Reefhappy Posted January 17, 2013 Report Share Posted January 17, 2013 I change mine out every two days whether they look dirty or not. I have never seen anything come out of them but I am only running about 900gph. Not to say some really small particles are not getting back in the water but hopefully between the skimmer carbon and filter floss before the return , it gets caught again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatO Posted January 17, 2013 Report Share Posted January 17, 2013 id say that would be the best bet. though, may make noise. i know the one i saw at uncle bills in greenwood was setup this way. water went into the sump, over a baffle into a tray that had 4-6 socks, with a failsafe (bypass pretty much) if the socks got full, the water would fill the tray and spill over another mini 1" baffle. looked like a good setup, but it was noisy. you may be able to fix this with a diverter or something? that diverts the large 24" wide flow into 2-3 narrow chutes that direct it into the socks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guff Posted January 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2013 Hmm, good thoughts, hopefully I will get some time to play around with sketchup. My initial thought would be to have like a 10" tray that is submerged like 1-2" below the current skimmer section water level and have a weir come up ~2" above the water level to act as a weir and emergency overflow. Hopefully with everything submerged by 2-3" I won't get any noise there it's any flowing up and over anything....if that makes any sense at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guff Posted January 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 I got my filter socks from McMaster Carr today, 7"x16" looking in sketchup I really can't make anything work with a shelf that would allow for the return lines to be submerged without have a pocket on one end of hte shelf that would allow the return lines to come in lower and then the flow would have to come back up and onto the shelf and through if that makes sense. I socks that I got are really nice and sturdy with built in handle tabs, right now I'm just thinking of hanging from the eurobracing at the top of the tank or possibly creating a holder built into the top of the tank to hang them from. This will allow the socks to hang freely without touching the bottom of the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin1300 Posted January 19, 2013 Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 Give me a bit....Drawing something up..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin1300 Posted January 19, 2013 Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 How about this? Design 1: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin1300 Posted January 19, 2013 Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 Here's a second. Design would help to save space by having a cylinder where overflow pipe is submerged into to reduce noise. So you'd just cut hole and then put a cylinder on bottom and glued if that makes sense? Design 2 (More compact design) Flaw is cleaning out cylinder but if flows high enough should get away with rare cleanings.: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guff Posted January 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 dang dude you put that together quick. I'll have to look, that would be ideal if I have enough space to make it work. I bought 7" socks so that works against me, might have to return the socks and see if I can get the same kind in a 4" version to save some space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin1300 Posted January 19, 2013 Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 Yeah, I use 4" X 16" I think. You don't have to use design, just throwing it out there. I've been thinking of something to add to my current sump so I can add filter socks to right side for my overflows from the DT as I don't like my original plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guff Posted January 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 Kind of digging the second design if I could find a cylinder to use, does PVC pipe "glue" to acrylic? Guess I could always build a box too. Also in that 2nd design the wall that holds the shelf would have to be off the bottom glass to allow flow under into next section correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin1300 Posted January 19, 2013 Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 You could do box or get a clear cast tubing. Foot would do I'd think and is $20-$30. http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23517&catid=440&clickid=searchresults Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guff Posted January 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 No I really appreciate it, all good stuff. I just couldn't figure out how to make it work, I kind of jumped the gun on the socks but read a really good thread and they were talking about how nice these socks are and they are really nice. But they are 7"x16" so no matter what I do they will be a bit long I think since the skimmer section is currently set at 12.5" in height. How far can water fall before it starts becoming noisy. i.e. if the incoming shelf you indicate is at 16" and the adjacent section is set at 12.5" will I have a water fall sound with water falling through sock at a height of 3". If that makes any sense at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin1300 Posted January 19, 2013 Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 And you are correct, you'd cap the bottom. I'd say make this section as close to the height of skimmer section as much as possible. if you did LaCl you could drip it in that cylinder area too? Or just drip it into overflow pipe.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatO Posted January 19, 2013 Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 thats the noise i was talking about. to get the socks to actually get decent flow through them, you would have to have the water height a few inches lower than the top of the sock, thus causing a noise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guff Posted January 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 Yeah, dripping the LaCl in the center tube would really isolate all the precipitation either in the tube or be picked up by the socks. I think I'll have enough room under the stand to possibly increase the height of hte skimmer section and still have enough space to raise the skimmer up on a shelf to achieve it's ideal water level for skimming. Thanks Dustin I think you may have just finalized my sump design, now I can get my cut list together and go figure out the best buys off popdisplays and order my acrylic tube too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guff Posted January 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 Ahh, bummer the acrylic tubing is only sold in 5' sections on US Plastics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin1300 Posted January 19, 2013 Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 I bet you can find somewhere that sells acrylic tubing by foot...Seems that PVC will glue to acrylic too! Only downside to PVC is you won't be able to see in cylinder to clean it out. http://stores.ebay.com/affordableplastic/Acrylic-Tubing-/_i.html?_fsub=4802321&_sid=27370525&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guff Posted January 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 Yeah, looks like there might be a couple of sources on ebay that ive sent emails to asking if I can get one in ~16" lengths. The one was a 6" diameter, 12" long, and 5/32" thick; kind of thin but it is a cylinder and will be completely pressure free and equalized after the first fill. Nice bead of weldon 16 should solve that pretty quickly I would think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guff Posted January 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 K, got it redrawn and looks pretty good. I have a couple different angles below. There is also one with a rough sketch of the stand I don't really know how it will be configured yet so I just put something in there to get an idea. Also found one of the vendorrs on ebay that will sell me a 15" of 6" clear acrylic for $20 plus $15 shippping so that's not so bad. Let me know your thoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin1300 Posted January 19, 2013 Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 Guff, looking great. Instead of that block you could replace it with a real 3D skimmer if you check out the google 3d warehouse: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?q=skimmer&styp=m&scoring=t&btnG=Search You can find trims, valves, etc on there that I'd never try to feat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guff Posted January 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 Yeah I searched at one point and didn't have any luck finding one for the sro xp-5000 skimmer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin1300 Posted January 19, 2013 Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 Yeah I searched at one point and didn't have any luck finding one for the sro xp-5000 skimmer. Yeah, was not able to find a good one of the SRO skimmer. Just was not sure if you had seen the warehouse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Willy Posted January 20, 2013 Report Share Posted January 20, 2013 Im too lazy to read through all the posts so if what I say is repeats ignore me. Suggestion #1 Make your return area in your sump as big as possible. Suggestion #2 You don't need 3 plates on a bubble trap. the first plate sets the height of the chamber and the second plate forces the water down and the air up, that's all that's need. It won't give you much more room but and inch or two is worth a lot Opinion #1 I have owned both the AOSmith and Baldor Dart pumps. The Blador is by far the better of the two over time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guff Posted January 20, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2013 Hey thanks for the opinion I like the idea of removing the last bubble trap, as you mentioned it would gain an extra 2.5" at least. I already have the dart gold return pump in house ready to go with the Baldor motor, so i'm good to go there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guff Posted January 21, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 Got the acrylic ordered yesterday Gene at popdisplays is going to do the cut outs for the filter sock tray, so I don't have to worry about messing that piece up. Should have pieces by end of next week probably. Just waiting on the fab for that one piece which is a 1 week lead time. Otherwise they would have shipped everything out today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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