Finally getting some skim mate.

Mark75 · Oct 25, 2015

When I orders this Cadlights combo I knew the included skimmer was junk but being the tinkerer I am I just had to see if I could get it to skim.

At first it wouldn't even build a head of foam. After some testing I found the Venturi air/water ratio to be favoring water to a point it was basically a water pump, very little air intake. I started decreasing the size of the water intake orifice with thin piping used as a bushing. I started at roughly 1/2" and have reduced it to around 3/8".

After the water inlet reduction the skimmer performed much better and was useable but still something was not right. My air to water ratio was still off! More investigating led to the discovery that ,after necking down the Venturi, I had moved the air inlet to far forward so it was not seeing the vacuum created on the pump side of the Venturi. Some creative glueing I was able to move the air inlet to the low pressure side of the Venturi and bingo,...adjustable skimming!!

I could have bought a $200 skimmer that would put perform this one but I wouldn't have gotten the satisfaction of fixing this one! [emoji16]

Three fish in a lightly feed 50g, one week of skimming. What do you think?

melypr1985 · Oct 25, 2015

I think your pretty impressive to have figured all that out and fixed this skimmer. Way to Go!

Mark75 · Oct 25, 2015

melypr1985 said:
I think your pretty impressive to have figured all that out and fixed this skimmer. Way to Go!

Actually just a lot of trail and error!

cee · Oct 25, 2015

Looks good. Shorten the airline and feed the pump output directly into the base (remove all that PVC and all those 90s) and you'll do even better.

Anthony kolodziej · Oct 25, 2015

congrats , I like to "tweak " my skimmers too

Mark75 · Oct 25, 2015

cee said:
Looks good. Shorten the airline and feed the pump output directly into the base (remove all that PVC and all those 90s) and you'll do even better.

What is the saying???,..."Great minds think alike",...that's my next project! I didn't want to invest to much in the skimmer until I new it would work, now that it is skimming that is my plan. What is weird is by the time I get this skimmer working great I will probably have purchased a new one.