basics of a protein skimmer

How does everyone else here handle the situation when either the siphon breaks in their overflow, or whatever method is being used, stops working, yet the power is on?

How do you prevent the pump in the sump from overflowing your DT? My pump being in the last chamber will only pump the remaining water from that chamber and then shut down as it overheats.

 

I see what your saying , IMO you can't have a sump refuge combo without divider between the two, when I say baffles I mean having three dividers in between each section to trap bubbles.

I have a quit one 220 that can work in or out of water also it will only pump up to the intake which still leaves it submerged in water. I have the level marked on my sump of where to fill so if the siphon breaks it only fills up to the very rim before it stops.(it takes a little bit of testing to get the level right).

 

As far as air injection goes, our skimmer has a knob/screw that will open or close the air hose pulling air into it wider or narrower. We run ours almost entirely closed. Air injection for "more bubbles" can be a pain in the butt instead of an asset depending on the skimmer. With out skimmer "wide open", the bubbles are so big that the collection cup fills up with water before alot of goo can get into it. Running it almost closed means I empty about 1/2" - 1" of absolutely NASTY water from the collection cup every day when I get home. It has the potential to rise to maybe 5 inches of water, but I prefer to keep it clean and fresh every day cause it's pulling out some nasty right now. The less bubbles, the more "concentrated" your skimmate is going to be, meaning less water mixed in with it. The more bubbles, the more water making it easier to clean, but it needs to be emptied more.

Of course, our skimmer was originally on a 120 gallon setup, plus 55g sump. Now it's on a 46 with a 15g sump. WOOOHOOOO

 

I would suggest a small aqua-lifter on your overflow tube in the top of the "U" to maintain siphon. If it breaks, the aqualifter will suck the air out and restart the siphon. As for sump design, i like having my return line dump into an empty compartment as to not blow all the sand around.. same thing goes for my pump. I keep it away from the refuge as to not have it suck in sand... Hope that helped a bit.