DIY Mini Beckett
- Thread starter Zephrant
- Start date
thedogofwar
New member
PRRD said:
this is a little old but I still may be able to help. I'm running a beckett on a 24" skimmer with a mag7. The skimmer is just a simple PVC one that I have tried airstones, venturi, needle wheel and now the beckett. The beckett has been by far the best and is doing a great job at it too.
heres a pic of the beckett housing on this skimmer.
here is the work in progress that it will be moved to.
thedogofwar
New member
Quinster said:
I ran it to the bottom because I actually used BH's to go through the acrylic (I'm rough on things sometimes
and I didn't want to have to glue them into the BH. I was afraid the pressure could blow the tubes off w/o some suport below. I don't know if the increased contact time in there would help but I figured it wouldn't hurt.
killercoral
New member
Zephrant can you please give us some specific dimensions of the footprint as to the size of the box, tubes, etc. Just wondering if this would work for me. I am trying to get a skimmer in a 10" x 12" compartment in my sump. Also I would really like to know what it looks like inside the box as far as baffles are concerned you said that you would ideally add some baffles inside the box. Also one more question, is it necessary to use a 1.5" bulkhead compared to a 1" if you could explain this also that would be great. Thanks
sean
sean
Zephrant
Premium Member
The mixing box is about 7x10. As small as you can get it, and still fit in both tubes.
The 1.5" bulkhead is required- 1" is not big enough to let the water out fast enough.
Lots of things you can do with baffles- The goal is to direct the incoming water up the column, and the outgoing water to the drain.
Zeph
The 1.5" bulkhead is required- 1" is not big enough to let the water out fast enough.
Lots of things you can do with baffles- The goal is to direct the incoming water up the column, and the outgoing water to the drain.
Zeph
killercoral
New member
Would you mind giving the lengths of the tubes that you used. Also what is the diameter of the neck of the skimmer. Also, I am planning on doing a elbow on the inside of the bulkhead would you suggest a baffle along with the el and how would you do it? Any advice would be great.
sean
sean
killercoral
New member
Well I finished my mini beckett and it is working great so far. It has been working since monday and is already doing a great job. I am running a quiet one 6000 which is rated at 1500 GPH at 0 ft so not sure what it is actually putting out. I can get pictures in operation if anyone is interested.
sandslinger
New member
lets see them
lets see them
i have a sea clone and thinkking of just making one..thzx
lets see them
i have a sea clone and thinkking of just making one..thzx
sherm71tank
Premium Member
I second that. Lets see those pics!
killercoral
New member
Can anyone offer me advice, I have been struggling with this skimmer for a while now. Just isn't performing very well. It seems like it is coating the neck of the skimmer but it doesn't seem to fill the cup very well. The only time I can seem to get it to fill the cup is when I make it skim extremely wet. I don't get it I am using a huge pump which I would think would work great (quiet one 6000 1500 GPH). One other thing I can think of is it seems like the skimmer is burping meaning that the air collects somewhere in the box and then big air bubbles are released?
For the skimmer to work best you need a pressure rated pump. When I first built mine I did not have a pressure rated pump and it worked ok for a while so I got a pressure rated pump and then it worked much better. Also like was said you need to get rid of the burping of bubbles. If I was to do it over again I would make a tapered flange going to the collection cup to keep the larger bubbles from forming.
killercoral
New member
I know that I was supposed to use a pressure rated pump but I really needed to use a submersible pump. With 1500 GPH I would think this would be more than sufficient.
RCS
In Memoriam
No trying to drudge up an older post here, but I'm putting together plans on building me own DIY beckett skimmer and figured I'd ask a few questions. Keep in mind this is my FIRST attempt...so these are likely to be stupid questions! :rollface:
I'm kind of stuck on the "mixing box" idea. Is this really necessary? It would seems most of the air/water mixing would take place well before the water would ever reach the box. I'm considering an in-sump design and planning on running basically a tall u-shaped PVC assembly from near the top of the skimmer on the outside, it will enter the main skimmer body at the bottom, and then have some more tubing running about 3/4 of the way up to skimmer. The idea was to have a water outlet about 1/2 way or further down the main body then to try and keep too many bubbles from escaping. Or will I truly be missing a lot without the box on the bottom?
This is also going to be a smaller skimmer, since I'm working with limited space under my 155. Estimate on total height right now is around 24-25" or so, plus about the same for the downpipe on the outside. The plan was to utilize the same Sen500 pump (500gph @ 3' rated) that I'm using on my current venturi skimmer. Will I need to upgrade this? I also have a much larger (physically) Sen700 pump I can use. Or would it make the most sense to start looking for a more powerful pump? Keep in mind this will all be in-sump, so a submersible pump is almost a necessity here. I run a separate "skimmer sump" that overflows into the main sump to keep the water level consistent and head pressure consistent on the pump. After 4 months, I've only had to make any manual adjustments once.
I'm kind of stuck on the "mixing box" idea. Is this really necessary? It would seems most of the air/water mixing would take place well before the water would ever reach the box. I'm considering an in-sump design and planning on running basically a tall u-shaped PVC assembly from near the top of the skimmer on the outside, it will enter the main skimmer body at the bottom, and then have some more tubing running about 3/4 of the way up to skimmer. The idea was to have a water outlet about 1/2 way or further down the main body then to try and keep too many bubbles from escaping. Or will I truly be missing a lot without the box on the bottom?
This is also going to be a smaller skimmer, since I'm working with limited space under my 155. Estimate on total height right now is around 24-25" or so, plus about the same for the downpipe on the outside. The plan was to utilize the same Sen500 pump (500gph @ 3' rated) that I'm using on my current venturi skimmer. Will I need to upgrade this? I also have a much larger (physically) Sen700 pump I can use. Or would it make the most sense to start looking for a more powerful pump? Keep in mind this will all be in-sump, so a submersible pump is almost a necessity here. I run a separate "skimmer sump" that overflows into the main sump to keep the water level consistent and head pressure consistent on the pump. After 4 months, I've only had to make any manual adjustments once.
