WHy a box on beckett skimmers

[Phishy]

Originally Posted by Wiskey

Are you talking about taking a 12" peice of tube, and putting a top on it, then gluing a 8" round acrillic tube to the top plate and using that as the riser for the skimmer?

Whiskey

yep, origianlly no, I was going ot have extra stuff inside but since speaking with you that is the new design.

[Wiskey]

-Shrug- I can't see any problem with that,.. other than the fact that normally large round acrilic is much more expensive than flat acrilic.

Whiskey

[Phishy]

Originally Posted by Wiskey

-Shrug- I can't see any problem with that,.. other than the fact that normally large round acrilic is much more expensive than flat acrilic.

Whiskey

I know but I spoke with a local place in the area and the guy had actually tried to make an airstone skimmer and said he woudl put the pieces aside for me instead of grinding them down, did't say anythign about charging me, so I am guessing I can get them relatively cheap to free.

[Hop]

There used to be some designed with the beckett attached to the side of the skimmer body and they were notorious for cracking the body. Several different methods have been used to overcome this. In addition they are terribly top heavy if you don't have the box. I think this is why the box caught on... Unfortunately I think that beckett manufactures failed to keep up with the mainstream and stopped progressing their design. If they would only go to 8-12" bodies with adapters that place the air into the body instead of the box and did a few other tweaks, they would be right back on top of things. When I had my beckett I did quite a few mods and it worked ok, but they are sensitive to humidity levels as well as some other things that really need to be further investigated.

[Wiskey]

If it were me,.. Personally,.. I would look into making a Recerc Needlewheel rather than a beckett skimmer,.. I think it would be easer to design an effective skimmer that way, plus the power consumption would be lower.

Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Phishy

I know but I spoke with a local place in the area and the guy had actually tried to make an airstone skimmer and said he woudl put the pieces aside for me instead of grinding them down, did't say anythign about charging me, so I am guessing I can get them relatively cheap to free.

Very cool! I'm wishing you lived closer

Whiskey

[Phishy]

Originally Posted by Wiskey

If it were me,.. Personally,.. I would look into making a Recerc Needlewheel rather than a beckett skimmer,.. I think it would be easer to design an effective skimmer that way, plus the power consumption would be lower.

Whiskey

I do not like the recirc personally, I want the water processed and out, not processed again. As for needlewheel, don't you have to get special impellors for your pumps? And they eventually need to be replaced, correct? And don't they usually have smaller pumps?

In theory the beckett is purchased and you are done. I don't mind the larger pump, it is getting more water processed IMO. A mag isn't going to kill me. And really for how much wattage is used with some lights, why skimp on the pump for a skimmer.

[Wiskey]

Well,... some people say the most important thing is contact time, in which case jamming water through a beckett very fast would be a problem.

I don't know which is right,.. I do know that my beckett worked, my recerc works, and my flowthrough needlewheel works,.. however I would not run a beckett with a Mag, I would get a real pressure rated pump to drive that beckett head properly.

Yeah,.. you need a needlewheel impeller, but they don't need replacing unless you mesh mod them. You can buy a NW pump already modded and you just use it,.. they are smaller pumps, but I have a slower flow through my sump so for me it works.

Whiskey

[Hop]

Originally Posted by Phishy

I do not like the recirc personally, I want the water processed and out, not processed again. As for needlewheel, don't you have to get special impellors for your pumps? And they eventually need to be replaced, correct? And don't they usually have smaller pumps?

In theory the beckett is purchased and you are done. I don't mind the larger pump, it is getting more water processed IMO. A mag isn't going to kill me. And really for how much wattage is used with some lights, why skimp on the pump for a skimmer.

A mag isn't going to power a beckett properly. Unfortunately there is a lot more to skimming than pushing water and air together. Why do you think MRC came out with the recirc beckett? To controll the water throughput while giving the most contact time that they can with a great amount of air...

[Phishy]

Can you give some examples of pumps to run a beckett properly, so I can compare to an actual finished system cost.

[motorslave]

For an MR-2 the Gen-X PCX 55 is recomended.

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by motorslave

For an MR-2 the Gen-X PCX 55 is recomended.

This is also what I used and it worked quite well.

Whiskey

[Hop]

I like the panworld 50px-x... Only 90 watts and much quieter than the gen-x IMO... It will run one beckett well, but not quite enough umph for two

[mg]

I used a PanWorld 150PS on my Precision Marine and it worked great. Basically the same as the Iwaki 55RLT. It origionally came with a Mag 9 and that was awful, not performing very well. One thing to keep in mind with beckets is weekly maintance to clean out the injector. Mine would get clogged with tiny snail shells and debris every few days and I would have to take it apart and clean it.

[Phishy]

But if it shouldn't get clogged if I have a filter sock correct?