Plumbing Skimmer Remotely

[WLachnit]

I have an external reeflo recirculating Skimmer that I would like to plumb about 12 ft from my sump. Is this possible, or will the back pressure present problems with a configuration such as this?

 

[Jstaff123]

I run a large external reef octopus skimmer on my 500g tank and have it draining 9-10ft away
, and I do experience some issues from the back pressure. The level inside the skimmer isn't always constant; it's not a regular thing, but occasionally the water level in the skimmer will drop about 6 inches and stay that way for 5-20 minutes.. Totally random, then go back to normal for a while. Seems to do this a few times, then it will go away for a while. Overall it skims ok, but not great because of this.

However, my downward slope is fairly gradual, so if you try it, maybe raise the skimmer up more so you have a quicker gravity drain, and that might help out. I have mine around 18" off the floor.

Good luck!

 

[WLachnit]

Thanks, helpful to know. Sounds like my idea may not work since I was planning on plumbing it under the floor 8 ft and back up into the sump.

Has anyone tried this?


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[ericarenee]

to avoid the back pressure you could use a much larger return pipe then needed and have the skimmer to dump into that just as if it was dumping back into the sump....

This is how i had mine when i was running a external skimmer , But it was only about 4 feet from the sump and higher up then the sump itself... That is another thing if you can get it higher then the sump will also help