billyzbear
New member
I checked and the bubble line is about 4" from top.
beckett skimmer performance
- Thread starter titoreefs
- Start date
It seems its as I said as the pump pressure increases and the and air draw by the injector it gets harder to control.Ive tryed adjusting it by all diferent ways Ive though of and the ones billyzbear has mentioned but the damed thing will either pull out water or nothing at all nomater what I do and as I said the same thing is happening with an ETS clone I have that is now ussing the same pump.Now the funny thing is that Im now ussing a much less powerfull pump and this one allows it to foam good.With the powerfull pump one could here the injector huming from it drawing air, now with the smaller pump the needle valve is wide open not as turbulent and small bubble size where as before with the Iwaki I had to run the skimmer with the needle valve 1/2 way shut.I havent cheked the shfm of air with the smaller pump but it seems lesser air allows it to run more efficient that lots of air.Not shure why but thats the deal.
tada . . .
Is this what you were talking about? It's actually more parallel than inline but it is a combo of needlewheel and beckett. The biggest problem I have had with the beckett is the inconsistent flow. This thing has overflowed more times that I want to say. I have came home to see my sump below the flow line and the main circulating pump sucking bubbles because of the overflow of water. I had mine in the garage, now in the basement, and I just don't understand how someone could have one in the stand inside of the house. I could be doing something wrong but it's not a lack of fine little bubbles.
billyzbear
New member
Cuby that looks like a nice skimmer. I was thinking out loud, why not stick the outlet of beckett directly into a modded mesh wheel pump to chop up the bubbles. It would probably collapse the pump.
It looks like a nice skimmer though, I would put the inj above the collection cup and lower the water line. From looking at the stains you had it lower at one point. You could lower the water line and not have any bubbles escape. Is that a 6" body? Do you know how much air is going into skimmer? I tried something like this and decided to take the beckett offline because it was causing too much turbalance. The needlewheels are much easier to deal with.
It looks like a nice skimmer though, I would put the inj above the collection cup and lower the water line. From looking at the stains you had it lower at one point. You could lower the water line and not have any bubbles escape. Is that a 6" body? Do you know how much air is going into skimmer? I tried something like this and decided to take the beckett offline because it was causing too much turbalance. The needlewheels are much easier to deal with.
Cuby2k your problem is probably caused by the elbow you have on the skimmer efluent after the gate valve,if you got enough pressure from the feeding pump that creates pressure inside the skimmer and forses the water to come out to relieve pressure.That could be fixed by changing that elbow with a tee and adding a piece of pipe on the tee so that it can breathe.Heres what I mean,
Yesterday I desided to change the bioballs on the ETS clone and add 1 or 2 more and that made a remarcable diference it calmed the turbulance on the simmer body without compromising any air intake.I guess the old timmer did it again I tell you, ETS down drafts are preaty good skimmer designs I have one of the originals and Its allways worked well for me.
It seems the pump was fine it was the skimmer all the time as it was said before as the pump pressure increases so does the air/water and turbulance lots of it the darn thing about it is it skimmes too wet.
It seems the pump was fine it was the skimmer all the time as it was said before as the pump pressure increases so does the air/water and turbulance lots of it the darn thing about it is it skimmes too wet.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9871588#post9871588 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by titoreefs
Cuby2k your problem is probably caused by the elbow you have on the skimmer efluent after the gate valve,if you got enough pressure from the feeding pump that creates pressure inside the skimmer and forses the water to come out to relieve pressure.That could be fixed by changing that elbow with a tee and adding a piece of pipe on the tee so that it can breathe.Heres what I mean,
Actually I thought about that two years ago when I built the skimmer but up until now I had totally forgotten about it. I am going to try that, thanks! I'll let ya'll know when I get-r-done.
Oh and notice the drip cup under the union at the inlet to the needle wheel pump? Never quite got the air tube to fit watertight. DOH!
billyzbear
New member
To help make the pipe quiet in diagram. Cap it and drill a small hole. Have you tried the mesh mod on the Oceanrunner pump? It looks like a nice DIY skimmer. I couldn't make one like it.
steve68
New member
i have a needle wheel & a beckett
my beckett is so much better then the needle wheel my foam is all ways on top in only stops foaming when i stick my hand in there i have no idea how much air is getting sucked in i just know that i found the sweet spot & thats where it stays.
becketts are awesome.
Skimmer
my beckett is so much better then the needle wheel my foam is all ways on top in only stops foaming when i stick my hand in there i have no idea how much air is getting sucked in i just know that i found the sweet spot & thats where it stays.
becketts are awesome.
Skimmer
Steve68 I see that both you and Cuby2k have the utube mod
Do you notice a diference in the skimmer performance?
Because I though that mod would just add turbulance directly into the skimmer chamber and more violently I know the purpose of the mod is to prevent micro bubbles to escape the skimmer but
I always though as I said that it would just make it more violent.
Correct me if Im wrong.
Do you notice a diference in the skimmer performance?
Because I though that mod would just add turbulance directly into the skimmer chamber and more violently I know the purpose of the mod is to prevent micro bubbles to escape the skimmer but
I always though as I said that it would just make it more violent.
Correct me if Im wrong.
steve68
New member
when i did the first mod i used 1 inch pvc & the turbulance was bad then i went up to 1.25 better but not great finally the 1.5 PVC worked great, i get some but not a lot of turbulance where it collapses the foam, i think it's due to the 12 inch riser acrylic tube & the way the water flows through the U tubes, im now thinking about doing the diffuser mod just to see how it works.
I think is best half way up the skimmer because that wont allow micro bubbles to go down into the skimmer box and ending up in your sump.Remember these skimmers are not like the needle weels that dont have the box at the bottom in their case the difuser is best placed at the bottom wich in my opinion is the best way to place it we dont have that advantage.But if you dont mind the micro bubbles reaching your sump and your tank that would be a good idea.
