USCG CWO Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Does anybody have any knowledge of this skimmer, Reef Octopus DNWB 150 (click link) or have any suggestions for an external skimmer on a 90 gallon main tank with a ~20 gallon sump? I am going to rearrange my sump and would like to put the skimmer externally to my sump. Thanks Shane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Shane, As far as external skimmers go that should be a good one for you. An external skimmer is a sketchy idea because if your skimmer reacts heavily to something it could potentially overfill your drain bucket onto the floor. And with your auto top off it may over fill the tank with fresh water dropping your salenity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowman Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Shane, As far as external skimmers go that should be a good one for you. An external skimmer is a sketchy idea because if your skimmer reacts heavily to something it could potentially overfill your drain bucket onto the floor. And with your auto top off it may over fill the tank with fresh water dropping your salenity. Shane, is your sump too small to hold an insump skimmer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USCG CWO Posted June 18, 2009 Author Share Posted June 18, 2009 Shane, is your sump too small to hold an insump skimmer? No my Nitrates are through the roof. I want to pull the skimmer out of the sump and turn that section into a refugium and plumb in a external skimmer. I never had nitrate issues when I was running a refugium on my 55 but now holy cow. I can't keep doing 20-30 gal.water changes every week as I am burning through salt and killing the filters on my RODI unit. I am also running temp wise between 77 to 82 and that will remove some heat as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cherryl Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 Shane, An external skimmer is a sketchy idea because if your skimmer reacts heavily to something it could potentially overfill your drain bucket onto the floor. . Tuesday afternoon I came back home opened the door to the mud room and almost fainted...(scary)my skimmer had overflowed water went into one of my power strips and fried it..1/2 of my wavemakers etc were plugged in the power strip and was actually BLACK unplugged it and put new power strip and tried all my equpment one by one ...luckily they are ok. Now I set skimmer to actually 1/4-1/2 inch below line so never should happen again (house smelt until this morning(puke) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugbyfish Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 Shane, As far as external skimmers go that should be a good one for you. An external skimmer is a sketchy idea because if your skimmer reacts heavily to something it could potentially overfill your drain bucket onto the floor. And with your auto top off it may over fill the tank with fresh water dropping your salenity. Several months ago, I had used some red slime remover and forgot to turn off my external skimmer. The skimmer went nuts and overflowed, dumping water into the stand. Luckily, the person who made the stand was experienced and had sealed the bottom of the stand so the water was 2 inches deep in the stand and had not leaked all over the house. Double lucky, I caught this just before I went to bed (1 AM) because I noticed the pump sounding a little different. Otherwise, this would have been really ugly. Now that I have an ATO, I will have to come up with a fail safe. I could drill a drain at the top of my skimmer cup which drains back into the sump. That way if the skimmer goes crazy for some reason, I am dumping skimmate back into the sump and not all over the floor. Sure, not ideal, but this would prevent the ATO from going into overdrive and the continues dumping of fresh water into the sump (lowering the salinity). Thanks Isaac for pointing that out. I never thought of that and this could save me big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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