DIY Skimmer Setup Help

[pogodzib]

I recently bought a used reef setup that contains a DIY skimmer. It is an air driven, concurrent flow setup. The water enters at the top and leaves at the bottom. My question is why is there a valve at the bottom exiting the skimmer instead of at the entrance location to control the flow coming in. If the valve exiting the skimmer was closed down, it would flood the room. Whereas if the valve was at the entrance it could control how much flow was circulating through the skimmer. What am I missing? The pipe exiting has a riser to control the water elevation inside of the skimmer.

 

[Anonymous]

Hmm. could it be that the water actually enters from the bottom (thereby controlling its flow through the valve), and leaves from the top? Got a pic?
~wings~

 

[pogodzib]

No I don't have a pic. I am thinking about moving the valve from the water exit to the entrance. I did a quick search and found this setup which is similar to the skimmer setup I have. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/diyskimmer.htm

 

[Anonymous]

The site doesn't like hyperlinking that way. This is Anthony's little DIY skimmer. If I recollect, Matt W created something similar for one of his nano tanks, do a search on Matt Wandell skimmer.
Anthony's skimmer comes with an important caveat..

Disadvantages: learning curve of days to weeks for new aquarists to fine tune, aesthetically modest (simple PVC), slightly more maintenance to run.

 

[ChrisRD]

Without a picture I'm just guessing, but it sounds to me like the valve is redundant if you already have some means to control the water level within the skimmer (ie. the riser pipe at the outlet).

If it's a DIY unit, it's possible that one form of effluent control was used first and then another was added later for preference or functional reasons. I know I've incorporated valves, fittings, etc. into DIY things that have later become unnecessary, or I changed/removed as the design evolved.

I would say just leave it alone. If you don't need it, it's not doing any harm to sit there all the way open. If you do need it, it'll be there. If you want to control the amount of water flowing through the skimmer I'd just suggest adding another valve on the inlet...

 

[Anonymous]

Found it! (Forgot the underscore in his name)

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... ht=skimmer

 

[pogodzib]

Maybe the riser pipe was added at a later time and the valve was just left in place. I think I'll probably remove it as it's just one more fitting that can fail.

 

[ChrisRD]

If your skimmer is similar to the one SM shows above, I'd recommend leaving the valve alone - I think you'll need it.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree.