MRC Club

[SDguy]

I am upgrading tanks, and I will have more room in the stand. I'm going to add an 8" riser to my MRC2 dual beckett skimmer. My question is, do I need to raise the becketts? And if so, how high?

TIA!

In case anyone is doing this, I can say now that I did in fact have to raise my becketts, as I suspected I would. Otherwise, you can only skim SUPER dry, because the minute you raise the water level in the skimmer about the becketts, no air will be drawn in.

 

[RGibson]

Peter what pump do you use on your skimmer?

 

[SDguy]

I use a genx55.

 

[RGibson]

Peter my beckett skimmer has one beckett with a Iwaki MD55RLT pump the water is 12 in higher than the beckett,air line intake to the beckett 1/2 in and it can be run dry or wet.The skimmer is 36 in tall 8 in dia.

 

[SDguy]

I understand that a more powerful pump would not have this issue

But here is my situation....

I had the stock MR2 (24? 26? ") with dual becketts and the genx55. I literally had skimmate forming in my sump at the water line. This tells me that the contact time is WAY too short. I figure, I need to raise the skimmer height. To do this, with the riser, gave me awesome height, but bad performance, since the pump could not handle the extra pressure. Since I raised the becketts, everything is great, and no more skimmate forming at the water line in my sump "

 

[RGibson]

Peter my drain line from the skimmer goes to the sump and under the water,there is a air vent higher then the water line tie to the drain,no forming in the sump,it works just like the drain in your house.Have a good day Ralph

 

[SDguy]

Peter my drain line from the skimmer goes to the sump and under the water,there is a air vent higher then the water line tie to the drain,no forming in the sump,it works just like the drain in your house.Have a good day Ralph

Thanks, I understand how a drain works

I issue was foam fractionation was happening outside of my skimmer since the air/water mixtrue was not staying there long enough. The pump was spitting out the air/water of the skimmer.

 

[RGibson]

Do you have a pic of your skimmer.

 

[Big Boy69]

I had mine running outside the sump and was running a Blueline 70 on it. I had no issues with running wet or dry.

 

[pangetikaw]

so what are you guys are saying... raising the beckett is a good thing or bad thing thanks for the info

 

[RGibson]

You do not need to raise the beckett.

 

[pangetikaw]

ok what is the effect of raising the beckett i just acquired a mr2 with iwaki 55 i can only use it in sump because i dont have enough space under the cabinet and im going to set it up to where the U thing that i found here on line to hook it up with out drilling a hole in you sump hey thanks for the help and ideas

 

[Big Boy69]

You don't have to run it outside the sump. I just did it because of room that I needed inside my 40g rubbermaid. If you run it in the sump you shouldn't keep a high water level above the output, you'll be keeping too much pressure on the outlet making your water run higher inside the skimmer and you won't be able to fine tune as well. The less the back pressure on the outlet, the better.

 

[Nereaga]

Hey Don,

I run a Mr-1 in sump with the outlet submerged. Should I raise up the simmer in sump to relieve some back pressure? I feel I have never really gotten it dialed in yet. Maybe this is the issue....

Thanks!

Brad

 

[Big Boy69]

You probably do have too much back pressure on the outlet. I would suggest raising it up to where the outlet water is making waves but not crazy? I didn't know how else to describe it.

 

[Nereaga]

Thanks boss! Sad to see your tank is shut down and in the forum for sale... I never got to see it but Tom said it was rockin!

Brad

 

[Big Boy69]

Thanks.
I did get a lot of compliments on it. I have a 29g Oceanic Bio Cube sitting here calling my name to set it up.........or maybe I'll sell it.

 

[Nereaga]

No more SW itch huh?

 

[pangetikaw]

does it have any effect in raising the beckett i have to raise it becoz of the sump space

 

[Big Boy69]

I miss it, but I don't miss the shipping, that kind of stuff.

I had an MRC 2, with dual beckets, extensions and a Blueline 70 pump with collection container. I still have it if anyone is interested.

pangetikaw - I had mine outside of the sump and the return I ran with just a straight extension and a 45 degree elbow into a bucket. The bucket had holes about 2" off the bottom of the bucket filled with bags of carbon. If you wouild put a 90 dfegree elbow, sometimes for whatever reason you get a bubble inside and the back pressure is high on the outlet.
I put risers on to raise the injectors, so there was more contact time, or "creating more foam". What pump are you running?