The Life Reef Skimmer Club
- Thread starter d2mini
- Start date
mikeatjac
Active member
You can drill if you want but fill with some ground up acrylic and your glue.
Your theory make an interesting point. Although the 8 watt needlewheel skimmer will most likely process less water. Lets not forget to remove proteins as fast as possible. But other than that it would make an interesting comparison.
mikeatjac
Active member
A 8 watt skimmer can not support a decent reaction chamber, the bubbles will just rise.
Speed
Unregister Member
I'm sure Jeff would be more than happy to advise you on this if you gave him a call. (email him some pics and follow them up with a call.)
Bignose94015
New member
will do thanks!
well, when one would choose to run a recirc, it is properly fed 1.5 to 2x system volume... so what does it matter how much water a skimmer moves above that?
The constant and only thing that makes a skimmer remove organics is air draw. The size of the skimmer and its potential lie in the amount of air it takes in. I would like to find out how the life reef compares to same size skimmers(I mean air draw not physical size).
Air draw by itself means nothing. You have to combine all of the other factors as well"¦.. water flow, skimmer body and neck size and shape, etc.
Take a look at a Beckett skimmer. They pull a ton of air. The ones that I have used perform better when you close down some of the air flow.
Btw, with a recirculating skimmer, you can set the amount of water you want to process with the feed pump. With a non recirculating like the Lifereef, the amount of water you process is based on how big or small your pump is that passes water through the venturi. As an example, you can put a larger pump on the VS-24 from the recommended Mag 9.5 to say a Mag 12. You will get more air but you will also be putting a lot more water though that skimmer and potentially that flow through might be to much for the tank a VS-24 should be on.
I think your missing my point... As it is, it seems to me that everyone here has gone from an oversized skimmer to one that has much less air draw to system volume.. You are also claiming an increase in skimmate... so... to me I question the validity of the claim that it is the lifereef skimmer that caused the increase vs the change to a lower amount of air draw per system volume... Basically, you get better results cause the skimmer your now running is actually much smaller(in LPH air which is the skimmers filtration capacity)regardless of it's physical size. So, I look to read and hope for a true apples to apples comparison. The air draw is the one constant that needs to be about equal to to actually compare skimmer to skimmer... With the air draw equal to another skimmer, then if the results are better with the life reef(skimming the same tank over time), some notion can be entertained that 'contact time' physical size, etc... does make a difference.
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d2mini
Premium Member
I would like to point out AGAIN that the "oversized" skimmer I had was just ONE of my previous skimmers.
And I'd like to point out AGAIN that a possible increase in skimmate is just ONE advantage to a life reef. Even if it didn't skim noticeably better, i'd still prefer it for several reasons. I bet most here would agree.
You could also call and talk to Jeff and see what he says about your questions.
I'd love to eavesdrop on THAT conversation.
mikeatjac
Active member
You need to stop focusing on the air draw. I have had skimmers that were solid white but we're not great skimmers. Air to air draws comparisons is not Apple to apples.
It almost seems air draw is one of many marketing schemes. Brand a draws 1600lph while brand b only draws 900lph so brand a is clearly better. I'd love to see some TRUE scientific data from some of these manufacturers to back up some of their claims. Researching skimmers for you system almost feels like reasearching voodoo magic, a lot of crazy claims and zero data to back it.
With air draw between skimmer a and skimmer b being equal, then and only then can a comparison between the other qualities of the skimmer be evaluated to either increase or decrease performance. I'm not trying to compare air draw, I'm trying to evaluate if there are any merits to claims of other design factors and if they do indeed produce increased results.
Technically you are wrong...
Only when you have equal air draw and equal water flow, between skimmer A and skimmer B "then and only then can the other qualities of the skimmer be evaluated"
Your problem is that you have tunnel vision on air draw...
Eric Boerner
Coral Cutter
That's because no one who is building skimmers for the hobby actually do any 'real' research or science. The majority of designs are by pro-summer home-based engineers that are reef keepers themselves. As with 99.999% of what is spouted on these forums, it's all anecdotal.
No because one of the claimed merits of a skimmer such as the life reef is it moves lots of water compared to a pinwheel.... So once again air draw would be the equalizer. I'm not trying to devalue the life reef .... I'm trying to show that huge air draw numbers are not necessary...
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