Reef nutrition

Protein Skimmer pump to increase air exchange

newfly

newfly

Supporting Member
BARcard
Crazy idea. I have a 65G AIO tank with tunze 9004DC skimmer. I don't need more skimming capacity but i would like more air exchange (to increase PH).

Can;t find larger skimmer that fit into the back chamber. I wonder if i can just get a skimmer pump, drop it in the back chamber, and put a piece of foam at the water surface as a bubble stop. Will this work and worth the effort?

If this is workable , my understanding is skimmer pump is just a regular pump with needle impeller and a Venturi intake? Where can I get the pump without paying an arm and a leg?
 
You can stuff airline tubing into the intake of a maxi jet and it will do what you want. Probably many others as well. Not sure if it will help ph much or not. Probably will help more if the airline comes from outside
 
Air pump will work. It was trendy a few years ago to run it at night to raise the ph. Micro bubble scrubbing. I tried it a few years ago. I didn’t notice anything but my aquarium
Is large. Yours might be better cuz you can run more bubbles in a smaller water volume
 
Last edited:
A skimmer pump will not work without the surrounding body. It will just churn up the water at the bottom of the sump without pulling any air from the surface. A skimmer works because it has the necessary structure and tubing to pull air from above the waterline.

As stated above, your current skimmer should be sufficient. Add a co2 scrubber or run the airline out a window if you want to increase ph.
 
I can promise you a Tunze 9004 in a 65 gallon tank is not sufficent for a 65 gallon tank. It’s a 4W pump. It’s probably good enough to surface skim a light bio-load in a tank that size, but in no way enough to provide a great amount of gas exchange in a tank that size to use in conjugation with a co2 scrubber.

The problem with generating bubbles in a saltwater tank that isn’t contained in a skimmer body is when they pop, salt spray galore.

You’re kind of limited on options. You could see if you could borrow a HOB skimmer with a larger air draw and see if that helps (with outside air or co2 scrubber).
 
RandyC said:
I can promise you a Tunze 9004 in a 65 gallon tank is not sufficent for a 65 gallon tank. It’s a 4W pump. It’s probably good enough to surface skim a light bio-load in a tank that size, but in no way enough to provide a great amount of gas exchange in a tank that size to use in conjugation with a co2 scrubber.

The problem with generating bubbles in a saltwater tank that isn’t contained in a skimmer body is when they pop, salt spray galore.

You’re kind of limited on options. You could see if you could borrow a HOB skimmer with a larger air draw and see if that helps (with outside air or co2 scrubber).
Click to expand...
I don’t have enough room at the back of the tank for a HOB skimmer . Putting it on the side is a bit tacky.
 
RandyC said:
Just to experiment
Click to expand...
Sure. But just for discussion sake, won’t a skimmer pump alone (without the body) do the same for oxygen exchange? Something like this. I assume the needle impeller and the Venturi intake will create load of micro bubbles just like a proper skimmer. What’s the different btw just the pump versus full skimmer if we just consider air exchange?

Yeah I am aware the salt spray therefore I suggest putting a piece of foam on the surface to prevent the spray. I’m concern if the foam will get dirty quick and going to be maintenance nightmare.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1221.png
    IMG_1221.png
    113.5 KB · Views: 19
newfly said:
Sure. But just for discussion sake, won’t a skimmer pump alone (without the body) do the same for oxygen exchange? Something like this. I assume the needle impeller and the Venturi intake will create load of micro bubbles just like a proper skimmer. What’s the different btw just the pump versus full skimmer if we just consider air exchange?

Yeah I am aware the salt spray therefore I suggest putting a piece of foam on the surface to prevent the spray. I’m concern if the foam will get dirty quick and going to be maintenance nightmare.
Click to expand...

If you’re willing to deal with the maintenance of cleaning up the salt spray and changing the filter, go for it. But also keep in mind that the bubbles will go everywhere in your AIO chambers unless it forced in a direction. So that amount of bubbles will pop everywhere.

One other side effect you’ll have as well, is you’ll turn your whole AIO chamber into a skimmer body, so bubbles up the side of the AIO walls will get dirty from the organics ridding the bubbles.
 
What are the dimensions of the area for the skimmer?

Maybe use kalk with a doser if you really can’t upgrade the skimmer due to space?
 
RandyC said:
If you’re willing to deal with the maintenance of cleaning up the salt spray and changing the filter, go for it. But also keep in mind that the bubbles will go everywhere in your AIO chambers unless it forced in a direction. So that amount of bubbles will pop everywhere.

One other side effect you’ll have as well, is you’ll turn your whole AIO chamber into a skimmer body, so bubbles up the side of the AIO walls will get dirty from the organics ridding the bubbles.
Click to expand...
That would be a pain. I agree.
 
L/B Block said:
What are the dimensions of the area for the skimmer?

Maybe use kalk with a doser if you really can’t upgrade the skimmer due to space?
Click to expand...
5x3.5 or 4 inch roughly. I am already dosing kalk. I’m just toying with the idea as if I have nothing much to do.

Most likely not going to do anything. Chasing ph is not worth it.
 
newfly said:
5x3.5 or 4 inch roughly. I am already dosing kalk. I’m just toying with the idea as if I have nothing much to do.

Most likely not going to do anything. Chasing ph is not worth it.
Click to expand...
Do you not have room to put a co2 scrubber?

Edit: just looked up a tunze 9004 and now I see the issue.
 
newfly said:
5x3.5 or 4 inch roughly. I am already dosing kalk. I’m just toying with the idea as if I have nothing much to do.

Most likely not going to do anything. Chasing ph is not worth it.
Click to expand...
Shouldn’t the kalk do the work without need for a CO2 scrubber?

I did look around -the protein skimmers available for the parameters you listed are slim for sure
 
I dose 1.4L of kalk all at night. I am able to maintain ph at night. I dose soda ash (80ml) during the day. Ph is more or less constant at 8.

I am exploring ways to have a small ph bump to 8.2 . Again, maybe this is a futile attempt and I should not be paying attention to ph.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1223.png
    IMG_1223.png
    64.9 KB · Views: 19
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top