Wet skimming

Yep, i picked one up for my MRC.. but i guess ill still have to put up with the pain of a wasted gallon of water everytime this happens though.:(

I dont believe so.. because needlewheels have those little holes at the top of the lid.;)
 
The idea behind the auto shutoff waste collector is shut off the air supply so the bubbles stop. But those little holes on the needlewheel skimmers are still giving air to the skimmer. Even when the waste collector has its air supply shut off.
 
I think this a very imortant, yet mostly overlooked part of aquarium husbandry. I think that wet skimming dramatically increases the total amount of crap that you pull out. You're basically lowering the threshold on what your skimmer takes out over what will pass through.

Bomber mentioned this neat rule of thumb: make sure there's no sludge on the inside of the skimmer. That's how you know your running it correctly.
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If you connect the air supply of the venturi on a recirculating needle wheel it quits producing foam and will keep your skimmer from overflowing even with the holes in the skimmer lid. The holes in the lid provide somewhere for air to escape, not air to the skimmer. If you tried this with a non recirculating needle wheel skimmer you would just cause more flow and more mess... I tried it, it works.
 
brentp said:
If you connect the air supply of the venturi on a recirculating needle wheel it quits producing foam and will keep your skimmer from overflowing even with the holes in the skimmer lid. The holes in the lid provide somewhere for air to escape, not air to the skimmer. If you tried this with a non recirculating needle wheel skimmer you would just cause more flow and more mess... I tried it, it works.

Do you have any pics of it ? I'm not sure I'm understanding what your saying .

Unless your saying the air intake is sucking air from the skimmate container . If thats it your not concerned about the skimmate fume getting back into the tank instead of air ?
 
I don't have it hooked up right now. The one I was using was a DIY and my son fell on it and my calcium reactor a busted them up pretty good. What a mess!!! You hook it up just like you would on a becket skimmer.

They do not work on a needlewheel pump that is not recirculating. When you cut the air to them more water gets pumped into the skimmer causing more of a problem. When you cut the air on a recirculating pump you lose your foam head just like a becket.

Anybody with a recirculating needlewheel can test this by cutting off the air and they will see what I mean.

When you have it hooked to a becket skimmer it is sucking in the fumes from the waste container too. ;)
 
brentp said:


When you have it hooked to a becket skimmer it is sucking in the fumes from the waste container too. ;)

No , it cuts it off from the drain . If no air can get through the drain hose the skimmer stops making bubbles . The air intakes are not connected to anything .

For me I didn't go crazy making a special container . I just put the hose deeper into the skimmate container (a 1 gallon punch container:p) , when the skimmate covers the hose the air is cut back enough to dry the foam and slow down the skimmate .
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brentp said:
I don't have it hooked up right now. The one I was using was a DIY and my son fell on it and my calcium reactor a busted them up pretty good. What a mess!!!

Kids , don't you just love them sometimes !

They can be so good and do something so silly .

:lol:
 
joefish said:
No , it cuts it off from the drain . If no air can get through the drain hose the skimmer stops making bubbles . The air intakes are not connected to anything .

Duh! I used to have it hooked to my EV180. I had to modify it to work on the needle wheel. Sometimes the brain just doesn't work like it should. Now I get what you meant by the holes on top of the skimmer cup. So yes it will work but you have to suck fumes.:lol:
 
joefish said:
Kids , don't you just love them sometimes !

They can be so good and do something so silly .

:lol:

And of course he loves to snoop around the tank. When I work on the tank I have to give him something to do too. I made my stand and never finished the front doors and of course my wife keeps bugging me to finish them. My son fell in pretending to 'fix' things, my wife just gave me the 'I told you so' look.

Does anyone know if sucking air through the waste collector is bad for the tank?
 
brentp said:
And of course he loves to snoop around the tank. When I work on the tank I have to give him something to do too. I made my stand and never finished the front doors and of course my wife keeps bugging me to finish them. My son fell in pretending to 'fix' things, my wife just gave me the 'I told you so' look.


OUCH ! The I told you so from the Mrs. .......:lol:
 
brentp,

That is exactly what I thought also. Wouldn't sucking the air from the waste collector be bad ? I would think so some what. I am sure that bubles from the protein skimmer do provide oxigen to the water. Since it is reuse the same air form the collection cup is not new air. I don't know what other will think of this.

Mattt.
 
I'm having problems with my H&S skimmer overflowing also. I don't have a drilled collection cup and am sick of cleaning nasty skimmate out of the bottom of the cabinet. I'm afraid I don't understand the above explanations for how to diy an automatic cutoff. I'd truly appreciate it if someone has the patience to walk me through how to safely drill the collection cup and set up the skimmer to avoid these overflows!
 
If you take a look at how most auto shutoffs are made it is a cylinder with a small hole for the output of the skimmer cup into the cylinder and another hole for air. The second hole has a ping pong ball that presses against a PVC fitting when the cylinder is full and blocks the air hole. To make this work with a recirculating skimmer you connect the air input of your venturi to the second air hole and you drill another small hole (you can connect an air filter to this if you wish) for air. When the cylinder fills it blocks off the air to the venturi and you lose your foam head keeping the skimmer from overflowing. The downside to this as someone pointed out earlier is that you will be sucking air from inside a cylinder filled with skimate. Whether this is really an issue or not I have no idea. It didn't hurt anything in my tank when I used it, but I've never heard of anyone else doing this either...
 
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