The Life Reef Skimmer Club

bayoupr said:
fishcatdog66, 70HD would be too much pump for the skimmer. The air draw would be too much for the body. I tried a Blueline 40HD on my 48" and on my 30" with a 15" extension and both skimmers couldn,t handle that pressure rated pump (had to throttle the output off the pump back halfway with a ball valve). On my 30" with the extension I am running a Blueline 30HD and pulling 20-22SCFH which is perfect for the skimmer.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.Ya,why ask for trouble right?If it ain't broke...
That's why I went LifeReef in the first place.
 
bayoupr said:
fishcatdog66, 70HD would be too much pump for the skimmer. The air draw would be too much for the body. I tried a Blueline 40HD on my 48" and on my 30" with a 15" extension and both skimmers couldn,t handle that pressure rated pump (had to throttle the output off the pump back halfway with a ball valve). On my 30" with the extension I am running a Blueline 30HD and pulling 20-22SCFH which is perfect for the skimmer.
Click to expand...

How was the skimmer behaving to make you think the body couldn't handle the pump? Do you think it was the GPH or the pressure?
 
The pressure through the Mazzei injector was pulling huge amounts of air and the flow was more than the Iwaki 40 RLXT I was using.. When I first kicked the pump on I had a foam head of about 4" thick at the top under the flange, some micro bubbles out the return and my dwyer meter was pegged at 50SCFH which is why I had to dial it back.
 
fishcatdog66 said:
Anyone using ozone with their skimmer?
Click to expand...

Me.
On and off. Was having a problem with the "ozone safe" plastic t-fittings that Jeff supplies melting on me in short order. Went through a few and now got one of the white ones that Bulk Reef Supply sells. Just installed it.
You can see the black ozone safe tubing and part of that T connector and part of the white quick release in the pic i posted above. That's the "Ozone Kit".
 
d2mini said:
Me.
On and off. Was having a problem with the "ozone safe" plastic t-fittings that Jeff supplies melting on me in short order. Went through a few and now got one of the white ones that Bulk Reef Supply sells. Just installed it.
You can see the black ozone safe tubing and part of that T connector and part of the white quick release in the pic i posted above. That's the "Ozone Kit".
Click to expand...

Interesting. I use it on and off as well. I'm a little apprehensive using it full time. What is your target orp and dosage? Do you run a second reactor for the effluent and carbon?
 
d2mini,on a side note thanks for starting this thread. So many people give me the gears for running a Lifereef skimmer only because they have never heard of Lifereef.
 
fishcatdog66 said:
Interesting. I use it on and off as well. I'm a little apprehensive using it full time. What is your target orp and dosage? Do you run a second reactor for the effluent and carbon?
Click to expand...

i've run it with my Profilux turning it off when it hits 380 mv, but recently I've had trouble getting it up that high. I think this Poseidon 200 might be too small for my system. Used to get up there no problem so I dunno why I was having trouble recently. And I already had the cell replace when it was only 3 months old. Maybe this unit is just a piece of junk or too small... i dunno.

I've also run it on a timer in the morning after lights on for a couple hours with the same safety shut off of 380 but with only 2 hours it would never get there.

I've been running it on and off trying to see if I see a difference, which I haven't really seen much of.

Without ozone, my redox reads in the mid to high 200's.

I do run carbon on my system in a Next Reef MR1, fed through my manifold on my return plumbing.
 
d2mini said:
i've run it with my Profilux turning it off when it hits 380 mv, but recently I've had trouble getting it up that high. I think this Poseidon 200 might be too small for my system. Used to get up there no problem so I dunno why I was having trouble recently. And I already had the cell replace when it was only 3 months old. Maybe this unit is just a piece of junk or too small... i dunno.

I've also run it on a timer in the morning after lights on for a couple hours with the same safety shut off of 380 but with only 2 hours it would never get there.

I've been running it on and off trying to see if I see a difference, which I haven't really seen much of.

Without ozone, my redox reads in the mid to high 200's.

I do run carbon on my system in a Next Reef MR1, fed through my manifold on my return plumbing.
Click to expand...

My system is fairly new at just over a year old so maybe bioload has a lot to do with it. If my orp drops below 380 I turn it on for however long it takes to get to 400. Dose is set at 30mg. I just yesterday took the ozone off line from the skimmer and restarted 200 ml of rox. 8 carbon. The water is super clear. I think now that ozone has to be dialed in very carefully with these skimmers as they don't off gass out of the skimmer cup lid.
 
clugo said:
Rtague , pls let us know what Jeff says about using a mazzei vs the standard setup. I have a svs 2-24. Works great!
Click to expand...

Clugo,I spoke to Jeff yesterday about the Mazzie upgrade,He said there was very little difference in performance but the Mazzie was top of the line venturi and people like to use it.After talking to him I didn't
think the upgrade was necessary.
 
rtague said:
Clugo,I spoke to Jeff yesterday about the Mazzie upgrade,He said there was very little difference in performance but the Mazzie was top of the line venturi and people like to use it.After talking to him I didn't
think the upgrade was necessary.
Click to expand...

Mine skims like a boss with the stock venturi.
I see no reason to upgrade at this time.
 
wildman926 said:
I bet that bucket puts out quite a smell. You can easily modify a lid for your needs, by cutting out the rim part for your floats, and putting a tube to mpt plastic fitting for the hose, and a small hole to breath if necessary. As you already have a Home Depot sells bucket, and they sell lids with them.
Click to expand...

LOL, this is so true, it does smell real bad,, but the room is vented outside so their isn't any smell in the room. I tried using it with the lid that I made, but it was a pain in the neck.
 
fishcatdog66 said:
You could probably run 1 pump for the whole system but my thing is I like to take the whole cup off to clean it and that req the skimmer pump to be shut off so I don't have to mess with the gate valve on the skimmer exit.If you ran 1 pump you would shut down the whole system to do that same maintenance.
Click to expand...

You could always plumb in a ball valve to turn the flow on or off without having to adjust the gate valve.
 
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