pumps, PJ 3000 would be great for your skimmer ( I once had PJ 7000 on my beckett), great for close loop too. Btw, they are made in Italy, not scrappy ones that are made in China.
http://www.azponds.com/subpumps.htm