Skimmer Question

[utahsaltreefer]

I have a question which I realize has more facets to it than a simple yes or no answer. Anyway here goes. With a venturi skimmer what is more critical the height, or the pump size?

A taller skimmer and weaker pump should give more contact time with the bubbles in the water column but produce fewer bubbles overall. A shorter skimmer with a bigger pump should produce significantly more bubbles but the contact time would be much reduced since the water flow is increased and the volume of water in the skimmer is decreased.

 

[Anonymous]

Personally (and unscientifically) I think height is more important, if for no other reason than the biggest skimmer I've ever seen (outside a public aquarium) was at a LFS in california. It looked just like a regular home-tank skimmer...except that it was 10 ft tall. 8O (Diameter about 16".)

 

[liquid]

Both height and amount of air are critical. You need a lot of air to maximize skimming but you also need a fair amount of height to maximize contact time. I'd try maximizing both if you can...

Shane

 

[utahsaltreefer]

Thanks for the tips. Sounds like the taller the better, what about diameter? Seems like there's a balance to be found with the pump. You want one large enough to provide a large amount of very fine bubbles, but not one so large that it forces a short contact time in the skimmer. I guess I'm most concerned about the contact time. If (disclaimer: purely made up example) I have a 4" diameter skimmer that is 24 inches tall it has a volume of about 1.3 gallons. If I hook up a mag7 to it it is going to flush the volume out every 6.5 seconds. If the pump is reduced to a 300 gph pump it only flushes the volume every 16 seconds. Seems like the smaller pump would increase the contact time. Am I looking at this backwards? Thanks.

 

[Baianotang]

I suport hight power pumps and air count.