This is why I never recommend an external skimmer.

melev

melev

Club President
Staff member
Board of Directors
Sponsor
Today, my skimmer's collection cup was pretty full, but I didn't have a chance to empty it yet as I do daily. It had about a gallon of skimmate, and it needed to be poured out. When I went into the fish room to resume the return pump now that the reef had its nightly dinner, I found this. Note the foam in the section all around the skimmer, 4" high.

overflowing1.jpg
alt="">

overflowing2.jpg
alt="">

overflowing3.jpg
alt="">

Had this skimmer been external to the sump, the fluid would have been all over the floor and the auto top off would have been trying to add more water to the system to keep up with the demand. Instead, I just had a small mess to wipe up, and the skimmer to drain.

Since all the skimmate had been diluted thoroughly by all that water, I restarted it to skim the water in the sump for now, and after 30 minutes I'll restart the return pump. There's no reason to send all the stuff back up to the reef after all.

FYI - when I first saw this, I immediately turned off the skimmer's pumps, and began to clean things up. Then I decided to put it back the way it was to take these pictures, in hopes it will help someone else grasp what can occur at times.
 
Five minutes later....

Problem solved. 5 minutes later, here's the sump and skimmer.

overflowing4.jpg
alt="">

overflowing5.jpg
alt="">

It helps to have a skimmer rated for 500g in a sump that is holding 70g of water (of course the refugium was unaffected so that 29g of water can be subtracted). So 40g was cleaned up in 5 minutes. :D

Running it to a separate container with a float switch is an option, but since I clean the cup out daily, that isn't necessary. If there was a simple way to disconnect tubing or wiring from the collection cup for daily cleaning, I'd be more inclined to try it.
 
Holy crap - that's a lot of skimmate for a day! I know you tend to overfeed/overskim, but that's a little nuts.

Maybe your next reef equipment investmet should be a gas mask so you can empty without fear :)
 
My external skimmer has an overflow cannister with a pingpong ball float. If the overflow fills up then the pingpong ball floats up and plugs the air vent. This back pressure now stops the skimmer by preventing the venturi air to flow until I empty the overflow.
 
Mark, I don't have that option unless I close off all 12 holes in the lid of the collection cup.

I just should have emptied the cup sooner, when I fed the tank.
 
Wow. You just killed my plan to have an external skimmer :evil:

Back to square one because I can't fit anything under my 72G stand.
 
Khoa - If you're short on space, check out the AquaC's... For the their power, they're very short...

(Sorry to hijack thread, but.....)
 
@nobody wrote:
Wow. You just killed my plan to have an external skimmer :evil: Back to square one because I can't fit anything under my 72G stand. said:
I have had an external skimmer from the beginning and not once in all these years has it ever overflowed. It needs to be set up properly with a collection container that will shut the air off the the skimmer when full just like thedocisin is talking about.
Click to expand...
 
@thedocisin wrote:
My external skimmer has an overflow cannister with a pingpong ball float. If the overflow fills up then the pingpong ball floats up and plugs the air vent. This back pressure now stops the skimmer by preventing the venturi air to flow until I empty the overflow. said:
Every external skimmer should be designed like this, if not there is a serious flaw and is really not appropriate to be external. If the skimmer is designed correctly there is NO problem having it external. You skimmer is made to be set up in the sump.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm building mine, but wasn't planning on the auto-shut off part. Definitely have to include it now.
 
I had that happen on my Remora hob. The foam just goes out the little
air hole, and my wife goes, what's that water on the ground.....
 
Speaking of overflowing components, I woke up to a busted mag 3 housing on Thurs. AM w/ 10-12 gallons of water on the floor and in the walls. I broke the original housing a few weeks ago, got a new one in, broke that new one, then decided that I had to use the old broken one. It ran fine for a few hrs., so I went to bed. I woke up the next day to a flooded house and carpet. The ca reactor now resides in the sump for eternity.

Chris
 
The new aquac skimmers have this auto-shutoff system built into the xtra waste collection units. However they cost $79!!!!! But if your gonna go external, I guess the extra money would be worth the piece of mind.
 
@bigbert96 wrote:
The new aquac skimmers have this auto-shutoff system built into the xtra waste collection units. However they cost $79!!!!! But if your gonna go external said:
That's the same auto-shutoff design others are mentioning. You can build the same for cheaper if budget is an issue. Can be made of large PVC plumbing or a bucket for that matter, just has to be an airtight container.
Click to expand...
 
Just overtightening the mpt nipple into the fpt housing. I wouldn't mind if the nipple ($.25) part would break, but it's always the $5 part that I have to order that breaks. Darn Murphy.

Chris
 
I would think if used a couple of rounds of plumbers tape on the threads of the fitting you would not have to tighten it down as much.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top