Who has a wet neck on thier skimmer??

[Lunchbucket]

1st off i'm sure this belongs in the lighting and filtration forum but i figured i would reach more people in the general forum...so please don't discipline me for post here

so who has one? i know gesheilds does but i haven't heard of anyone else having one.

reason i ask is because i am getting one for my NW recirc skimmer.

ok i better explain myself and state this is NOT the water jet that cleans the riser like on a deltec. this is a constant flow of water...like a waterfall that flows down the inside of the riser. in effect it is supposed to "lubricate" the riser so the foam rises w/out caking the inside of your riser. notice how all skimmer are all gunked up ...supposed to limit this

i will direct geshield here for more input...if anyone esle has input or uses one please post and discuss

Lunchbucket

 

[spazz]

here is a couple of pics of your top so people can see what you are refering to.

 

[Bomber]

I don't get it? LB explain that again please.

 

[Devil Man]

they are supposed to help let the foam go up the neck easyier. i would like to try to make my new skimmer do that!

 

[Lunchbucket]

Bomber - you don't get it? well in your case it won't really help. you run really wet correct. if you ran dry then this could help out. you can see in the pic if you look really close on the inside of the riser there is a gap. so the outside of the wet neck fills up w/ water then flows over the top of the inside and waterfalls down the inside of the riser cup. this in a sense "lubricates" the foam and doesn't allow it to stick to the acrylic...so it raises up into riser higher. bomber notice how in you skimmer there isn't any caking since you run it wet?? well you would have that clean of a neck but be spitting out dry foam.

there are quite a few decent sized threads on wet necks but it seams like only a handfull of people that might be using them.

also i'm trying out the cone on the skimmer too. it was made by spazz. i'm testing it and the wet neck against the normal flat flange and regular riser

Lunchbucket

 

[Nathan]

Ok, what am I looking at? How many "walls" does this collection cup have?! And what is that green air tube for? I'm confused too. Please explain.

FWIW, I used to run my skimmer so that there was a constant bubbling over the top (it DID keep the riser tube clean) but it also meant that I was replacing about 5 g / day of water and I really don't know which is more efficient (to run the skimmate dry and caking on the surface of the riser tube, or to run it wet and collect 5 g of tea coloured water.... I dont' know.....

-Nathan

 

[Bomber]

Got it LB! I didn't realize that center part filled up with water. I was thinking the green tube was to drain something.

Nat, the green tube pumps water into the center part. That is lower than the outside part and that certer part fills up and overflows into the middle/riser. Like LB said, it's a thin sheet of water running down the inside of the riser where the bubbles are.
That stops the skimmate from sticking to the sides of the riser.

 

[Lunchbucket]

Bomber - you got it perfectly green tub supplies water into the "chamber" created by the normal riser tube and a tub on teh outside of it (w/ a bottom attached to them to creat the chamber...the bottom is where the green tube goes into)...water overflows through that small gap (the inside is or normal riser is just 1/8" shorter than the outside one) it creates a curtain or waterfall of water that flows down the inside of the normal riser. then it won't cake up as quick

gesheilds has been running one for quite sometime. he says that even after 2wks of running his riser tube isn't caked up.

Lunchbucket

 

[Ereefic]

Why not just run wetter skimmate?

 

[Saltz Creep]

I'm sure this helps keep the neck cleaner, but I'm really skeptical that this actually helps the skimmer work more efficiently.

 

[Jamesurq]

With all the other stuff you're doing on a regular basis with your tank - is wiping the inside of your skimmer neck a couple times a week that big of a deal?

 

[spazz]

think of it this way. if your riser is cleaner then the protiens dont have anything to attach to. witch helps to push to protiens up and over into the cup. if the riser tube is dirty the protiens hang up and can fall back down into the skimmer.
the film of water acts like grease alowing the head of foam to rise and spill over.
like on a water slide. you have a thin layer of water your rearend is sliding on. it keeps the friction to a minimum. its some what the same principal.

 

[Jamesurq]

why not use grease then?

 

[spazz]

what grease can you use that wont kill everything in the tank? not even food grade grease would work. it would polute the tank.

 

[Saltz Creep]

think of it this way. if your riser is cleaner then the protiens dont have anything to attach to. witch helps to push to protiens up and over into the cup. if the riser tube is dirty the protiens hang up and can fall back down into the skimmer.
the film of water acts like grease alowing the head of foam to rise and spill over.
like on a water slide. you have a thin layer of water your rearend is sliding on. it keeps the friction to a minimum. its some what the same principal.

Sounds OK in theory, but can you prove that without this lubrication that proteins are getting hung up and really sliding back down to get recirculated in the tank? Maybe they are collecting as sludge in the neck and therefore are effectively removed from the tank water.

The only way to prove if this "lubricator" actually increases the efficiency of skimmers is to somehow measure all the proteins collected with a regular skimmer (including gunk in the neck) and compare it to the amount of proteins in the high volume liquid skimmate of the same skimmer using the lubricator. My guess is the amount of proteins will be the same. The skimmate of the lubricated skimmer is just more diluted.

 

[Lunchbucket]

all good points and theories

this isn't a new theory..the earliest i remeber seeing this is in mojoreefs skimmer in 2004. others have utilized them and stated that they noticed increases in skimmer output.

why not raise the water up and run wet as was suggested...because i do not want to run wet skimmate. i want to run dark but now clog up the riser and make it ineffecient w/ the collected slug

why not clean it as was stated...that works great and it is an easy chore...i'm not trying to make it easier i'm trying to make it more efficient.

Lunchbucket

 

[Ereefic]

Couldn't that down flow of water carry down particulate back into the skimmer just like it may when gunked up onto the riser wall? Does that question make sense?

 

[TheyCallMeFishy]

Ya, wouldn't the skimmate bubbles attatch to the waterfall and fall down with it? Is there something i am missing here.

 

[grim]

I don't buy the wet neck at all. First off, if it works, run, do not walk, to the patent office, because you have what could possibly be the most significant change in skimmer implementations in years. That is the reason I don't think it's effective, the wastewater treatment folks would have figured this one out a long time ago...

jb

 

[fantasticfish]

i see no point as i clean my cup every day anyways