New Skimmer Concept - will it work?!?
 

I was just wondering.....

What if we ran a skimmer very wet and 'recycled' the cleanest part of the skimmate back to the tank? Could we make a skimmate concentrator?

I was imagining a skimmer with very wet skimmate. When the collection cup filled to the proper level, then SOME of the skimmate would go back to the tank.

The question is: Can we find a region in the collection cup that is cleaner then all the rest of the cup? Maybe by the way the detritus settles.... If we pull from the middle can we get cleaner water?

It just seems that if you could make this work, then you could run a skimmer as wet as possible, and just flush the collection cup when it is 'nasty enough'. I even think you could run a auto-wetneck using this concept.

Thoughts?

Stu

why not dry skimm the wet skimmate and slowly does that water back to the tank ( the water in the 2nd skimmer not the 2nd skimmers skimate)

anyways why?

Stu,

there is a theory (?) that it may be possible to create a more selective skimming via a change in the uptake tube (reaction tube). This is part of the principle behind the new Korallen-Zucht skimmer. The tube is conical. Some skimmer cups already have this form. I don't know if it brings anything at this point in the skimming process, though.

As to whether this is actually working, I am unsure...therfore take it for what it is.. a new design.

The idea is exciting, as we currently have only the options of wet and dry (kinda a poor description choice, don't ya' think?), which really means changing the time in the reaction chamber. I skim wet, as this actually removes more ( a wider range) from the water column, but more of what is the question. Certainly, some of what I remove is from the positive side of the equation.

It is known that a portion of the organics in the skimmer do escape back into the water column in a reverse-flow system. I don't know the statistics.

On the purely technical side, this ia a very interesting area of study, but the practical apllication may be of little real value.

Everyone says the cone skimmers really kick butt. I am failing to see how the reaction chamber shape can affect skimming that much. I can see a great smooth transition helping to push the foam up and out, but I'm interested in learning more about these.

Stu,
I'm wondering how you could get the water JUST from the middle of the cup without using a solenoid valve, etc.

H2OENG,

"I'm wondering how you could get the water JUST from the middle of the cup without using a solenoid valve, etc."

How about this:

The skimmer neck has an inner & outer cylinder. The inner is the riser tube with wetneck ports, and the outer cylinder forces water to be pulled from the middle of the collection cup to go back to the tank & feed the wetneck.

Heres a pic. The dashed horiz line is the water level. Once the level in the collection cup reaches that, it will start dumping back into the skimmer body via the wetneck ports. If you run it wet, will you get a more effective skimmate????


[IMG]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/60772skimmer_riser.jpg [/IMG]


Stu

I see. Thats going to be a hard sell to get people to put skimmate back in their tank. Great thing to think through, though.

I wonder how much more junk you remove by skimming real wet?

I think that is an interesting concept stu.

Linking to zeovit board now allowed......Nanook


Check out this thread on the Zeovit forum. There are lots of interesting links to skimmer related articles.

I have a Skimmer with a collection cup discharge tube that runs to a 2" PVC Reactor full of Carbon and the cheap nylon woven matting. The wet skimate flows at probably 2-5 gallons per hour. The water pushes through the PVC leaving behind any waste. Clear water comes out the other side of the PVC back into my sump.

The only real benefit I have noticed is not having to clean the waste cup every day. Water quality is the same whether I collect in a waste storage container or send it throught the PVC filter back to the sump.

So why not just use carbon and some floss filter in your return? I guess I am not grasping what you are doing