ETSS Skimmer Club!

What a difference a few 90deg fittings make! I posted a while ago about a 1400etss. During maintenance one day it became necessary to pull out the skimmer, what a joke. Whoever installed it didn't plumb it to be removed and I had to cut it out and redo the plumbing. Good news is I was able to eliminate all but 1 90deg elbow from the pump to the skimmer(there were 4), and one of 3 on the skimmer output. I now have to throttle back the pump(iwaki 70) about 30% or it fills up the waste container in a few hours. The water level used to be almost to the top of the first tube with the pump wide open. The gate valve is now wide open. Which leads me to my next question. If I add a few more bio-balls to each tower, can I open up the pump some more without skimming super wet?
 
Personally Josee, I think the 900 is better than the 800. Less money, and less pump needed. I have the 600xr that I bought the extender tower for, so it's basically a 900. I have it on my 150 sps (heavily stocked with fish) and it can pull half a gallon of skimmate per day (not watery stuff but the foul smelling gunk you want to see). If space concerns are an issue, then I understand why you would want the 800.

I personally think the 600 would be plenty. You could go with that one and an Iwaki 40RLT. Then if it's not enough you could purchase a tower extender to bump up your skimmate production if needed. MY LFS has the 800 on their reeftank and I haven't seen it pull what my "900" can.

As for a beckett skimmer like the PM, I think they're just as good as the ETSS. Really almost the same thing. Water is forced downward into a box to create turbulent mix of air, which works its way to a riser tube where it is skimmed. The difference to me is the higher maintenance needed in cleaning the becketts. That's pretty much what swayed me to the ETSS. If I were going the beckett route, I'd probably check out Marine Technical Concepts (MTC). They're built like tanks, much like an ETSS. I can't say the same for the Precision Marine skimmers. For me, a downdraft is less maintenance, equal skimmate production and pretty much the same power consumption. Because my skimmer is plumbed external to the system in the garage where my sump is located, I don't check it as often as I probably would if it were a beckett skimmer. Also, since we're on the ETSS board, I'll say that beckett skimmers are copycats of what Gary at AETech (ETSS) has patented, without the bioballs. That's why you don't see any other downdraft companies out there, and why all these needle wheel, pin wheel and venturi fans and companies bash downdraft technology. I guarantee if Gary's patent ran out tomorrow, next year you'd see a Bubble King downdraft model with a $700 Red Dragon pump and an article that read "Downdraft Skimmers Revisited...The Next Generation of a Proven Technology". When setup and tuned properly (which many who have owned one are clueless about) there is really no comparison. If I were to wet skim light tea color I could easily pull a gallon a day. The proof is "in the pudding". I actually went through the Tank of the Month winners' pages and noticed that almost half were skimmed with ETSS skimmers. Check it for yourself. Times change, and people are gravitating toward the new cones and pinwheels with expensive price tags and extremely pricey pumps to replace. For something that basically collects crap, I'm not spending $1,500. It's a simple design that's easy to understand and repair if necessary.

Go with ETSS, get the proper pressure rated external pump (not a magdrive) and never look back.
 
+1 I steered clear of the becketts for the same reason. I didn't want to maintain it. The downdraft is set it and forget it.
 
More pump?

More pump?

I was wondering if anyone out in downdraft land has ever installed a higher pump rating than what their skimmer is rated for. I have the opportunity to pick up a rebuilt Iwaki 70 for "next to nothing" and was wondering if this would work on my 900 xr. AETEch rates the Iwaki 55 the skimmer's maximum pump, but just wondering.

Any thoughts?
 
Alex T. said:
I was wondering if anyone out in downdraft land has ever installed a higher pump rating than what their skimmer is rated for. I have the opportunity to pick up a rebuilt Iwaki 70 for "next to nothing" and was wondering if this would work on my 900 xr. AETEch rates the Iwaki 55 the skimmer's maximum pump, but just wondering.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...


No worries with larger.You can throttle it back with a valve or T off and feed "whatever" to use up the gph if you choose.Or just T off with a valve and dump the excess back into the sump if necessary.
 
No worries with larger.You can throttle it back with a valve or T off and feed "whatever" to use up the gph if you choose.Or just T off with a valve and dump the excess back into the sump if necessary.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I thought it may increase foam production, if it will need throttling back it may just be a waste of electricity.
 
Alex T. said:
Thanks for the reply. I thought it may increase foam production, if it will need throttling back it may just be a waste of electricity.
Click to expand...

It may in certain instances(bio load,feedings etc...) but the recommended pump for the bigger skimmers are more then enough and will sometimes need throttling back also.I understand that these pumps consume less electricity when throttled back and this will cause no harm up to a certain point .
 
Here's a pic of before (AquaC Remora pro)
<a href="http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n237/Dave80014/?action=view&current=IMG_2363.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n237/Dave80014/IMG_2363.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Both together before install
<a href="http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n237/Dave80014/?action=view&current=IMG_2367.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n237/Dave80014/IMG_2367.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

and after three days (Old ETSS 600)
<a href="http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n237/Dave80014/?action=view&current=IMG_2370.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n237/Dave80014/IMG_2370.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

The pump is a dedicated PanWorld 150PS (equivilant to an Iwaki MD55)
 
BTW, this is my sump area - two more pics

<a href="http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n237/Dave80014/?action=view&current=IMG_2373.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n237/Dave80014/IMG_2373.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n237/Dave80014/?action=view&current=IMG_2371.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n237/Dave80014/IMG_2371.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
 
No authorship on this material as it all came from the 30+ pages here. This was my summary, and greatly helped in setting this up.

BIO BALLS
• There really is no optimum amount of balls in the tower. If you're not hearing anything when you open that cabinet, something's wrong. Mine sounds like a hurricane 15 feet away. I've spoken to Gary (patent owner and builder of these skimmers) and he's told me that you should have as many bioballs in the tower as possible, but not enough to stop air suction. The way he explained it to me is that the bioball tower is the skimmer. Water and air mix here and cause foam to push down into the box, where it then starts collecting and bubbling up into the neck and collection cup. If the water level is too high in both the mixing tower and the bubble riser, then foam production can decrease and has a hard time pushing its way to the tower. You can also risk an overflow.
• Open up the top of the towers and measure the tower with a ruler. Many (including Gary) state that a minimum of six inch clearance is needed between the injector and the top bioball. This is to allow a proper "buffer" zone of the water backing up into the tower and lowering air suction. This can cause the skimmer to surge and never reach a consistent foam head. If you have less than six inches, remove enough balls to reach this desired 6 inch measurement. After 24 hours, if that hasn't worked, open the gate valve to allow the water level in the skimmer box to drop a bit. No more than a quarter turn.
• If your pump is too weak, remove some bioballs and it will reduce friction (reduces the amount of small bubbles too, though). Too much pump, add some bioballs
• More balls would make wetter foam, less would be dryer
o Talked to Gary at aetech and was told that some models of the 600 used less bioballs than others so went from 23 balls down to 13 and wow what a difference. (See how many add up to 6 inches from the top)
o I added four more bio balls (22 to 26 now) to each tower today in an effort to reduce air intake. we'll see what happens. i'll give it 24 hours and see what happens. if that doesn't help, i'll try the exhaust restriction.
• Replace bio balls every year - Here is a comparison of the old bio-ball with the new ones

• The best part of these bio-balls is that they connect to each other. I can connect about 2 ft worth of these bio-balls before the connection weakens. I placed a very long connection of bio-balls (I call it my bio-stick) into the mixing tower and then just placed individual balls on top of the bio-stick. I was thinking that someone could possibly supper glue some bio-balls together to hold them in place, similar to how these connect.
 
Pumps:
• I'm considering an ETSS but I can't for practical reasons run 2 pumps. I was thinking of getting an oversized pressure-rated pump, like the new Reeflo Blackfin, and run the ETSS off my manifold. Does ANYONE here run their ETSS off a manifold?
o My ETSS 1000 is feed off Reeflo Hammerhead that is also supplying return and other equipments I have. I am thinking about getting a higher neck from the 1500 model so I can process more water. Currently, my pump is throttle back a lot.
o What sort of head pressure does your Hammerhead face? I'm for some reason not getting a lot of flow out of it with the pump wide open, but my previous Hammerhead gave a lot more. Just wondering. I pump upstairs and have close to 20'.
o Mine is about the same, the basement is about 12' and then another 7' to the tank. Check and make sure that nothing is stuck at the strainer, that actually happened to me where algae and other stuff cover the strainer which affected the pump's output that I failed to notice. Another thing is to see the distance between the pump outlet to the first elbow/T of your manifold. I was told that they need at least 2' to work properly.
o Oh, I am using the Hammerhead Gold which has less output then the original HH.
o i have used a 3 mdq-sc. It was supposed to be a 4 but, i stuck with it. That pump had a little rubber stopper on top so like 2 drops of household lube oil could be added every 6 months to the housing. The pump ran hot, however it never did fail and served as a good backup pump after finally replaced.
• If your Gate is all the way open, and the skimmer is full (above the black box), then yes install a Smaller Pump, or install a Ball valve on the Output of the Pump and adjust untill the correct water level is achieved. The Vent helps when the skimmer fills and then Rapidly empties itself.
• Make sure the pump is not restricted, or bio balls compressed, or the drain on the collection cup
 
Output:
• The output valve setting is extremely sensitive. you have to make VERY (And I really mean VERY small adjustments) at a time. If you are getting consistent dry foam, from that point you are almost set. Close the discharge valve a matter of one degree or less. (Just to the point that you just feel it move) repeat this every half an hour until you get a little wetter foam but not totally wet, and be patient it takes some time for it to react to the adjustment. If your ouput pipe is inside the water, changes in water levels will change its performance.
• Make sure the output doesn't have a lot of pressure either give it a vent pipe of don't submerge the output too deep into the sump water.
• I am almost sure the outlet can be submerged. If you look at mine, you will see its underwater with a 90 to turn it down. I have changed this to a gate valve with no 90 as of now. It still works great. One thing that I did in the planning stage of from my understanding in the manual was to cut the skimmer stand so that the black bottom section of the skimmer is right at the water line. The top of the black bottom section sits about 1/8-1/4" above the water line.
• Talked to Gary at AE Tech. Skimmer can sit in sump as long as the outlet is not submerged more than an inch or two. So that is good.
• When the Drain line is over Three Feet, you need to install a vent Tee, per Gary Pics on his ETSS 1000 on his Web Site.
• When I had space constraint, I had the skimmer box 2/3 in the water and as long as your pump is at spec, you will not have any issues. I would suggest you take out a ball or two from the towers so the water is forcing down stronger
• Regarding micro bubbles, you will get a good amount initially but after the skimmer breaks in, it will be minimal. I think another user suggested using stress coat for fresh water tank to help speed up the process.
• I run 500 gallons through each tower and have the water level right at the top of the box maybe a 1/4 to 1/8 inch of air. My skimmate looks like soy sauce!
a little turn of the gate valve changes foam from wet to dry but you can tune it perfect.. just spend an afternoon. mark the gate valve when you have it tuned.
• Yes, the gate valve movement between wet foam and dry foam is very very minimal, by that I mean you can barely feel it move.
• The instruction is valid only as start point and it is set purposely very low to prevent the skimmer to overflow once it kicks in. Once kicked in you are supposed to use the output valve to adjust a bit at a time the height of the foam column that will give you the "dryness" of skimmate you are looking for.
• The higher the foam column setting the lighter and more wet the foam will be, the lower the foam height setting the dryer and more concentrated the foam will be.
If the column height is set too low, very little or no skimmate will be collected in the cup and instead the goo will pile up attached to the sides of the riser. As Ostrow mentions above once the column of foam reaches near the cup, a small adjustments to the output valve will make the difference between too much or no skimmate so at that point just very, very small adjustments are to be made.

• I also incorporate a 1" vertical pipe between the skimmer outlet and the tank. This increased my foam production in all three of my etss'. I also have gate valves on this vertical pipe because I need to throttle it down to keep the foam drier.
 
TUNING:
• Be patient when tuning up to correct level of skimming, this skimmer sometime doesn't produce skimmate right away, by adjusting the output to see the skimmate right away will likely to cause too wet (or flood) skimming when it kicks in, I started with wide open output and closed it slowly until I saw the water is at the black portion (no water in the clear tube at this time), waited overnight and checked to see how much skimmate has rised up in the clear column and adjusted (closed/reduced the output) by turning the output valve slowly about 10degree turn at a time and checked back in a few hours before doing further adjustment. When the skimmer produced the right amount of skimmate over a few days, I marked the line at the output valve so I know it is the set point for my skimmer.
• When tuning, remember that 1/8th turn on the valve can mean the difference between overflowing with wet skimmate, and perfect dry skimmate.
• I have question with my skimmer , i have reef devil deluxe and i run it with 950g\h pump , if i wont to get darker skimate did you advice me to use larger pump
o Decreasing your water level in your skimmer neck will give you a darker skimate. I wouldnt put a pump on any bigger than the manufacturer of the skimmer recommends. I keep mine looking like dark ice tea I have always believed wetter is better.
• Agreed, unlike other skimmers, the ETSS skimmers run great with wet skimmate. If they get to dry, the top section gets all hard and crusty.
• When the recomended pump is used, ETSS skimmers suck a lot more air than needed generating very large bubbles that add to instability. This finding is supported by the fact that some dual towers run properly with only one pump.
• My best advise to improve the bubble size and get the proper air flow is to restrict the amount of air. Never restrict it on the inlet! this will only increase the bubble rate. Try to adapt your collection cup vent to restrict the amount of air going out. An orifice of about 3/16" dia. in my case (Yours could be smaller) will restrict the air enough. This makes the bubbles a lot smaller from about 1/8" to 1/4" to about 1/16" increasing the stability of the foam column. Adding small amount of additional bio balls than the recommended number (Mine recommends 54 and I use 60) also helps to reduce the bubble size
• I took a large Gatorade bottle, drilled a hole in the top just a little smaller than the diameter of the skimmer drain hose. Then drilled a small hole next to it (two bit sizes smaller than 3/16 since I’m running a smaller skimmer and pump). I went ahead and plugged the drain hose in and reset the skimmer. Pretty serious blast of air coming out of the vent hole, but the bubble size shrank way down! I can't believe the difference; curious to see what kind of skimmate will be pulled.
• IMO, the fact that you throttle back the pump, and it overflows is an indicator that it may not be tuned right. When people say it isn't producing - is usually because the skimmer cannot produce enough foam. If you can in fact get enough foam to the overflow, then you just need to dial it in.
• Gradually turn it down the gate valve output of the skimmer until it doesn't overflow (a little every day). Eventually it will not overflow and you will have some skimmate. If it gets to the point that it doesn't overflow and you don't have any skimmate then close the value on the output of the skimmer a little more. There is a sweet spot there, you just have to dial it in. Also when doing these adjustments you should try to keep your pump dialed in to the same position. It will be very hard to dial it in if you are adjusting both the pump and the gate valve on the skimmer.
• The gate valve adjustments can be very sensitive, so go slow. If I turn my gate valve as little as possible about 1/8 of an inch, and I can notice slightly wetter/dryer skim. I do have mine tuned just the way I want it.
• Always run pump on full throttle and make adjustments from the gate valve back to the injector. Running the pump at full throttle is the way the skimmer was designed to work. Throttling it back to achieve the correct setting is the wrong way to adjust them
• Best I can get is a medium green liquid with very little odor. Almost resembles a green tea. If I dial it back, the density of the foam is reduced and nothing is collected and the skimmer fouls very quickly.
o You might have dialed it back a little too much. Alternatively restrict your air exhaust and reset the discharge valve to reduce the foam size and stabilize the column for a more uniform skimmate.

• The optimal application is opening the pump to full throttle and having the water line 1 inch below the black box.....not up in the riser. Take a peek at AETech's website (superskimmer.com) and click on the ETSS 1000. Gary has a clear version showing the optimal water level down in the box. Throttling the pump back should really be a last resort.
• Back pressure can cause the water level to rise, fall and repeat with every rising foam head. It's an annoying problem, but easily corrected once you understand how these skimmers work. Air must be coming into the skimmer via the injector at the top of the tower, and have an exit point which is the vacuum created by the waste line to the remote collection cup. These two holes act to create suction that pulls foam up through the skimmer. If water cannot freely leave the black box at the gate valve setting you've chosen, this will no doubt cause surging and poor skimmate production because the water level will in the skimmer will never stay constant. With this added vent pipe, the water can freely flow back to the sump with the elbows creating minimal friction due excess air having an exit point out the vent.
water level:

• I have a ETSS 600, getting conflicting thoughts on where the water level should be, two inches below the top of the black box or two inches up into the first cylinder?
• It has been a while, but I recall that the water level should be just slightly into the first cylinder. I think 2 inches is a bit much, maybe 1 inch?
• Water level really depends on the feed pump. On my ETSS 900, I run the water level about 1/2" below the main riser.
• I run my 800 with a water level at the top of the skimmer housing where the first riser joins the system box. Where do you all run your water level for maximum efficiency?
• are we trying to achieve a solid white wall of really fine bubbles in the first riser tube? seems to appear that way from some of the pics i've seen of other people running this unit. i can close the valve a little to get that appearance, but then i raise the water level a hole bunch. i can actually see a clear water line waving on the bottom of the first riser, just above the black box. when you have all those bubbles in there, how do you know where you have the water line set. the directions seem to be pretty clear about not setting the water level too high as it will reduce output. but then again, the directions kind of suck so i will take any advice i can get
• To tell you the truth I never understood the directions regarding the water level. What I have learned is that if you see any water above the top of the black box the flow is either too srong or the air is too restricted. Do not pay any attention to the water level IMO.
• Let the first section of the riser fill with bubbles and adjust the valve so the bubbles just reach to the base of the second riser and wait. In about 1 hour it will be foaming all the way to the top - then adjust the valve so the foam is neither too wet (which may overflow the skimmer once there is a sudden change in water quality like when feeding) nor too dry (which will tend to create waste accumulation around the top ring.


AETech customer support.


Contact us
845-838-9044
Gary
845-227-2812
 
COLLECTION CUP or EXTERNAL CONTAINER:
• Pls explain to me this whole external collection cup thing. How, exactly, does it shut off the skimmer when it fills? I see the ball that closes off air escaping at the top. But that air is independent of the skimmer air intake.
• It’s all due to back pressure. Without holes in the lid to let the air escape the back pressure will kill the foam head. That is what happens when the outlet tubing, run into your collection device ie. milk jug or whatever else, gets covered with skimate.

Just take the tubing and stick it into a glass of water and see what happens to the foam head, also works to stop floods if the skimmer goes a little nuts.

• On commercial waste collectors the most popular are the Aetech (ETSS) the Precision Marine and the one I got which I do not know which brand it is.
The ETSS cannot be adapted for air output control as it vents openly trough the carbon. The precision Marine (Which I have not seen in person) seems to be adaptable although it does not seem to have enough space in the outlet cap for carbon and then there is the one I got which can be adapted and allows for enough carbon to retain the odors.

Here is a link where you can get any of the three. The one I got is the PS-MQWC2 which fits about a little more than one gallon of skimmate (I empty it every three days) but if too large for your skimmer or your installation you may try the PS-MQWC1. The top cap is one that has four small orifices for the vent and it just press inside the carbon container. In my initial trials I used a short pieces of electrical black plastic tape to cover three of the orifices from the inside and worked like a charm with no other modification. Note that you need to tape the cap down because the pressure may pop it off followed by all the carbon which ends up everywhere (a mess, believe me, I’ve been there).

Here is the link:
http://www.customaquatic.com/customa...dexid=ps-ac-ws
• Yes once the vent is reduced, the speed of the air is unbelievable.
The advantage with the additional container is that you have build a waste collector!

Here is a diagram of mine. I purchased already made and modified the cap to the orifice size I needed. I installed an insert connector on the cap and inserted a small diameter vinyl hose inside the connector to reduce the orifice size, then connected a hose to vent the air to the outside preventing salty mist condensing around it.
 
overflowing problems

overflowing problems

My ETSS 660 (with large tower extender) overflows after power is restored following a failure.
Fills the auto waste container and water keeps backing up into the collection cup, despite being totally choked off from air.
I have a longish 5 foot drain line, with a few street elbows which were unavoidable.
skimmer sits well above water level in sump, and drine line is angled down the whole way.
I do not have a syphon break, and dont know really why one is recommended on longer drain lines.
my return line exits 4 inches below water as well.

Any thoughts from the ETSS brain trust?
 
Ater reading how great skimmers these are, does anybody have one for a 650L to sell. It must be really cheap please as I stay in South Africa. None here use these skimmers and me would like to try it. You can pm what you have.
 
Chernobyl - My understanding is the siphon break is used to keep constant pressure on the output. If yours overflows upon power up, it sounds like a pressure issue. Installing the T, and an extra piece of PVC would be a cheap and easy try. If you look here: http://www.superskimmer.com/ETSS_1000.htm
"You can also see the 1/2" PVC drain line vent pipe installed with a tee. Prevents siphon action on the drain line. Especially important with long drain line runs."

I assume this isn't a new installation, and your gate valve on the output is tuned in and otherwise skims normal. If not, the pressure is controlled by (1) output controlled gate valve - opening it up causes the pressure to drop. (2) adding bio-balls in the chamber will lower the head or foam in the skimmer column. (3) last resort is your pump is too strong, and you need to cut some flow out with a ball joint.

Hope that helps.

After a month of use, I love this skimmer. I had to remove a few bio balls since getting a wet foam was impossible, and water was way to high in the chamber just to get the foam to overflow. I took out three bio balls and within a day, I had it tuned in and haven’t touched it in a few weeks. the ETSS pulls 1/2 gallon a day of dark green skimmmate.
 
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