Best pump for driving a beckett skimmer

[kanankeban]

Hi guys,
I´m in a difficult desision...what pump should I get to drive a DIY beckett skimmer I¨m making, I already have the injector (housing + the bekcett inside + a needle valve to regulate the air input) and I tested it with a mag 1800....
The result wonderful....it makes fine bubbles as hell....its hard to belive the quantity of foam it produces....
But I´m in the dilema of geeting a Mag 1800 or 1200 or a Iwaki 40 RLT (presure rated). Although the Iwaki is rated at a lower GPH I hear is a better pump and it will drive ok my skimmer...
Is this true....I´m also considering a Mak4, so guys...please give me some advise...

[asmujica]

Buy the biggest pump. then have a valve or something to be able to throttle it down... that will rid you of the guess work

[eddie]

i had a mak4 on a HSA 1000
id of used a iwaki 100rlt or equal if i did it agin
the main thing is keeping little pieces of sand or little snails out the beckett
i know people say its normal for water to collect in the beckett chamber but i only had that problem if somthing was stuck in the beckett
it still worked but not as good it only takes a little bitty piece of sand to start collecting water
blowing it out usally worked but somtimes i had to use a thin piece of wire to clean it
the mak4 is about as small a pump as id use

[rbaker]

I just added an Iwaki MD70RLT to run my skimmer (ETS 1000) all I can say is WOW! this pump rocks... 1500 GPH @ 5 feet.

Ryan

[eddie]

did you modify the ets 1000 with a beckett?
the ets dont need pressure rated pumps
id of went with the dolphin amp master and saved some electric
i guess it matters if its a dual downdraft or a single though

[kanankeban]

I like to balance price-performance, price of buying the equipment and price of running it...the electricity bill is of a great concern! :eek1:
As you know there are a lot of pumps out there, with different capacities and characteristics...they run hotter, some have fan to cool them down, some suck a lot of amps, others less, etc...etc...
That´s why my doubt...
As I can state...after my experiments with the beckett nozzle, this puppy can work with almost any rated pump....and it works wonderful, you´ll get amaze on the cuantity and quality of bubbles this baby produces...the nozzle could work for any size of skimmer you can imagine...with the same nozzle you can design a skimmer for a 75G tank up to 1000 tank or more, also you can use two of them or more, is the size of the reaction chamber, the rising tubes and the flow rate of the pump you use that will determine the overall capacity of the skimmer. The high capacity of the becket nozzle permits you design short rising tubes because you have lots of bubbles...I mean lots...the dwell time is not a big concern...as you have trillions of bubbles a short tube will make a great job...
So the pump some manufacturers recommed for a skimmer as my size is a mag 1200, iwaki40.... I plan to run it for a 110G tank plus 30.40G sump...
My main problem is deciding between:
1. Iwaki40RLT
2. Mag 1800
3. GanX/Mak4
4. or maybe other....?????
The things to consider are in this order....
1. Reliability
2. Power consumption
3. Flow rate
4. Price
So guys, come on...reply with some comments...

[kanankeban]

P.S.
you can define a beckett nozzle as a venturi on steroids!!! :D

[kanankeban]

eddie,
Can you take apart the beckett enclosure in the HSA ? In my deign you can take apart all the housing and the beckett itself...:)

[kanankeban]

rbaker,
What kind of woodworking do you make? and what brand of equipment do you use?

[eddie]

no you cant take it apart
i sold it to someone on this board
after using it over a year i dont agree that any size pump will work and the bare min should be a mak4 from experiance
IMO
atleast with the HSA 1000
and it dont matter the size skimmer if the becetts the same it still needs the same pressure to work to peak preformance
right now im waiting on Geo to complete one of his beckett skimmers for me
although im running my main tank skimmerless now
im not saying a iwaki 40rlt or whatever wont work
just it wont work to Peak its preformance

ill be useing a 100rlt or equal on the GEO skimmer or
whatever i can find to draw the least amps
the mak4 on the HSA 1000 disapointed me but it did work OK IMO
if i dont like the GEO skimmmer im getting a ETS 1400 daul down draft and use a dolphin 4000 or 2 ampmasters

[Lutefisk]

I use a Mag 12 on my Beckett modified Buckoo Reef (ETS clone).

I have a valve on the input and throttle it back a hair. Works good!

The Mag 7 was too small.

Paul

[DukeDog]

I just switched from a Mag 18 to a Mak 4 . It seems to perform much better with the beckett in my opinion. I get more foam and a drier foam . I'm still tweaking it but I am much happier now.
Jeff

[kanankeban]

The housing I made for the becket includes a needle valve. With this valve i can throttle the air intake to the beckett, regulating the production and size of the bubbles...I think:confused:

[Jeff Hood]

I use an Ampmaster 3000 to run a twin beckett skimmer. Works great and I measured the output of the skimmer to be 1480 GPH via the 2 inch gate valve. I believe the skimmer is 42 inches tall if memory serves.
I clean it once per week.

Jeff



http://www.cableone.net/jkhood/Sump_room.JPG

[Ironreef]

I disagree when saying all becket skimmers need large pumps. it doesn't depend on the size or height. My 24" Bullet2= a mak4 is to much pump full throttle. I needed to tee my mak4 off to my cal reactor and refugium. It probally can handle @75% of the pump. I've tried many water levels. the mag18 it can hanlde easy. Hsa1000 are alot tall. I would agree any becket skimmer 32" needs at least a mak4. I like running tha mak4 over the mag18 cuz it runns the skimmer max. But I belive the Iwaki40 is a better pump. But it all depends the mag 18-24 maybe quieter. I also belive all skimmers work better with pressure rated pumps but that difference is mesures in output size ect.... But large pumps like ampmaster have so much water volumne it probally makes up for it. But depending on how much noise where the skimmers at mak4 seem to work fine. But Iwaki55 would be better. You never said how big the skimmer was???

[myreef]

As IronReef said all Beckett skimmers do not need extremely large pumps. Not only take into consideration the skimmer height, but also the skimmers sump (box below the risers). Depending on the size of the sump, you can use larger or smaller pumps accordingly. The reason the MAK 4's are performing better in most cases than the MAG 18 is because the are pressure rated, same as some of the Iwaki pumps. Jeff Hoods skimmer is 44" tall and has a skimmer sump of 12x12. Looks like his water height is about 6" up the first riser, there for he is pushing about 30" of foam....it takes a large pump to do this...such as the AM3000, or an Iwaki 100RLT. before recommending a pump for your skimmer, I would, as Iron noted, want to know how tall is the skimmer and how large is the skimmers sump. FWIW, I am running a MAG 18 on my skimmer and will be swapping it to a MAK 4 in the next 10 days or so....

[kanankeban]

The overall height of the skimmer is aprox 22-24", the reaction chamber will be 7x10x8" with a 1-1/4" gate valve. The first riser is 5" and the second riser 3". I guess the best selection is a Mag18, Mak4 or Iwaki40RLT.
The problem is that I don´t know which one should i get...they seems all to work fine with this skimmer size...is just for a 110G tank+30G of the sump...u

[kanankeban]

So....
Mag, Mak4, or Iwaki40RLT?

[3_high_low]

Scratch the MD40RLT off the list unless you can get an unreal deal on one. If you want an Iwaki get the MD55RLT, it uses less power than the 40, it's initial cost is cheaper, both use a built in fan to cool the motor (So it probably isn't any noisier), and best of all it pumps more water! It's able to run more efficeintly , I suspect, because it uses 1" inlet/outlet and the MD40RLT uses 3/4".

http://www.championlighting.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi?page=Products/Pumps/specs.html&cart_id=8160276.10256

I use an MD55RLT to power my Beckett skimmer and to return water from the sump. (I have a small tank;)) The skimmer works well and produces lots of foam. Unfortunately I can't say exactly how much water I'm sending to it but it's working well.

[dsb1829]

You wanna talk pumps eh :D

I have run several on my MyReef skimmer. Mine is a 28" tall skimmer with 6" first chamber and 4.5" riser.

The first pump I ran was an Ampmaster. I ran it through one injector at first and later added a second injector. This pump worked out fairly well. Respectable skimmate production. An added plus of the AM was that even with dual injectors I could run my entire system with the pump. My system is 72g display and a 60g sump. One thing I didn't like was the bubble size and saturation. Looking at a lot of pictures on the net of becket skimmers I knew it could perform better with a different pump.

I swapped over to a mak4 and back to a single injector. This pump worked great. Even with only one injector it created more/smaller bubbles than the AM. It worked so well that I overskimmed my tank. Pump also was responsible for a background hum in the room.

Just recently I swapped over to a CSL velocity t4 pump to give it a shot. On paper it looked like it would stack up against the mak4. Well, it was not as much of a pump. It does however run my skimmer very well. I have to run the water level a bit higher since it doesn't seem to produce as many bubbles. But to my surprise the saturation of the water still looked very good. I judge saturation by looking at the skimmer if it looks white it is saturated with bubbles, if I can tell where the water surface is then the skimmer isn't saturated. One great thing about this pump is silence. It is very quiet and has a small footprint.

What does this all mean? Well for performance I would choose the mak4, go mak5 if you really want to drive it. For peace and quiet as well as a decent pump go with a t4. If I want to run an entire system the AM is the way to go. And if money were no object I would go with a 55rlt minimum, 70rlt ideal, and 100rlt for a supper driven skimmer. Since I have yet to try any of these it is safe to discern money is of concern to me :D .

Another point that has been hinted towards is that a skimmer can only handle so much pump by design. Any more and you will have to throttle it back to keep the skimmer from overflowing. My skimmer wouldn't be able to handle a 100rlt at full blast. It isn't all enough to accomodate the amount of flow or bubble that would be created. So don't get too crazy on pump size if your skimmer isn't sized accordingly. Also too much skimmer for a tank if futile. After the tank is overskimmed the skimmer will effectively shut down. That was my case with a Mak4 on my system, so the pump was overkill. Hence why I am trying other alternatives.

ttt...

[kanankeban]

So my finalists are:
1. GenX/Mak4
2. Iwaki40RLT
So...Hich one will be win????????????????
Help me decide between this two pumps, remember they are for driving a 24" Tall Skimmer, 5" 1st raiser, 3" second riser....for a 110G tank+30-40G sump....Not intended for a hugh system....

[ReefMon]

I have a Aerofoamer 830 (10"x30") and have run the following pumps:
Mag 12 (not Pressure Rated)
Sen 900 (PR)
Mag 24 (not PR)
T4 (not PR)
Mak4 (PR)
Iwaki 55 (PR)
Iwaki 100 (PR)

All the pumps created skimmate or some sort.

But, IMO:

None of the non pressure rated pumps were adaquate.

Of the pressure rated pumps, only the Mak 4 and Iwakis were powerful enough to run the skimmer properly.

I am now running it on the Iwaki 100. I and others who have seen it have never seen any skimmer come close to the performance I'm currently getting.

I agree with 3-high, you should get the Iwaki 55 or larger.

HTH
Glenn R

[dsb1829]

For that system with that size skimmer I would go with the mak. Good pump, better price, and decent reliability. IMO the 40rlt is too small, you gotta go 55rlt or bigger to really get your becket screaming ;) .

[gas4544]

I agree 3_high_low about using an Iwaki MD55 instead of an MD40RLT. IT uses less power and give you more GPH of pressure-rated flow.

However, I am going to sugeest another pump that noone else has mention - the Gorman Rupp GRI-series pumps. I will be using a GRI 520 on my MTC HSA 1000 skimmer. It puts out 1500 gph at 6' of head. Another pump for you to consider is the GRI 518. Both are quiet, reliable pumps and you can find info on them at Champion Lighting online.

I was originally going to go with an Iwaki to drive my HSA, but after comparing the Iwaki's to the GRI's, I decided to go with a Gorman Rupp.

[kanankeban]

Are the Gorman´s Preasure rated?

[kanankeban]

I was wondering right know...I´m feeling the same as when I have bought a car...jejeje...:D maybe this is getting to complicated...But the Mak4 seems good price, good reliability...maybe I´ll get this one...If it doesn´t works as I conclude with all this posts, well I´ll get he Iwaki 55...I´m looking for a good price-performance not a Ferrari...A chevi or Ford will do :)... What do you think guys is this being conformist ? or should I spend as much money as I can...of course without my wife knowing it...jejeje:D

[kanankeban]

P.S. when my wife asks, I say $15.95 bucks for teh pump...Is this credible....;)

[gas4544]

Yes, the GRI-series pumps are pressure-rated.

[kanankeban]

GRI - Gorman Rupp Industries
Model 518------------$249.90
1,140gph @ 6 feet - 138 watts
Made in USA - Mag Drive - TEFC Motors
Quietest and highest efficency - 8 Hour run dry capability -Pressure Rated

MAk4-------------$149.95
1,190 gph @ 4 feet - 98 watts
Compare to Iwaki 55 RLT-Magnetic Drive
Magnetic Drive-Fan cooled-Sealess design 3/4 in 34/out

Even though the mak4 seems a more prudent buy...I think $100 cheaper, dont´you think so?