ozone safe skimmer - Page 2

hansmatt · 07-21-2007, 01:09 PM

sorry for the off-thread topic...but in reply to above
Are you building a fragging propagation center Jason? Sounds pretty cool. Chris W. has some great 20g acrylic tanks he's selling cheap, I have one, it's a nice size depth/width. I'd love to make a little prop unit, especially if it could be plumbed into my system!

As for top-offs, I understand that the litermeter III is the best, as it is a peristaltic pump that can be set for a constant volume and can also do water changes continuously (like 1 old salt H2O out a day, 1g new salt H2O in a day). It is nice because it is the pump, and can push up 50 feet. The Tunze osmolator is maybe a good option, you plug in your own powerhead, so works great if your TO water is next to your tank/sump etc. It uses an "eye" rather than water pressure soleniod. I think it has a double redundancy setup, to ensure it will "never" overflow. If your setup will work with it (mine won't) the Tunze sounds excellent, though still pricy. With that many tanks/evaporation it would be a good choice. Matt

pogodzib · 07-23-2007, 10:21 AM

My AquaC hasn't produced anything since I replaced the Mag 9.5 with the Mag 12 around noon on Friday. Maybe my water is too clean with the ozone that there isn't anything left to pull out or the pump still has some oils on it. If my waste container overflows, it dumps back into my tank so it won't hurt anything.

Regarding an auto topoff, I use a elevated 5 gallon bucket and a flow valve inside of my sump. If the float valve were to fail, I'd only have 5 gallons max of extra water added to my tank so nothing would overflow or dillute the water too much as to kill everything off. I would never hook up my home's waterlines to my tank.

hansmatt · 07-23-2007, 11:49 AM

I know a guy in LAX who had his auto top-off hooked up to a 30g RODI storage can. He came home to find the float valve stuck in the open position & water all over the floor. What he failed to realize is that the 30g fresh did a pretty good number on the SG of his 120g system. Remarkably the two fish survived, along with the bubble algae. I believe almost everything else died. I too will use 5-10g storage to ensure that things dont' go downhill fast.

Afish4u · 08-16-2007, 01:15 AM

ok I have been looking what appears to be a good aqua c in sump skimmer is that just the urchin or the pro? is it just me or does the ev series look confuseing/??

pogodzib · 08-16-2007, 09:55 AM

You can ask Jason (Jrmass) what he we would compare his EV-150 to the Urchin, but I can tell you that he likes the EV much better. The EV series can handle much larger tanks and would be prefered if you have the space in your sump. With any AquaC skimmer, make sure that you upsize the pump 1-2 sizes over the recommended pump.

Jrmass · 08-17-2007, 03:25 AM

Yes, I can testify that the urchin is not a good choice for a larger sized tank with the way that it comes out of the box (aka with the maxijet 1200 pump). I've read over and over again about people using a Mag3 and even some using a Mag5 (which I would think would be overkill as it's TWICE what the thing is meant for). *that's my opinion keep in mind* I'm not really sure why a Mag 3 would really make that much of a difference over that of the maxijet as the maxijet is 295 gph and the mag3 is 300gph. Is there a larger return on this pump than that of the maxijet is that the catch? As for the EV series I love my skimmer. (ev 150 as Brian has). I found that for a few weeks I had to "tinker" with the settings to get it dialed in. But, now that I have it setup the way I want it it's been working fantastic. I too have been noticing less and less productivity from the skimmer but, that is a good thing as it is telling me that my LR is finally coming into it's own. Only issue I'm finding at this time is I have finally hit the dreaded cyanoalgea stage. It's not taking over the tank but, I do have some definate growth on the tops of some of the rock and have been watching the corals closely to make sure it doesn't drape over the tops of them and drown them out. I've added a few powerheads to keep the water flow moving around a bit more and purchased a wavemaker (just the cheapo Dr F&S model they sell) *bought it used*. But, where the pumps are moving water I have yet to see any algae growth in the area. So, maybe I just need to move the pumps a bit higher so that it blows more across the tops of the rock so that the algae isn't allowed to grab hold. (thinking outloud I guess lol). For the meeting. I'm trying hard to convince Jen to allow us to have it here but, we have been doing some remodeling in the kitchen (the ceiling has basically been gutted and the upstairs bathroom which was a mess to begin with has had the same treatment). So, I will have a definate answer on whether we can have it here or not. I guess if no one minds seeing kitchen ceiling that is MIA it might still be a possibility.

Jason

pogodzib · 08-17-2007, 10:33 AM

I'd host the meeting as well, but since I've combined all my corals into one tank and took out over 1/2 of my live rock to "cook" it since I figured the rock has been in a reef tank for 10+ years without being cleansed. Besides, it would probably work better if I hosted sometime this winter once my new tank is setup.

Regarding the difference between the Maxijet and Mag pumps, the Mag 3 (actually 375 gpm @ 0' of head) handles head pressure much better than the Maxijet. The Maxijet has a max head rating of less than 6' whereas the Mag 3 is rated for up to 11' The skimmers injector alone adds a few feet of head so the Mag 3 is probably pushing close to double the water through the skimmer than the Maxijet is.

EDIT: I was curious as to just how pourly Maxijets handle head pressure, so I ran a head loss calculator in another forum. At just over two feet of head loss, the Maxijet 1200 is flowing at 53 gpm, whereas the Mag 3 is flowing at 323 gpm.

Jrmass · 08-17-2007, 06:47 PM

Alright you've convinced me... If I can find a mag3 for a reasonable price on RC I'll give it a whirl and be yet another tester of it. As for the meeting... I talked it over with Jen and she said we can have it here if everyone still wants to make it go. Our road has first paving on it now so it's not just a giant torn up P.O.S. anymore. So, if you all still want to have another one we can do it here at my place.

Jason

Afish4u · 08-19-2007, 09:51 AM

ack I can't win. ok so my sump (all-glass model2) its opening is 13x 9 /34" the ev150 though I could have that outside of the tank? I dont think that would fit (take up the whole area) inside the sump. And that is ozone safe also right

Jrmass · 08-19-2007, 10:40 AM

Yes, I believe all of the aqua c EV line is ozone safe. I don't believe they make the 150 anymore though. If you were to get one you would more than likely have to buy it used. (I bought mine on R.C.)

Jason

Afish4u · 08-19-2007, 11:00 AM

How quiet are these skimmers? I have a cbr dual back and its noisey and I'm very disapointed with it. The site says the 180 replaces the 150. what size tank is that for? I'm wondering if I'm better off with the 120. the tank is a 72 bf with sump.

Afish4u · 08-19-2007, 11:14 AM

oh yeah another skimmer to through in has anyone delt with the octopus skimmers?

tellycoleman · 08-19-2007, 01:07 PM

I Have A Ev 240 And I Want To Know What I Need To Buy To Run/dose Ozone Threw This Skimmer. I Dont Even Know What I Need To Get Started.my Intruction Manuel Says That I Have To Use Activated Carbon To Filter The Air After It Leaves The Collection Cup. I Guess This Is For Smell And Safety

Jrmass · 08-19-2007, 01:31 PM

Well, right now I think that Brian is the only one that I personally know of that is inducing O3 into his tank. I wouldn't even know where to begin to explain how to go about the introduction (other than if I was going to do it I would have just put an airline into the skimmer and have it bubble through the water that was being introduced). But, I'd personally be interested to know how Brian is doing it myself.

As for the sizes of the skimmers.. I've read that the EV-120 is good UP TO 150 gallons (this is probably with a VERY light bioload though) I would think that it would work for your 72 gallon tank though *given you are including the sump and everything into that number*

The EV-180 is good UP TO 200 gallons and this is what I'm looking at adding to my setup when I hook my 70 gallon into the mix. Either that or put the EV150 into the 70's sump and go with the EV240 for the display tank. (a lot of that depends on how much $$$ we have left after our remodeling lol)

Jason

pogodzib · 08-20-2007, 11:24 AM

I wouldn't want to run the EV-150 with a high water level like I do now without adding an air valve and plugging up the area around the riser and air holes (very easy to do) so you don't need to worry about water backing out of the skimmer's holes. I wouldn't worry about it on the EV-120/180/240 though.

As far as dosing ozone, if the skimmer doesn't have an JG fitting, you can drill a small hole in the skimmer's top and inject ozone through that opening by either adding an ozone safe fitting or just putting the air tube into the hole. Either way, you want to make sure that the hole is air tight so you still control the air input through your skimmer's air valve. As far as adding carbon, the ideal way is to attach a back with some carbon in it to the water output and the air output. For me that would mean adding the bag w/ carbon to the exist gate valve and a bag of carbon on top of my skimmate collection container. Since I only dose ozone at a rate of 10-25 mg/hr (typically 10-15 mg/hr) in 160 total gallons of water and it is in the first section of my sump, I generally don't worry too much about adding carbon at both locations. When I crank up the ozone above 25mg/hr and don't have carbon installed, I can start to smell the ozone so then I make sure I have fresh carbon installed.