<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9708899#post9708899 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
I would go no more than under 30" of water. This doesnt limit you much though as far as skimmer height goes. If the pumps are mounted up on the skimmer body (rather than rest on the floor with the outlets going up and over to the skimmer with an elbow)so that the air intake is at the highest possible point, you could have a 4'+ skimmer still... only the pumps arent at the bottom. Also, keep in mind that I said 30" of water... so you have another good 12" or so of foam collection cup on there. I would say that beyond 48"-54" of total skimmer height though, you will start to see the pump performance go below what its worth though.
Look at Deltec like this one...
http://www.deltecusa.us/proteinskimmers/ap1006.php
Note that the pumps are higher up on the body, with the outlet facing down to blow the bubbles down into the body further, and that the pumps are a good ways up the side of the body. The intakes from the pumps below can be used to create a nice downdraft as well. On this config, the pumps are still getting rated at 750lph... so a 25% drop in output at 42" of total skimmer height.
Here, look at this older model that Spazz did... something like 6'tall...
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look at how the pumps are so high on the body, and the intakes from the pumps are down lower... and all the bubbles that are being dragged down in the skimmer body from this. There is no reason you couldnt do this with eheims (those are OR 2700s only on that skimmer) and get the same effect.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9830306#post9830306 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by skey44
WOW, what tank is this going on? Do the eheim pumps with the euro-reef pin, or just mesh mod em yourself. 4 sounds about right... model it after one of the deltec models and it should rock.
double checked and i think deltec would do 5 for a 16" body but 4 for the 12", good luck! and make sure to email them seperately from the quote.