Optimized Beckett

[sherm71tank]

First a shot to show bubble density. You can see that not all the bubbles are super fine, but most are.

And the obligatory cup shot. Pretty decent dry foam for a beckett. I'll have to fix that as I prefer it wet.

Also noteworthy, I have a very low bioload and perform 30 gal water changes at least once a month on that tank @ 75 gallons.

 

[spitefull]

Waylander, got new beckett, filled holes , drilled 30 1/16 holes. bubblecannon is good term, had to drop outflow level in half because I couldnt open air supply, big suprise was foam head can be anywhere I want it, couldnt find the dense foam line as its down at the bottom of the tube!this will require some adjustments for sure, skimmate is green and dry and lots of it. I cant say its drawing anymore air than before but it sure is using it better, this is still on 1000 gph pump and wonder if I should choke it back a bit?

 

[rivan]

This was the experience I had. When I swapped for a moded beckett my foam production skyrocketed for several hours. It was really amazing. I'm getting more bubble production than before, but its maybee 20% more. So I'm guessing the mod creates a more efficient mixing of air within the beckett.

 

[wrassie86]

Waylander
thanks for posting this mod. ive tried it today on PM bullet 3 with a iwaki 55.28-3/32 holes and its a pretty good difference.while i would not call my skimmer a "foam cannon" the difference is pretty good.
Also when my new beckett gets here, i think 26 holes would be optimal for me.And see if i cant step down to a PCX 40

 

[wmfsoll2]

Great Mod!

Bill.

 

[rivan]

Now that this mod is working for me i have a quastion about beckett foam adjustment.

How do you guys do it?

I've only been running a becket for 2 weeks now. But I've discovered there seem to be 2 modes (thanks to this mod in my case) to run this.

Method one seems to be leave the air off and run the pump. Then once the water is at a good height open up the air slowly and adjust water level accordingly. I've found that this leads to really nice small bubles and a stable foam head.

Method two. Leave the beckett fully open to air and turn on the pump. Adjust the water level accordingly. I've found that this gives some pretty big bubbles and unstable burping foam head. But I get significantly more foam this way.

Any opinions?

I get the feeling most people have been doing this similiar to method 1 but I'm not convinced this is the best way of skimming.

 

[sherm71tank]

I know I'm in the minority but I prefer the beckett ran wide open and adjust the water level. Your skimmer may not be big enough to run this way however.

 

[rivan]

My skimmer is actually 5 ft tall . First 3 ft is 4" PVC and then 2 ft of 3" cast acrlic tube.

Running the beckett wide open turns it into a foam cannon since this mod. The unstable foam thickens up and then just fires out the last 2 inches of pipe. With the beckett open there's enough air to do this.
I get pretty dark skimmate.

What I noticed between these two methods is that the water/foam boundary layer sits about 12" different in my case. With very fine bubles (method 1) the boundary is about 8" below the top of the exit to get good foam build up.

With wide open beckett its probably 12" lower, but since my skimmer is PVC above this point i can't actually see the quality of the bubles, though I suspect they are quite small as well. But above the boundary level I think the foam really expands due to a large volume of air.

I wish I had two identical skimmers to run both ways so as to compare.

The funny thing is that when I first got the mod successful I got a foam cannon. Then after a few hours I played with the levels and ended up with method 1(fine bubles high water mark). I just assumed that after several hours of skimming the foaming just subsided. Then after cleaning the skimmer today I realised the beckett skimmer seems to run 2 ways mechanically.


I also had another improvement with this skimmer today. I'm using a Blueline NS 100 pump which has a 3/4 inlet. I re-plumbed the inlet hose to 1" in preparation to trying a much bigger pump.
I decided to run the existing blueline and was surprised to see even more throughput. I didn't think 3 foot of hose would have such an effect. The end result is I don't think I need the iwaki 55 I was planning. The blueline NS only uses 70 watts.

 

[Bill Z]

I glued the holes tonight. hope to do this mod this weekend.

I was looking at the ball thingy that goes in the beckett. Look at the cross that is attached to the ball that holds the ball inplace. Do you think that reduces flow? I know it's there to hold the ball in the correct place but it sure looks like it reduces a lot of flow. Looks like it could be made a lot smaller. What do you think?

mod no.2 maybe?

 

[jimmyj7090]

This sure seems to be working for me.

22 1/16" holes, PM bullet 2 skimmer, pan world 100PX pump.

foam seems frothier, smaller bubbles. Can't wait to see how this plays out over some time.

 

[sherm71tank]

Hey Jimmy, are you running 1/4" or 3/8" air inlet on your beckett and are you running it wide open or throttled back?

 

[jimmyj7090]

Stock PM air inlet, 3/8" I think, but I'll have to check in the AM.

I'm still playing around with it, right now the air is restricted a bit but not much.

I just fed and the foam really collapsed, more/quicker than usual. It's reforming just fine, but I thought the sensitivity was interseting???

 

[Keelay]

I have a smaller skimmer, 5.5 inches diameter 11" tall. (neck is 2" Diameter 3" tall). It's run by a MAG5 with a gravity boost. I don't have before and after comparison since I already did the mod and then built a new skimmer (not very scientific of me I have tried different bubble making methods in search of the best. In order of worst to best, The Kent Turbo Venturi bubble generation, Spray injection (various stages and optimizations here). The beckett blows them all away. I've never filled my skimmer body with white before. It's visually around 2x the best I've done before.

So to be clear, I do have 30 x 1/16" holes following waylander's idea in my beckett, I am running a very low pressure pump, and getting far better results than anything I've tried.

Thanks Waylander

 

[slug]

I tried between 16 and 40 1/16" hole. It didn't work better then the default holes. Using a pressure rated pump tough, GEN-X PCX55.

 

[slug]

Should say "Using a pressure rated pump though" not "tough", can't edit anymore.

 

[wife no likey]

Well after some experimenting, I can say that I'm pretty happy with the improvement.

I'm now able to run with the air wide open and I dropped my water level significantly. Previously, I had the water about 4 inches below the riser, I now have it about 8 inches down. I also think that I'll be able to get some decently dry skimmate.

I'm getting a flow meter this week hopefully so we'll see what the throughput is.

Here's some pics:

 

[jarhed]

Hmm....

I put about 40 holes in mine. Some of the holes are SQUIRTING water into the beckett chamber. Not quite sure what to do. Performance has not changed at all.

 

[reeferman75]

So what the thought on pressure rated pumps, and has anyone done this on a dual beckett

 

[Bill Z]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8531597#post8531597 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jarhed
Hmm....

I put about 40 holes in mine. Some of the holes are SQUIRTING water into the beckett chamber. Not quite sure what to do. Performance has not changed at all.

me too...I have about 20 - 1/16th holes and the water is goming out of the holes. I went back to my old beckett because this mod didn't help. any ideas? I'm using a mag 9.5 pump.

also, the flow went way up. I open my gate valve all the way and my water is still to high. Why? My beckett is about 3 inches higher than the collection cup so that's not it...

 

[Waylander]

I would speculate that some of the holes are too high (?). Or maybe too many holes for the pressure gradient (?). I'd have to think about it but I am not sure about too many being a factor - it would seem that the beckett would just pull the the holes with the highest pressure differential....and the others would leak?