High Tide Aquatics

How much flow into a Euro Reef rs8?

anathema

anathema

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I'm setting up a euro reef rs8 I bought used with no manual. Can't find anywhere the answer to my question tried google, wwm, rc.

I need to know about how much flow to feed into the inlet tube on the side? Does anyone know? Also, if you know what model of pump these came with originally that could help me a lot. I'm planning to run it from my overflow return, and need a ballpark gph to shoot for. I'm assuming the full blast from a mag 950 is too much and I need to split it off. I'm planning to "t" it and run one leg through the skimmer, with the other leg having a gate valve to force flow into the skimmer.

Is this the best way to do this or is the slight backpressure going to be an issue? Should I put the valve on the skimmer leg?
 
It's a recirculating skimmer. It uses a sedra with a Venturi. I assume they used a second pump to feed water in. Maybe I just need to call that place I can't ever remember the name of.

Fwiw my old skimmer diy thing you saw ran off the bubbles in the return. No additional pump necessary, but with the upgrade I'm going bigger on the skimmer too. I want a few more fish.
 
Looks like I need to call them anyway. I think I remembered the name too, reef generics!

Can't seem to find a spears true union anywhere locally and mine is missing half of one. I'll try emailing them first I suppose.
 
Reef Dynamics is the name of the former Euro-reef.
That skimmer was a DIY mod to make it recirculating; if it had been originally that way from the factory, it would have had ER RC8-1 on the sticker. You can plumb it straight from the drain or add a pump; my guess is somewhere in the 350-500GPH (but I'm no expert) A gate valve where the riser pipe is can be a good mod. If you feed it off the drain it will save a few pennies in wattage.
 
IIRC that skimmer is rated for a Sedra 5000, a 500gph pump.

One thing to consider when setting up a skimmer is not just the amount of water that the pump is pushing, but the amount of air that it draws, that alters the amout of flow.
 
tuberider said:
IIRC that skimmer is rated for a Sedra 5000, a 500gph pump.

One thing to consider when setting up a skimmer is not just the amount of water that the pump is pushing, but the amount of air that it draws, that alters the amout of flow.
Click to expand...
The sedra 5000 came wihnthe RS135 the RS 80 came wit the sedra 3500.
 
Tumbleweed said:
tuberider said:
IIRC that skimmer is rated for a Sedra 5000, a 500gph pump.

One thing to consider when setting up a skimmer is not just the amount of water that the pump is pushing, but the amount of air that it draws, that alters the amout of flow.
Click to expand...
The sedra 5000 came wihnthe RS135 the RS 80 came wit the sedra 3500.
Click to expand...


You're correct, I was thinking CS8(+3)
 
IMO the amount of water fed into a recirc skimmer should be based on the volume of your system.

Too much flow can be counterproductive because it just pushes the smallest (read "best") air bubbles out the bottom of the skimmer. Generally I try to dial down the flow enough so that the system's entire volume is getting passed through the skimmer body at least a couple times an hour. So for a 100g system shoot for 200-300gph coming out of the drain.

From your original description it sounds like you are going to use your return pump to supply water to the skimmer. In an ideal world you would supply the skimmer with water directly from your overflow (gravity fed) and then send the skimmer effluent into the return pump. This way the flow of skimmed water is "one way" and not short circuiting. Hope that makes sense...
 
Matt,

Thanks for this response. It's exactly the info I've been looking for. I had been searching for info specific to my skimmer and coming up empty, but I found that broadening my search to recirc skimmers in general found the info, but there are a lot of varied opinions.

I actually didn't communicate very clearly, I am doing pretty much exactly what you describe as the ideal solution. The skimmer is fed from the "drain side" of my return, which goes into a "T" which splits it into the skimmer and sump. I put a gate valve on the skimmer side, and considered putting another gate valve on the open side, but nixed this because the possibility of waking up on the stupid side of the bed one day and flooding the room. Right now I have settled on a set of pipe pieces that I can swap out for more back pressure on the open side without the possibility of cutting off flow entirely.

When I filled the tank, the skimmer fed a little bit faster than the open side, with the gate valve wide open. With a mag 9.5 I'm thinking I get around 5-600 GPH after I figure in head loss and marketing overeagerness, so if I guess that puts me around 300-400GPH through the skimmer from the return. However, I am missing a union fitting that allows water to flow out of the skimmer body, once I find a replacement I may be getting a lot less flow. I blocked off this hole in the skimmer body and it didn't seem like I was getting 300GPH out of the riser pipe. I am pretty sure I have almost exactly 200G in this system, so it seems close, but on the low side. Is there a downside to having a bit lower flow through the skimmer? I'm moving from an essentially skimmerless tank to this, so I'm a skimmer noob. Do most people simply have a gate valve on each side of the "T" and hope they never restrict flow too much?

My situation is a bit complicated, as I don't have very much height to work with, so I'm running fairly close to tolerances for the backpressure in this system.
 
I don't think putting gate valves on both sides of the tee is necessary.

Trying to estimate flow coming out of the riser pipe is tricky. Easiest way I've found to do it is slip a pipe on it with two elbows (the water makes a "u turn") pointing down and then catch all the water in a 1 gallon bucket. Add stopwatch, and you've got a decent estimation of your flow rate.

I think 300 gph through your skimmer is fine for a 200g system. How much volume does the skimmer hold? I tried searching the ER website but I'm not seeing a model called the "RS8".
 
Matt_Wandell said:
I don't think putting gate valves on both sides of the tee is necessary.

Trying to estimate flow coming out of the riser pipe is tricky. Easiest way I've found to do it is slip a pipe on it with two elbows (the water makes a "u turn") pointing down and then catch all the water in a 1 gallon bucket. Add stopwatch, and you've got a decent estimation of your flow rate.

I think 300 gph through your skimmer is fine for a 200g system. How much volume does the skimmer hold? I tried searching the ER website but I'm not seeing a model called the "RS8".
Click to expand...
Here is a link to the new version of it. I believe it is all the same the name is all that changed.
http://www.reefdynamics.com/INS80-Protein-Skimmer-p/ins80.htm
 
That's not the equivalent to his skimmer, Gusty's skimmer is 8" diameter >20" tall; when the company was under the Euro-reef name, they had a page with specs of most of the old skimmer model numbers.
His skimmer is more into the INS180
http://www.reefdynamics.com/INS180E-Protein-Skimmer-w-Ehiem-Pump-p/ins180e.htm
http://www.reefdynamics.com/INS180-Protein-Skimmer-p/ins180.htm
 
Well I hooked the monster skimmer up today on the new tank, which is still cycling. Once the plumbing is all set up as I plan to run it, not much flow is going through the skimmer at all. I'd guess maybe 100GPH or so. It's not enough to swirl the bubbles to the bottom of the skimmer, which happened when I plugged off the open side with a cap for a few minutes. Then the floor got wet.

I may end up hooking a feed pump up to it anyway, but it does seem that I'm able to adjust it so that it would skim like it is so I'm going to leave it like this for now and try it out. Other than reduced contact time for the bubbles, are there any downsides to running low flow through the skimmer?
 
anathema said:
Other than reduced contact time for the bubbles, are there any downsides to running low flow through the skimmer?
Click to expand...

To be clear, low flow through the skimmer INCREASES the contact time.
 
To clarify what I meant, at the current flow bubbles flow from the pump outlet upwards. If I plug the open side, the bubbles are forced downward in the skimmer and therefore are submerged longer for a longer contact time per bubble.

Yes I agree with you that low flow will increase the contact time of the water to the skimming action, but was more questioning how much the reduced distance each bubble traveled in the water column affected efficacy for the skimmer. I didnt provide the entire thought process behind that comment. It seems like it would improve efficiency if the bubbles are forced downward to the bottom, but after some google searching for old ER threads a lot of people mention that bubbles don't swirl all the way to the bottom.

I'm toying with the idea of adding a "booster" pump to the skimmer feed. It would still draw from the overflow line, but maybe eliminate some of the backpressure that makes the system so close to it's limits.
 
anathema said:
To clarify what I meant, at the current flow bubbles flow from the pump outlet upwards. If I plug the open side, the bubbles are forced downward in the skimmer and therefore are submerged longer for a longer contact time per bubble.

Yes I agree with you that low flow will increase the contact time of the water to the skimming action, but was more questioning how much the reduced distance each bubble traveled in the water column affected efficacy for the skimmer. I didnt provide the entire thought process behind that comment. It seems like it would improve efficiency if the bubbles are forced downward to the bottom, but after some google searching for old ER threads a lot of people mention that bubbles don't swirl all the way to the bottom.

I'm toying with the idea of adding a "booster" pump to the skimmer feed. It would still draw from the overflow line, but maybe eliminate some of the backpressure that makes the system so close to it's limits.
Click to expand...

It's been a long time since I've studied skimmer physics, but from what I remember for a bubble of a given size the amount of organics that it can pick up are dependent on the distance it travels and the time it takes to do so. So yes, you would want the bubble to travel the furthest distance possible before "popping".

This is strictly trivia, but there is a skimmer design that uses nested pipes in a horizontal fashion to maximize travel distance of the bubbles. The bubbles are generated in a center pipe and then have to travel left to right like an old typewriter wheel to escape to progressively larger pipes before being dumped into a classic riser tube. Pretty ingenious, but I think it would be prohibitively large/expensive for any home system.
 
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