Modding an AquaC EV150

[pogodzib]

I'm gradually getting the air cut back to the right amount that my skimmate is now getting to the consistency that I want. I pulled out a little over a quart of skimmate yesterday, but it was still a touch too wet, but much closer to the typical "wet skimmate" than pure water. Not bad, esp. when you consider that I have also been adding ozone at a fairly high rate into the skimmer which typically reduces the skimmate amount. Now I need to find a way to extend the riser tube so that I can crack the skimmer up to full power. If you'd like, I can take pics this weekend and post them on Monday. As for drilling the air valve, I just used a standard drill bit that was the same size as the air valve's threads and then used a metal threaded adapter that had the same threads as the valve to form the threads in the skimmer body. The main thing is to go slow so you don't crack the acrylic. While drilling the hole in the skimmer box, the acrylic actually melts some from the heat and can re-harden as you get close to finishing drilling the hole, making finishing the hole a little tricky. Once the hole was drilled and the threads were shaped, I was able to screw in the new air valve by hand. I also ended up cutting the air valve threads shorter so it wouldn't extend too far below the skimmer box's acrylic.

 

[pogodzib]

I snapped a couple quick pics for you over my lunch hour. In the first pic you can see the silicone caulk around the riser tube base, the air valve that I installed, the 1" tubing connected to the injector, and my quick DIY muffler for the air valve. The pic doesn't show how small the bubbles really are, but in the bottom half of the riser tube the bubbles are really tiny, but due to slowing the production of skimmate down, I've had to set the skimmer at a less than ideal setting so the bubbles in the top 1/3-1/4 of the tube are larger. If the skimmate production stays like this for a while, I will either make a DIY riser extension or have AquaC make an extension for me so I can really crank the skimmer back up. The skimmate in the collection cup is 6 hours worth of skimmate and there is a little bit more inside of my collection bucket.

In the second pic you can see what I did with the other air hole. I drilled the hole a touch larger and then jammed a 3/8" hose into the hole. I then pushed a 1/4" tube leading from my ozone reactor inside of the 3/8" tube so the only air entering that hole is coming from the ozone reactor.

Taking pics of the inside tube that I installed under the injector or taking the air valve off to show you the hole size would have required shutting the skimmer off and taking it apart so I didn't have enough time.

 

[SLO180]

whoah!!!! ive never gotten that much skim outta my 150!! I bought a 3/8" valve today (looks just like urs) and a threaded metal peice to thread the hole. Im getting silicone later to seal up the riser and cover the second air hole.

What ID-diameter tube did you end up using under the spray injector platform?

 

[pogodzib]

I ended up cutting the collection cup riser tube off of my old Seaclone 100 skimmer and using that. It was the exact same size as the hole in the platform. My guess is that the inside diameter is 1.5".

FYI - What I'm aiming for is to collect a comparable amount and consistency as the skimmate that Blootang gets on this page out of his EV-180 skimmer. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=594995&perpage=25&pagenumber=14 Based on the quantity and thickness of the current skimmate, I think I'm getting close. At the current rate, I'd be pulling about 2-4 gal/week, but the skimmate isn't as dark (yet ).