gravity feed protein skimmer

[Mischke]

Does someone have pictures of how their's is set-up?

What doesn't make sense to me is when people say these require one less pump... Wouldn't you need a pump to supply air into the skimmer body?

What brands are made to be auto fed? Anybody DIY these?

[shifty51008]

when they are talking about gravity feeding the skimmer they are usually talking about external skimmers, so gravity feeding requires 1 less pump because you don't need a feed pump.

[Mr. Brooks]

Don't do it. Huge pain in the butt to get it tuned correctly. Just T off from a stronger return pump.

[Ron Reefman]

I guess I don't see one method as being inherently better than the other, I think they both work well, it's more a matter of what are you trying to accomplish?

Mine is gravity fed with a dedicated drain from the tank (not a T off the main drain to the sump). Yes I have a re-circulation pump that feeds air into the skimmer but I don't need a feed pump or a port off my sump pump manifold. I also wanted to get more flow from the 180g DT to the sump, so an extra drain from the DT to feed my skimmer does the job perfectly.

As for the gravity system being hard to adjust or tune... I suppose it may depend some on what skimmer you use. I have an Aqua Medic 5000 Shorty and the feed from the DT has a ball valve for control. It works fine and is pretty easy to tune. I will switch out the ball valve for a gate valve some day, but I'm in no rush as it works great the way it is.

[viggen]

Like stated external skimmers require a feed line be it from a pump in the sump or from the overflow box to get new water. The pump included with theses skimmers only recirculates the water inside the skimmer. I think this is the best way to go due to being able to set the skimmers flow to the tanks volume. Most claim 1.5-2 x a hr of flow through the skimmer is ideal....

Most external skimmers can still be run in sump, its just they need a feed pump of some type.

I have my skimmer run off the drain and I think this way works best for me. It was very easy to setup and like stated eliminates the need for a extra pump. My tank has a 1.5in bulkhead with a diy durso pipe going to the sump. I then added a 1in drain with a valve that feeds the skimmer and sucks water from the bottom of the overflow box. Eliminates the chance of any air bubbles and also no variation in water flow. Like stated I had zero issues setting it up.