To recirculate or not

I am one that thinks it is very very very hard if not impossible to overskim a tank, so going to a 150 will not be bad in any way. It will allow you to feed the tank more.

Kim

 

I had both the asm mini g and the octopus 110 both on the same system at the same time, for about 6 months. The mini-g works much better than the nw110.

 

On the topic of recirculating skimmers, I have one on my 90 setup. It is a Hydor Performer series with 2 recirculating pumps, and one seltz adjustable feed pump.
One exception to the common rule with skimmers, I think, is that it is counter intuitive in the water motion inside the reaction chamber. (which works great BTW). Most skimmers say to shoot for minimal turbulence in the body. This is impossible with this type of skimmer, as the feed comes in at an angle, as do the 2 recirculating venturi type aeration pumps. This causes an almost cyclonic motion in the body. In the neck however, a nice thick vertical non-turbulent foam forms in the riser, and a dark dry skimmate is still achieved.
The skimmer has adjustable air inlets on each recirculating pump, as well as the stand pipe height adjustment. I think a direct fee may be interesting and very doable. Thanks for the idea!
Greg
I had never thought about 86ing the seltz pump and feeding it directly from the DT...I may try this, although I am using it internally in a 30 gallon sump. Hm. Just some observations and thoughts.

 

I don't want to offend, but there are much better skimmers on the market than ASM. Quite overrated.

Skimmers are nothing but bubble machines. They have been tweaked every conceivable way. In the past it was all about dwell time...recircing, downdrafting.. ect. Today the trend is to reduce turbulence with bubble plates and cone bodies and gently transitions to the neck.

I don't want to act like I know a lot about recirs because I never had one, what I will say is that with the designs out these days I just don't see the need. The modern needle wheel skimmer is a very efficient bubble machine that has very minimal maintenance and very low power use at every price point in the market. Why would you want anything else? They comprise the lion's share of the market and probably 80% of all the demanding systems out there run one.

Reef Octopus has a very wide price range. Reef Octo being the lowest, extreme the next Super Reef Octo the next. So talking about Octopus as if they are all the same is not true.

Yes there is no way you can overskimm a tank.... but a big skimmer on a small tank will not clean it any more. Get a properly rated skimmer from a popular name brand maker rated for your tank. Shoot for about 125-150% your total volume just so you have some head room and you know you are getting everything you can.

 

For as 60g volume... look into a Bubble Magus NAC 5 or 7(max). Very good budget skimmer

Look at a SWC 120 cone. SWC is Salt Water Connection out of Canada and they are the manufacturer. MSX was the US distributor and they have not been the distributor for about 2 years now.

Or a Vertex IN-80. Very good bang for buck.

Reef Octo 110 would be plenty. Not necessarily the best but at nearly twice your system volume it's plenty.

 

I had the reef-octo 110 recirculating on my 29 (now on my 93) and my old 75 has the 150 NW. Both work great. The 110 is now on my 93 and pulls what it was pulling in a week, from my 29, in a day on the 93. I think it was just way too much for the 29 and the foam head would just collapse because there wasn't enough crud. I think it is a fairly efficient skimmer. The only issue with it, is it can be a bit sensitive to fine tune, but once dialed in is a champ. Haven't seen a need for any mods yet, never had any detectable trates, or algae outbreaks on the 29 even though I overfed quite a bit, so it seemed to be doing its job. I've only had it on the 93 for a few weeks, but so far same.

 

Well, I just made the change over. disconnected the feed pump and am feeding skimmer via DT and gravity. I must say it does not look too good right off. Not as much gook being formed. I am thinking the DT is "richer" than the combo of the 60 fuge and the 90 DT that used to feed it after being filtered through the sump socks. Now my sump is basically another fuge with chaeto in the back part after the bags and the 2 return pumps with skimmer being fed independently. We shall see in the morning what nasties have been pulled out..
-Greg