Quote:
Originally Posted by mts victim
... I would like to use the Red Sea CSkim 1200 as my skimmer in this new setup. I would prefer to place the CSkim OUTSIDE my sump, adjacent to it. The Red Sea people state that users can do that. Can any of you tell me if I can "plumb" the output of the CSkim, and in doing so, RAISE the level of the water output? In other words, will that skimmer drive its output water "uphill", and dump it at a greater height, via a pipe that I attach? If so, will that mess up the operation of the CSkim?
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The C-Skim uses the outlet pipe and the attached valve to control the water height inside the skimmer, which directly affects how aggressively the skimmer "skims' (whether it will produce a dilute wet skimmate or a dry concentrated skimmate). For this reason (as the skimmer depends on gravity to control draining of the skimmer seawater column), running the return pipe for the skimmer any higher than the desired depth of the water inside the skimmer will drive the water to go
at least to that height (depth of water inside the skimmer body), IF NOT DEEPER AS CONTROLLED BY THE RETURN VALVE (by reducing flow rate of the return water from the skimmer). This will have deleterious effects on foam production and will directly affect the ability of the skimmer to produce consistent foam column height, which reduces skimmer function efficiency and may lead to overflow of the skimmer (which means a flood in your fish room).
What would be a better resolution would be to mount your skimmer on a box or stand of bricks so that the base is higher than the highest point your plumbing would have to go up, then plumb the return for the skimmer without any uphill runs, allowing adjustment of skimmer water depth to be controlled by input pump rate vs. return line valve setting.
See:
http://www.redseafish.com/c-skim.asp for more on the C-Skim. You do not want ANY uphill runs of return plumbing for this skimmer. An addendum to placing the skimmer on a stand beside your sump, put it in a glass baking dish to trap any water it might leak or overflow from the collection cup.
HTH, good luck with your pursuit of the marine hobby, and welcome to TRT!
