Was reading some skimmer modification information the other day, one of the easiest mods is to attach an air pump to the needle wheel intake and force in more air. I decided to give this a go the other day.

When I first connected it my skimmer had been running for 3-4 days since its last clean but I still ended up with around twice the skimmate I would get on a normal week. Still the same dark colour.

When I cleaned it yesterday I took some photos, the first is the cup 10 minutes after it was cleaned without the air pump going. The second is about 1 minute later (as long as it took me to plug in the airpump and pick up the camera. You can see quite a difference in the amount of bubbles in the neck.

So I have a small air pump do I take off the other air tube and put it on there?

Just turned on the air pump and it doesn't go, so what size air pump do I need to buy

Just turned on the air pump and it doesn't go, so what size air pump do I need to buy

Is this on your Deltec?.why would you put more air into a deltec skimmer. the skimmer tap is suppose to be set at say 2oclock, if you want more air then you open taps more. however by adding more air you will loss bubble size thus not getting better skimming, no need to mod a deltec as they are build correctly in the first place. so they should for the price you pay for them.

Also adding more air into a skimmer can be a problem as the bubble size gets bigger.

You can even remove the taps on a deltec if you need more air, but agree with reef, Deltec's really suck alot of air and you more generally need to restrict the intake, not increase it.

Thanks for that reef yea if I open the tap it doesn't work as well, next question then can I put another motor and pinwheel on the AP850 to give it more guts. Don't know what a pin wheel even is :lol:

No Fay the Deltecs that have more pumps have fitting attached to the skimmer body to add more pumps.

You could add another pump , however it would cost to much as a perspex fabricator would have to add the pipes to the skimmer and then you have to buy the pump.

Maybe add another skimmer and have two going.

I would have thought the ap850 would have been enough for your tank.

You could cause problems for your leathers if you take to much out. also skimmers dont take out everything so you still have to do water chnages and find other means to remove po4 and nitrate.

here is a pic of a needle wheel from bubble king

No Fay the Deltecs that have more pumps have fitting attached to the skimmer body to add more pumps.

A deltec ap850 does not have fittings so you can add extra pumps. only the ap1003 can add another pump.

Is this on your Deltec?.why would you put more air into a deltec skimmer. the skimmer tap is suppose to be set at say 2oclock, if you want more air then you open taps more. however by adding more air you will loss bubble size thus not getting better skimming, no need to mod a deltec as they are build correctly in the first place. so they should for the price you pay for them.

Also adding more air into a skimmer can be a problem as the bubble size gets bigger.

Bubble size only gets bigger when the system is adjusting to them.

Once they have adjusted you can turn the taps on full as the system is clean.

Once they have adjusted you can turn the taps on full as the system is clean.

That is incorrect. you have to reduce the air so you get the correct balance. there is nothing to adjust too.

This is suggested by Deltec germany.

too much air and the bubbles get bigger.

The bubbles get bigger only when the water column has lots of garbage in it. When the column is clean the bubbles reduce again.

The bubbles get bigger only when the water column has lots of garbage in it. When the column is clean the bubbles reduce again.

yes but it helps that you start off with the smallest bubble size. having the taps fully open does not give you the smallest bubble size. yes the skimmer will skim but not to its peak performance.

The smaller the bubble size means that you get better skimming. regardless if there is lots of garbage in the water column

This is suggested by Deltec so i assume they are the experts on their own skimmers and have done tests.

I have found the same thing on my skimmer. close the taps to 2oclock and the skimmer has more bubbles in it.

True, but it depends on the cleanliness of the column.

I think I will leave well enough alone and just wait for the nitrate reactor thingie I have ordered

Every thing I have read on the reef central forums say the more air the better. They pump as much are as they can until it stalls the motor :lol:

Also the bubble size in the skimer doesn't seemed to have gotten any smaller, if fact when I first put it on I almost removed it cause it didn't look like it made any difference, it wasn't until I had run it for a couple of days and saw the amount of extra skimmate that I realised it was working. However I'm not totally convinced yet, there has been tonns of skimmate in the last two days but far clearer than normal, today I lowered the water level in the collect cup thing so it could be that it isn't working any better just pushing the water level higher. I'll run it for a week or two and see how it goes.

With all the million dollar skimmers out there I find it hard to belive that if adding a $5 air pump to it would make it better that they would have done it.

The Deltec instructions seem to say to set your air-intake to the 2-oclock position which actually restricts the air going into the skimmer, if they wanted you to have more they would say set it to 12-oclock at the very least.

Pie

Mind you, look at the massive difference a UV unit makes.

Can't imagine Deltec strapping a $10 airpump to their skimmer. More like a $100 Eheim airpump.