DAS skimmer club

Ah, well I lowered the T anyways and decreased the flow through the skimmer with the gate valve. I finally have a foam head now but it doesn't really put anything into the skimmer cup. There's tons of gunk at the top of the skimmer neck where it almost touches the cap of the lid but nothing in the cup after almost 24 hours. Any thoughts?


101_0713.jpg
 
skimate

skimate

Burton14e7.
That skimmer kicked butt on my 220.
Way oversized for your tank.
How much of a biological load do you have in the tank?
Raise the level slightly until the foam drips down the outside of the neck.
 
It was the same bioload on my 120, 6 fish with corals and clean up crew. It skimmed perfectly every day on the 120. The tank has been skimmerless(skimmer not producing a head) for about 2 months now while I've been doing 10% water changes every 7-9 days. I would expect my water to be filthy at this point. My corals tell me so.
 
Are your pumps on in that pic?
If they are there is something wrong. There isn't enough bubbles in the neck. Now that I look at it again I know there is something wrong.
I'll try to get a crappy phone pic to show you.
 
What do you think could be wrong with them? One of the pumps was DOA and they sent me a new one right away but its been a year now and they literally stopped working when I switched tanks so they were only off for a few hours. Both of them are on that's for sure though. I was hoping it was just a break in period again. I'll see when I get home.
 
Seem like the air clogged somewhere.
Have you tried pouring hot rodi down the air tubes? I put rodi in a shot cup then microwave it till its hot. Also try taking the air valves total off and see if that helps.
 
Well I think it's going in the right direction. I'm sure I have to tweak it a little bit more to get it going right. What do you think about now?


101_0714.jpg
 
Looks much better then before.
Mine doesn't skim as well when it has large bubbles in the neck like that though.
Where is the water level when the pumps are shut off? It needs to be up in the black transition part where the cup locks into.
 
Mine skimmed best with air cut back a little. I notice you have the air valves off and the lines wide open. I actually metered mine and ran the air at a little under 6 LPM per pump, maybe about 5.5 LPM. Thats where the EX-2 seemed to skim best for me.

Thats actually not valving the air down much at all. The pumps will pull about 8 LPM with air lines wide open but only when the water level in the skimmer is just at the outputs of the pumps. With the water level adjusted up by the start of the black foam concentrator/bayonet, they will pull about 6.5LPM or maybe a little more, wide open. So I only had them cut back about 1 LPM each. But bubbles seem finer like that and skimmer skimmed best. Obviously YMMV.
 
Hi All,

I've got a DAS-EX-1 running for about a year now, and recently the skimmer pump started making occasionally loud "vibrating" noises. The noises come and go and can become quite annoying in a quiet room. I recently ran some acetic acid through the entire skimmer to give it a brief cleaning and the vibrating noises started shortly thereafter. Any tips? Your help is much appreciated!
 
I ended up putting one of the valves back on and that allowed me to close the gate valve to reduce the flow going into the tank and that helped get uniform bubbles going up the neck. Thanks to all of those that helped me get through this and shame on you nay sayers saying the skimmer was too big! It just needed some adjusting :)

Picture isn't as clear with these new year shaky hands..hehe. But less than 24 hours and I have some nice brew in my skimmer cup again.

101_0715.jpg
 
hi guys...

I guess I may have missed it here....but how do you measure your air flow thru one of these bad boys ???...is a meter or something else...

Happy New Year to all and thanks...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14058490#post14058490 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by saltydog64
hi guys...

I guess I may have missed it here....but how do you measure your air flow thru one of these bad boys ???...is a meter or something else...

Happy New Year to all and thanks...
Click to expand...

Here is a link to what is mainly used to measure air flow on skimmers.

http://www.ptsinstruments.com/proddetail.php?prod=RMB

I just did a quick search, you might be able to find a cheaper price or look for a used on on here.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14056079#post14056079 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by burton14e7
I ended up putting one of the valves back on and that allowed me to close the gate valve to reduce the flow going into the tank and that helped get uniform bubbles going up the neck. Thanks to all of those that helped me get through this and shame on you nay sayers saying the skimmer was too big! It just needed some adjusting :)

Picture isn't as clear with these new year shaky hands..hehe. But less than 24 hours and I have some nice brew in my skimmer cup again.

101_0715.jpg
Click to expand...

Looks much better now.
Have you thought of putting both the valves back on. That way both pumps pull the same amount of air.
As far as not working on a smaller tank I say pooie to that. I run my EX-2 on a 55g reef with only a 10g sump. It skims like a champ. Sort of an insurance policy on my tank, I can feed how ever much and when I want.
Glad to see your skimmer working again.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14055007#post14055007 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by toaster77
Hi All,

I've got a DAS-EX-1 running for about a year now, and recently the skimmer pump started making occasionally loud "vibrating" noises. The noises come and go and can become quite annoying in a quiet room. I recently ran some acetic acid through the entire skimmer to give it a brief cleaning and the vibrating noises started shortly thereafter. Any tips? Your help is much appreciated!
Click to expand...

Did you take the pumps apart when you cleaned them?
There is a flap in them that has to be able to move, check that.
 
I've had the EX-1 for about 8 months now. So far, I've been very impressed until I did the gate valve mod. I didn't think that the skimmer could perform any better and all I have to say is WOW. I'm able to slow the flow through the skimmer but yet still keep the bubble breaking point where it should be. It's defenitely a worth while mod.
 
I'm still having a problem with gurgling / splashing sounds with the output of my EX-3 skimmer. I have the output piping going down 45 degrees submerged a few inches beneath the water level.

I was looking into doing the gate valve mod on the output to reduce flow through my skimmer, and thought of an idea which might eliminate the gurgling / splashing

Instead of having the gate valve pipe up to the T and then come splashing back down, gurgling air in the process, couldn't I just add a gate valve after the union and remove everything afterwards (piping up to the T and 45 degree piping back down). The gate valve would be submerged so there'd be no splashing / air.
 
I wouldn't see a problem in doing that, as long as its in your sump.
I have seen some Warner Marine skimmers similar to the Das that are like that.
Let us know how it works if you do it.
 
Ah cool. I see the pics on Warner Marine's website. It should work then.

How about the air flow silencers that Bubble King skimmers have? Does anyone know where I can buy something like that?

BTW, I picked up a Dwyer air flow meter (Make sure you buy the airline adapter at the same time). It works great for these skimmers because the aquabees can start up spinning the wrong way which reduces the air flow. If I have to turn off the recirc pumps, I do a quick check of the air flow after I turn them on.

I am getting 6.5 lph without the stock valve, 5.5 lph with the stock valve fully opened, 4.5 lph with the stock valve at 1 o'clock, and 3 lph if the aquabee starts up spinning the wrong way.
 
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