recirc skimmer

[pmac90]

well, I think my skimmer pump on my ASM is finished. :bugout: pushing bubbles from the volute, surging.... just not good stuff. So, as I had it out, like most reefers, looks like the time to upgrade or "remodel" the setup. :smirk: I'm just looking for a reason to take out the drill!! i really like the idea and concept around a recirculating skimmer. no more cutting filter pads!!!
so, who has recirc skimmers and what are the positives or negatives????

 

[mps9506]

I don't have one, and don't know anyone with a euroreef or asm recirc skimmer, but one of our local reef club members has a deltec with two eheim recirc pumps on it. Pretty impressive skimmer with low power draw. Don't know how much it costs to add the mod to an asm, but my guess is that it is worth the cost.
The only negative I can think of it the need to purchase the feed and recirc pumps (or you can feed by teeing off from the overflow, but it maybe hard to judge the flow rates).
The positives, well you can tee it off from the overflow and get water higher in dissolved organics directly into the skimmer.
I'm not sure how much more efficient the pump setup is compared to stock, so I don't know if that is a plus or minus.
I can't think of anything else at the moment as I had considered and upgrade to recirc myself yet. Been happy with the needlewheel.

 

[Warnberg]

I have a Euro-Reef recirculating skimmer. I think the biggest benefit is that I can control the contact time with pump size and how much I open the gate valve. Right now I get at least a cup of skinnamate a day.

 

[pmac90]

Thanks guys....

I would have to go with T'ing the drain to get a similiar flow as the pump itself was getting. It's only a G1 and it had a 250 gph pump on it. my drain is probably moving around 500 gph. i don't have the room to run 2 pumps for a skimmer so the feed pump idea isn't going to work. so, hopefully the T would match the flow up. If i had a better sized asm i would run the drain right to it.

so, here's the decision.... buy a new pump, uniseals, some pvc and spend about 100 bucks or buy a new octopus 150 (same design and maybe owners as ASM) for 125 bucks??