AquaC CLUB!

[CaptainCoral]

Is this manufactured piece still a clover shape?

I'd try blocking it with something in the tank first, so you can play with different amounts of blockage without waiting a week to see what happens.

In my tank, if you run without filter socks, strombus snails is what you'd be pulling out of the injector when you check it, so it was the perfect apple to fall on my head. BTW, I do run filter socks now on all my tanks and have saved countless strombus snail lives.

 

[ShapeGSX]

Yeah, the manufactured piece (my 1" injector) is still a clover shape. But the angles on it are a bit sharper.

I've had the injector blocked in the center before, and the skimmer did horribly. Barely any foam. I think that the key might be to have the gradual reduction in size of the injector, but make it tighter than stock. At least, if your thought is correct.

Though, really, I think that the best solution would be a taller tower. But jeez, that sort of experimentation would be a real pain.

Hey, did you have an extension made? Would it fit a 120?

 

[CaptainCoral]

I believe you are right, that a taller tower and leaving the injector alone is probably the best solution.
I didn't have my extension made. I happend to have some spare 5" acrylic tubing so I just started cutting things. I already had all the tools and glues and practice with a diy acrylic air skimmer, so I felt confident at the time. I think the ev120 is a smaller diameter foam tower, but If I'm wrong and it's 5" I'll send you some. I've found adding 5.5 inches causes a pump upgrade, and at the time I wish I tried 2.5 extra instead, but I'm happy with it like it is now.

 

[ShapeGSX]

Ok, I have the parts to make a new 1" injector with a smaller orifice. Might as well try it out. I'm going to use three 1/8" round bars to make the clover head. I was going to weld them to a steel plate at an angle, but I figured out an easier method. Not that I don't like using my welder, but it is a pain to bring it out and set it up.

I'll make the injector out of 1/2" PVC, which is thicker than the stock tubing they used for the injector. That should decrease the orifice size. And I can dremel the pipe out to get a smooth flow from the elbow to the outlet.

Hopefully I can get a good enough interference fit with the 1" to 3/4" NPT elbow I found that I can try it without glue.

I'll test the new injector in my sump before installing it into the skimmer so I can see how far the jets extend relative to the stock one.

The EV120's foam tower is 4", unfortunately. And I'd really rather not cut up my skimmer. An extension riser with the same lock rings that AquaC uses would be killer, but I have no idea how tall to make it.

Trouble is that I'm getting into the area where I have way too many things to adjust. Now I have the air, the pump flow, the skimmer gate valve, and the injector to adjust.

Nothing seems to be working, which makes me feel like I should just buy a different skimmer. Trouble is that I really need a tiny footprint, and the EV120 just fit the bill perfectly. I'm a pretty resourceful guy, as you can see, but after years of getting sub-par output out of the thing, maybe I should just cut my losses.

 

[ShapeGSX]

What do you guys think about using an air valve like this instead of the ball valve that comes with the skimmer?

http://www.mcmaster.com/nav/enter.asp?pagenum=939

Specifically, I'm talking type "F". I think that the pipe thread is 3/8" for the air valve.

62005K153

 

[CaptainCoral]

I believe you may be on to something there. Perhaps a valve with finer controls would serve as your best solution. Let us all know how it works out.

 

[Waxxiemann]

I tried using a john guest male threaded adapter and a short run of 3/8" tubing with a 3/8" JG ball valve and it didn't work out, there was not enough air getting into the skimmer. I am curious to see if these will work, they look perfect for the job.

BTW- I talked to Steve at AquaC about the cone shaped extension to the top of the reaction chamber and here is what he said:

"We would be able to fabricate a similar piece for the EV-240. However, this would make the foam tower an extra 4" or so taller, which might end up hurting performance. Also, gluing the cone directly to the foam tower would still leave a lip for foam to get hung up on - I would recommend routing out the inside of the flange to make for a smooth transition from the foam tower to the cone.

To be honest, I don't know that performance would improve with the cone - I think I know which skimmer you saw on Reef Central, and if you look closely, you can still see a sharp reduction in size from the 8" diameter foam tower to the 6" diameter cone. The foam tower itself has also been shortened substantially. So, instead of the diameter of the foam tower reducing down to 4" at the collection cup, the diameter reduces down before the collection cup. The shorter foam tower will also give the foam less time to drain, meaning that more water is removed, which may give the impression that more waste is being pulled out. In reality, it may just be that the skimmate collected is more dilute. I think that the major advantage of that particular skimmer is that because of the shorter foam tower and wetter foam, less sludge is deposited on the inside of the foam tower, and more waste is collected in the cup. Because your foam tower will end up being
taller than normal, I don't think that this will be the case.

Thanks again, and let me know what you decide!"



The price seems right, but I don't like the idea of gluing it on unless I knew for SURE there was going to be a big performance boost.

 

[Waxxiemann]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10889396#post10889396 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CaptainCoral
I believe you may be on to something there. Perhaps a valve with finer controls would serve as your best solution. Let us all know how it works out.

I think that the model F, made for 5/8" OD tubing with the 3/8" thread would be the one for the job. It's made of "polybutylene terephthalate" (say that 5 times fast ) plastic. $25 is pretty steep though.

 

[CaptainCoral]

The price seems right, but I don't like the idea of gluing it on unless I knew for SURE there was going to be a big performance boost.

Yeah, as I found out, weld on #4 sure does make for some permanent changes...Unless you want to break out the saws again.

It's made of "polybutylene terephthalate" (say that 5 times fast

LOL I couldn't be paid to say it once!

 

[homebrewdude]

Anyone comment on my bubbles

Anyone comment on my bubbles

This is my EV-180 running on a Eheim 1262.

The exit valve is fully open
The air valve is a bit past half.

Think I should close the exit valve to raise the water level?

The photos are 2 days after I cleaned the skimmer.


The third photo shows my water level is a bit below the housing when the air is turned off.

Any suggestions??

 

[CaptainCoral]

Hmmmmm, that does seem odd. With that combination of skimmer and pump, the water line should be visible in the tower when the air is choked off. Have you cleaned the injector, pump and plumbing lines? How long is your pumps feed hose?

 

[homebrewdude]

It has not been cleaned for some time.
But it was like this when it was all new.
The skimmer is propped up in the sump.
The output is NOT under the sump water.
It is free to flow out.

I am running the 3/4" tube for the pump

 

[CaptainCoral]

When hooked up like this

You should be fighting with the air valve to keep from wet skim overflowing. (unless you desire wet skim)
Here is what mine looked like with the 1260, so the 1262 should not need to be gated.

 

[ShapeGSX]

Ok, so you can't make an injector out of PVC. It is far too soft. Looks like it needs to be acrylic tubing. Doh.

However, after adjusting my pump flow down a little more last night, I think I hit upon a good combo. I woke up to have 1/2" of dark skimmate in the collection cup! There is no sign of the skimmer going all watery.

Hopefully I'll see a similar situation when I get home tonight.

 

[chopsuey]

Im new to the AquaC club, just got mine last week. I was wondering which way should the blue lever be turned? I have turned it all the way both ways and it doesnt seem to effect the skimmer at all?

Using Captian Coral's pic you can see the blue lever Im refering to:

 

[CaptainCoral]

Well, I'm glad that you're getting some good results Shape. I'd hate to see you have to cut your losses. The more successful AquaC users we have here, the better off we all are.

While the other skimmer fans have been knocking us, they've been hard at work trying to get amounts of air into their skimmers like we have. Only recently, the needle skimmer fans have (with the mesh mod) been able to get "our" levels of air into their skimmers. They now can lower the water lines in their skimmers and have a tower of bubbles. Hehe, something we've been doing all along. A lot of neat things have been happening in the skimmer department these last few years, and I'm glad to have been happy right where I am here in this club, and giggle watching them try to catch up to us.

 

[TIMMYE]

So waht type of setting do you guys use for air intake adustment? It seems pretty standard for all the EV seriers, just looking for tuning advice for when I swap out BlueLine HD 55 pump to a Reflo Sequence 4200 pump as a main skimmmer drive pump. Thanks Tim

 

[CaptainCoral]

I like to run big pumps so I can get huge air intake with the air choked hard.

 

[pangea]

I'm running a ev120 w/ mag5 and have good results.

Wondering if anyone has modded the cup to accomodate a larger drain fitting and more air flow? Seems mine could handle more air flowing thru the cup.

Just curious...

 

[homebrewdude]

You should be fighting with the air valve to keep from wet skim overflowing. (unless you desire wet skim)

That is correct.
If I have the air valve open too much it will over flow with foam.

So I guess I can't do anything else with the skimmer for improvement?