my diy needle wheel dart pump
- Thread starter spazz
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Maybe the RC gods should make those URL links (web anchors) or whatever you wanna call them into buttons instead. It would make it easier for people to see. I know that I myself missed that link entirely when I first came on RC. It's not exactly jumping out at you ya know 
Kinda weird place for that anyway. Should be a button that says "Subscribe" right next to the "new thread" and "post reply" or at least next to the "Submit Reply" and "Reset Form" buttons.
But what do I know it's just my opinion and we know what they say about opinions :lol:
D.
Kinda weird place for that anyway. Should be a button that says "Subscribe" right next to the "new thread" and "post reply" or at least next to the "Submit Reply" and "Reset Form" buttons.
But what do I know it's just my opinion and we know what they say about opinions :lol:
D.
hahnmeister
In Memoriam
Watch it Melev... RC mods are on a banning streak...such comments could land you in their 'moved-on' bin 
spazz
New member
to get this subject back on track i will add this one note. i talked to energy this after noon. he seems happy with the results so far. im not. by now this skimmer should have shut down the other skimmer on the system. so i have my work cut out for me tomorrow. i think the 2 skimmers are compeating for the same dirty water and my skimmer is pulling the water in from the farthest part of the sump. so i want to change things a little bit. i am going to try and find a small plastic container and put it under the pipes from the overflows that are in the sump. then put the pump in that container. that way it gets alot more dirty water into the skimmer. then i will hook up the wet neck and see if that helps out a little. im already working on making a bigger riser and twist lock for the test skimmer we need to get the water level higher in the riser tube. that way the organics are more concentrated in that area and will combine and rise into a foam. tomorrow i will get some pics of it running after 48 hrs. this will tell me where i need to improve the skimmer and where things are good. but the biggest test is of the pump. so far so good. it has run for 24 hrs stright and no problems so far. cross your fingers. the other thing i need to check out is the heat of the pump. when it was running in the shop it was never more that 4-6 hrs at a time. i need to find out if the pump gets too hot. i have always beeen able to put my hand on the motor housing and keep it there. but the continuis running might make the motor run hotter. i dont know. i plan to bring along a infered thermometer tomorrow to see what its at.
The heat could definitley be a concern, but those pumps are made to run 24/7, so it should be OK. I thought you noted that it doesn't run at full load amp draw, so again, the heat shouldn't be an issue, hopefully .
I am interested in the results of Energy's suggestion. That being to run both skimmers, set similarly, running side by side, to compare the DIY skimmer with the commercial one.
How are you fabricating the twist-lock necks ? Do you have a fab shop or similar tools at your disaposal ? Or are you able to utilize average plumbing parts to create the neck union ? Thanks again for an incredible thread.
.I am interested in the results of Energy's suggestion. That being to run both skimmers, set similarly, running side by side, to compare the DIY skimmer with the commercial one.
How are you fabricating the twist-lock necks ? Do you have a fab shop or similar tools at your disaposal ? Or are you able to utilize average plumbing parts to create the neck union ? Thanks again for an incredible thread.
hahnmeister
In Memoriam
Spazz, FWIW, I believe you will solve all your problems by simply enlarging the riser neck to 5 or 6". Its amazing how much a riser neck really matters. Also, I know you have great skills, and are capable of making those reducer necks unlike most, but something that will also benefit the bubble collection area would be if you could have some sort of 'S' curve in the riser neck...not just a straight angle. This allows bubbles to consolidate in an upward motion without crashing into each other.
spazz
New member
i guess i need a better discription of what you referingto with the "S" curve in the riser tube. or are you refering to the cone itself? if your talking about the cone. the plan there is to leave this one alone and build a bigger body with the proper cone and flanges on it. this was just slapped together for testing. im not rich and cant aford to make the test skimmer look like its factory. but in the future im hoping to come up with the 20" diam design i want. we will see. that would have the properly designed cone and riser tube. i feel it would improve the perflrmance of the skimmer by 20% if built properly.
A couple of things have been said that strike true to home. This skimmer could definately benefit with an appropriate sized cone and riser neck. I wholeheartly believe a large increase in performance would come from these two mods. Spazz's skimmer is still running in tandem with my other one. It is outperfoming my current skimmer but has not shut it down. Both skimmers actually draw from a very similar area so if we fabricate the box it might give spazz's skimmer a slight "unfair" advantage. As spazz told me directly he wanted all good, bad and inbetween comments posted. If spazz creates the larger cone and riser tube it would be very interesting to see just how much more efficient it would make the skimmer. The heat from the pump is a non-issue. Everything is running just as it should. One small problem is a leak in the wet neck plumbing which is kicking water into the collection cup. I haven't had a chance to check it out and fix it yet. I'm sure it's just a loose fitting but we'll see. Overall all with both skimmers running wet- spazz's produce about 8 times more skimmate with an equivalent to a little darker color(without the wetneck operational). This was only an observation with out an actual measurement from emptying both cups this morning.
tinygiants
New member
I think that the real test is not the skimmate or the skimmer shape and design. To me it is obvious that a well designed skimmer will be more efficient than a poorly designed one. The real goal here was are the bubbles skimmer appropriate, and will the pump perform with the new mod?
To me, the skimmer is going to be functioning below optimum just by the shear size of the chamber. With the single pump the air saturation is < 13%. That is just a artifact of the chamber. It is in no way a reflection on the needle wheel design.
Dale
To me, the skimmer is going to be functioning below optimum just by the shear size of the chamber. With the single pump the air saturation is < 13%. That is just a artifact of the chamber. It is in no way a reflection on the needle wheel design.
Dale
tigerarmy40
New member
two pumps would be awesome!!! I would love to see that on a skimmer that size!!!
spazz
New member
the pump is pushing straight into the body of the skimmer. there is no way this body would handle 2 pumps. its at 12.5% air to water ratio allready. if you tryed to inject more air to the skimmer, the bubbles would join into bigger bubbles. if any thing i could put a little bit bigger air pump on it but not much bigger.
i think the otogon has a small affect on performance but not too bad. we will have to see down the road as things progress and the next skimmer is built to replace this one.
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