The Life Reef Skimmer Club

Here is a picture of the skimmer. Anyone know what model?
 

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Soak the whole thing in a 5 gallon bucket or something tall enough with 50/50 vinegar and water and see what happens. If not enough dissolves increase the amount of vinegar for another try. BTY you have a great skimmer just clean it up a little before use.
 
Finally, all the different parts arrived today. I had to source them from different vendors.

It looks much better now. I ended up using 2, 45 degree elbows and 1"ID silicone tubing.
The best part is that the footprint is now much smaller at 7x11".
What do you guys think?

I'll fire it up later today.







 
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Looking at the original pics, you did decrease the footprint drastically.... you may have just intrigued me on upgrading to a mazzei.

Which one to get I don't know though.
 
Thanks guys, I appreciate the tips and suggestions while I was setting up the skimmer :)

Placing it inside the sump was an operation that would make Harry Houdini proud.;)

I had to detach the union in order to get first the skimmer body inside the sump, then the pump, and lastly reattach the union to the Mazzei.

After that was done I realized that the extension of the Mazzei was interfering with the drain pipe, so I ended up raising the skimmer about 4".

The fit is so tight that once in position both pump and skimmer won't even move :)

I was very impressed by the pump. It's practically dead silent even at max speed. I might get another one and use it in place of the Eheim.

The loudest sound in my sump is now the ATS.

The skimmer has been running for about 2 hours, the bubbles just now are beginning to touch the upper flange.
I had to adjust the gate valve closing it almost all the way at least for now, as raising the skimmer lowered the starting water level (according to the manual 1" from the top flange). Water level is about 1/4 - 1/2 inch below the outlet and about 9" from the sump bottom.

How long does it generally take before the foam starts traveling up to the cup?





 
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I'd still leave it where it is. If you raise it, once it breaks in you will just get very wet skimming. I wouldn't adjust it until the skimmer is broken in and therefore nothing is affecting a constant level. Raising the skimmer now will do nothing to break in the skimmer anyway.

Btw, I raised my skimmer up as well. The exit pipe is about an inch above the water level.
 
I'd still leave it where it is. If you raise it, once it breaks in you will just get very wet skimming. I wouldn't adjust it until the skimmer is broken in and therefore nothing is affecting a constant level. Raising the skimmer now will do nothing to break in the skimmer anyway.

Btw, I raised my skimmer up as well. The exit pipe is about an inch above the water level.

+1

Breaking in a skimmer can be done in as little as 12 hours, mine took 7 days. My exit pipe is about 1" below the water surface in my sump, there is less noise this way and doesn't have a negative effect on the skimmer ( maybe a little bit of back pressure in the skimmer) but you can adjust the gate valve to compensate

They say you can run the skimmer in a 50/50 mixture of water and vinegar to remove any oils from the acrylic to speed up the break in process. I usually do this, I didn't this time and it did take longer than usual.
 
Keep the exit pipe out of the water. Add a 90° elbow and then a T which goes into the water. Drill a hole on the top part of the 90°. This will make the water exiting silent and the hole will prevent back pressure
 
Maybe I've forgotten or misunderstood, but I thought a while ago in this thread we established that back pressure was negligible when the exit pipe is submerged..?
 
It's been about 14 hours since I turned it on in the sump, the water-bubble level is still maybe 1/2 inch below the upper flange. Just so I get this right, the water level in the skimmer is adjusted by opening and closing the gate valve, which in turn will also determine wet or dry skimming?
 
It's been about 14 hours since I turned it on in the sump, the water-bubble level is still maybe 1/2 inch below the upper flange. Just so I get this right, the water level in the skimmer is adjusted by opening and closing the gate valve, which in turn will also determine wet or dry skimming?

Correct
 
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