Question about "Bite the bullet"

[David P]

I just read Dr. Marini's article on his new protein skimmer and found it fascinating. It also gave me an idea... This Beckett head, how about plumbing one inline on the way into the top of my sump? I know you said it works off of pressure to aerate the water, but I was wondering of the head pressure from the water line plus the fairly large flow would be enough to operate? My thinking was higher O2 levels without a whole lot of extra work... am I way of track with this line of thinking? oh yeah, I'm planning on installing in a 60 gal reef (still in the process of setting up) any thoughts on this matter would be appreciated

[FMarini]

Hi David:
First I apologize for not seeing this thread. I'm glad you found the article interesting, and I have to say I've never been discussed in the third person w/ me sitting in the same room.

To be honest i have no idea if running a beckett head from an overflow will work, i guess it will be dependent on whats you water movement thru this how much backpressure it can generate.
I would also concern myself w/ the amount of flow the beckethead will reduce out of your overflow, and hence the reason why you want to tee it off. If you are concerned w/ increasing your O2 content before your sump then allow the water from the overflow fall down into the sump but keep the overflow tubing out of the water so that its splashed upon entry into the sump. This will generate bubbles, lots of them, problem is it will get noisey.
My guess about the becketthead is that it would work poorly, if not at all, in the arrangement you describe.

You might also consider another type of low pressure venturi to introduce bubbles.
HTH
frank

[David P]

Thank you sir for your response, sorry about the third person... this was my first post at this site and assumed more people would have seen it. I greatly appreciate your sugestions on my idea. I figured it wouldnt work (way too easy).