The Life Reef Skimmer Club

Ken
Have got the Life Reef running? Can't wait to see how it compares to the rest.

Not until tomorrow. I am bringing the MTC skimmer back then. I took these two pics before I took it down today. Check out how fine the bubbles are in the riser tube.


I would have hooked it up today but I can't get motivated to drain the sump and drill for the bulkhead.

Btw, tomorrow when I drop of the other skimmer we will be going over the design for the 30" recirculating skimmer. Should have that in a couple of weeks.
Ken




 
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MTC skimmer

MTC skimmer

Not until tomorrow. I am bringing the MTC skimmer back then. I took these two pics before I took it down today. Check out how fine the bubbles are in the riser tube.


I would have hooked it up today but I can't get motivated to drain the sump and drill for the bulkhead.

Btw, tomorrow when I drop of the other skimmer we will be going over the design for the 30" recirculating skimmer. Should have that in a couple of weeks.
Ken





Very impressive looking fine bubbles !
 
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The Mag-Drive 12 pump I'm using comes with a foam block. Do you guys use this in the pump or leave it out? Also do you use the thin foam vibration pad when using the pump in the sump?

Thanks,
Ken
 
Is the pad salt water / reef safe? I'm wondering if it cuts down on vibration with the pump sitting on the bottom of the acrylic sump.
 
foam pad

foam pad

Is the pad salt water / reef safe? I'm wondering if it cuts down on vibration with the pump sitting on the bottom of the acrylic sump.

I wouldn't bother with the pad Ken as it is made of some type of foam and I didn't find it to really isolate the pumps vibration that much...It's up to you though to experiment.
 
Little update on the 48", still kicking butt.
 

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Anyone know what the diameter is of these skimmer? Life Reef skimmers? SVS3-24.

What about ratings? I know the site says 250 gallons but Jeff says the skimmer body is only 13 inches not including cup and neck I guess. Is 250 a good rating?
 
6" dia. The 48" (which has 22" of actual usable reaction chamber, measured where the air is mixing in the skimmer to the top of the water line where my bubbles pop at) is rated up to 500gals and is handling my 180g with no problem, if this helps.
 
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Anyone know what the diameter is of these skimmer? Life Reef skimmers? SVS3-24.

What about ratings? I know the site says 250 gallons but Jeff says the skimmer body is only 13 inches not including cup and neck I guess. Is 250 a good rating?

the SVS3-24 is 6 inches in diameter and 23 inches tall to top of collection cup.(just went and measured mine)
the OP of this thread is using a SVS3-30 on a 350g system (with a pretty decent bio load) with success so the SVS3-24 will be fine for 250g. If worse came to worse Jeff makes a flanged spacer to increase the height of of the VS3(flanged) skimmer but if you're using within the 250g spec you should never need it.

Give Jeff a call, many folks can vouch he'll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.
 
Finally hooked up the SVS3-30 tonight. The skimmer and the pump is very quiet.

I set the level to about 1 1/2" below the top of the main chamber.

I was surprised to see after having it running that you don't really have all 30" for skimming. You have to minus whatever the height of the narrower chamber that the water first shoots into. No real skimming is done in that chamber. In the main body there are no bubbles from the bottom of the skimmer to the height of that narrow chamber. I didn't measure but maybe it's about 10".

This functions the same as his big skimmers that have the box on the bottom and like the MTC skimmer that I had. It keeps the bubbles from he returning to the sump.

Ken
 
In the main body there are no bubbles from the bottom of the skimmer to the height of that narrow chamber. I didn't measure but maybe it's about 10".

About 8.5" on my 30", which interestingly is at the same level as my water level.
 
Mine usually sits about a half inch below the flange. Break-in was about 12 hours.

Uh oh, I got to leave Manhattan now and get home. I don't want to miss it happening at the 12 hour mark. :)

When I get home tonight I will move the level up an 1". I wanted to leave it lower just in case things overflowed.

Also if I had to do it again, I wouldn't have gotten the 8" cup. It is a waste of money and takes up too much room if you are going to use the drain and a a collection container.
 
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