AquaC CLUB!
- Thread starter JohnL
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chris4869 I'm interested to see how that does. I was thinking of the same setup. These skimmers remind me of "baby becketts" but I'm still curious what the air draw is. Anyone ever hookup a dwyer air meter to one? My NWs , and I've had a LOT of them, pull huge amounts of air but do not process very much water. I think it's better to process more water per hour, if even with less efficiency than to super process a small amount of water.
chris4869
New member
I have the 1" injector installed, but unfortunately it's not being used at the moment.
I'm currently treating my new 2 month old tank with red slime remover, and I can't turn on my pump. The cyano bacteria migrated over on rocks from an old tank that was running skimmerless for a while (broken return pump). I have to wait until the chemical is completely removed from the system before I can guage the difference. The chemical is causing the protein skimmer to go crazy at the moment. This is only day 2 of 4.
I'll post my findings after I perform a couple of water changes.
Freds, I don't know if hooking up a dwyer air meter will do us any good, since most of us run our protein skimmer with restricted air flow. Too much air produces big bubbles.
By the way... The Eheim 1262 came with a 1" output nozzle, so you really don't need to get an adapter unlike the 3/4" injector.
I'm currently treating my new 2 month old tank with red slime remover, and I can't turn on my pump. The cyano bacteria migrated over on rocks from an old tank that was running skimmerless for a while (broken return pump). I have to wait until the chemical is completely removed from the system before I can guage the difference. The chemical is causing the protein skimmer to go crazy at the moment. This is only day 2 of 4.
I'll post my findings after I perform a couple of water changes.
Freds, I don't know if hooking up a dwyer air meter will do us any good, since most of us run our protein skimmer with restricted air flow. Too much air produces big bubbles.
By the way... The Eheim 1262 came with a 1" output nozzle, so you really don't need to get an adapter unlike the 3/4" injector.
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chase33
New member
I'm not satisfied with the performance of my ev 180 skimmer though it may be due to needed cleaning. How should I clean it? Other than wiping the neck, cup and cleaning the air and water injectors, I assume I just empty and rinse it out a few times. Is there any other way to clean the inside of the skimmer?
The only way I could get my 180 to produce was to replace the mag 7 with a mag 9. If you leave the air valve wide open your skimmer will flood. I just pinch back on my air valve until I get the skimmate I want. I would imagine you could do the same thing by pinching back on the water but I don't have a vavle on my pump outlet so I can't test that. The 180 really performs with a mag 9. Best of luck.
dja1980
Active member
Yesterday, I tee’d my Remora skimmer off of the Mag 3 in my sump to in an effort to reduce noise. My plan was to upgrade to a Mag 5 since the return pump would now be shared, but I wanted to hook it up to the Mag 3 first to make sure I could make the plumbing fit before ordering the new pump. It fit great, but I’ve got so much foam, now, that my collection cup was completely filled with water within 8 hours (collection cup set at the same height as when I was using the MJ1200 that came with it).
I’m trying to figure out why so much foam is being produced. The only thing I can think of is that, since the skimmer is new, that it finished it’s “break-in cycle†the same time that I made the change, but that would be pretty coincidental. The MJ1200 that came with the skimmer was only rated at 295GPH. The Mag 3 is rated at 350GPH, but since I’m sending, maybe, 100GPH of that back to the display (I’ve got a ball-valve choking it down), the skimmer should only be getting around 250GPH. This is why I thought I would need to upgrade to the Mag 5.
Any thoughts? The Mag 3 returns water to the display through ½â€ÂID tubing, which is tee’d as close as possible to the pump. The tee sends water through 18 inches of 3/8â€ÂID tubing (looped) using those quick-disconnect fittings at the tee and at the skimmer.
Too much foam would indicate too much flow, right? I made some adjustments this morning unchoking the ball-valve a bit more to allow more water from the pump back to the display, and I raised the collection cup to its highest position. I’m thinking that if I can get it dialed in, the Mag 3 might be big enough unless my thinking is backwards.
Has anyone else had problems with too much foam on their Remora? This is a good thing if I can prevent the collection cup with filling up with water, right?
I’m trying to figure out why so much foam is being produced. The only thing I can think of is that, since the skimmer is new, that it finished it’s “break-in cycle†the same time that I made the change, but that would be pretty coincidental. The MJ1200 that came with the skimmer was only rated at 295GPH. The Mag 3 is rated at 350GPH, but since I’m sending, maybe, 100GPH of that back to the display (I’ve got a ball-valve choking it down), the skimmer should only be getting around 250GPH. This is why I thought I would need to upgrade to the Mag 5.
Any thoughts? The Mag 3 returns water to the display through ½â€ÂID tubing, which is tee’d as close as possible to the pump. The tee sends water through 18 inches of 3/8â€ÂID tubing (looped) using those quick-disconnect fittings at the tee and at the skimmer.
Too much foam would indicate too much flow, right? I made some adjustments this morning unchoking the ball-valve a bit more to allow more water from the pump back to the display, and I raised the collection cup to its highest position. I’m thinking that if I can get it dialed in, the Mag 3 might be big enough unless my thinking is backwards.
Has anyone else had problems with too much foam on their Remora? This is a good thing if I can prevent the collection cup with filling up with water, right?
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For those of you with a AquaC EV-120/180/240, does the skimmer have an acrylic tube attached to the internal platform below the injector? I have a EV-150 and it doesn't have the tube, but I have been told that a EV-400 has a tube. I'm wondering if adding a tube will improve the skimmer's performance.
Regarding the Remora and Mag 3, I've heard of some people using an un-valved Mag 3 on a standard Remora and they say that it works really good and isn't too powerful. The MJ1200 is a great POWERHEAD, but it doesn't handle head too well. I think the max head is only around 5.5' for a MJ1200, whereas a Mag 3 is around 11'. I think the injector alone adds a couple feet of head pressure so even after diverting 100gpm of water, you are probably pumping more water through the skimmer using the Mag 3 instead of the MJ1200.
Regarding the Remora and Mag 3, I've heard of some people using an un-valved Mag 3 on a standard Remora and they say that it works really good and isn't too powerful. The MJ1200 is a great POWERHEAD, but it doesn't handle head too well. I think the max head is only around 5.5' for a MJ1200, whereas a Mag 3 is around 11'. I think the injector alone adds a couple feet of head pressure so even after diverting 100gpm of water, you are probably pumping more water through the skimmer using the Mag 3 instead of the MJ1200.
dja1980
Active member
Good call on the head... I didn't even think about that aspect of it. I was just thinking in terms of GPH. I'll do more tinkering when I get home if I have a collection cup full of water again, but I can't raise the collection cup any higher than it already is. I am correct in that more flow = more foam, right? My other thought was that I'm getting more foam because I decreased flow, therefore making larger bubbles, which are overflowing my collection cup. I hope this is not the case.
dja1980
Active member
Things are looking better since I made the adjustments yesterday morning.
FWIW, this is my first skimmer, so I'm still learning about these things.
24 hours later… Is this what the skimmate is supposed to look like, or is it still too wet? There’s probably another inch or so in there below the skimmer body that you can’t see:
FWIW, this is my first skimmer, so I'm still learning about these things.
24 hours later… Is this what the skimmate is supposed to look like, or is it still too wet? There’s probably another inch or so in there below the skimmer body that you can’t see:
dja1980
Active member
Ah, good to know. I might reduce flow a bit more tonight and see what happens. The skimmer is still new and has only been running for about 5 days, so I'm sure it's going to fluctuate a bit for a little while. I just want to make sure I know what I'm looking for as far as good skimmate is concerned. Thanks for your help!
Skimmer production depends on a lot of variables such as bio-load, sg, etc... The pic from 'mario8402" shows a highly concentrated sludge in the cup and around the edges. If the cup can be lowered you will get a more volume but a thinner mix. A system with one fish (or a low bio-load) obviously doesn't have the DOC density to keep producing large amounts a skimate. Think about putting that gunk back in your tank. Yuck!
As the skimmer matures the amount of bubbles will be reduced, and the skimate production will vary with the available DOC. It does take a bit of time and some adjustment of the collection cup to achieve the level of skimate denisty you're looking for.
I use both the Remora Pro and the Urchin Pro and love them. They both produce really nasty stuff with, the standard pumps. Best of all: No venturies to tweak, no ball or gate valves to adjust, no water level fussing.
Limited, yes. But still a great product.
Good luck.
As the skimmer matures the amount of bubbles will be reduced, and the skimate production will vary with the available DOC. It does take a bit of time and some adjustment of the collection cup to achieve the level of skimate denisty you're looking for.
I use both the Remora Pro and the Urchin Pro and love them. They both produce really nasty stuff with, the standard pumps. Best of all: No venturies to tweak, no ball or gate valves to adjust, no water level fussing.
Limited, yes. But still a great product.
Good luck.
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