To plumb my skimmer cup directly to drain or not

[j0tca]

Hi Everyone,

I'm redesigning my sump and have one last question I"m trying to resolve.

Should I have my skimmer cup go directly to a drain or not?

I have always done it this way however in the past 10 years or so I've had my skimmer overskim and drain out enough saltwater to reduce my salinity. This once led to a 25% death in my tank as the salinity dropped to 1.015 in a week because of making a mistake on the skimmer adjustment.

I'm thinking of having the skimmer cup drain into another container within my sump that I use a powerhead to pump the waste out of. This makes a mesy job to clean this container and I"m not sure how much cleaning I'll continually have to do to that powerhead either. The benefit for me of doing this is that if my skimmer overskims for some reason when I"m not paying attention, the waste will overflow back into my sump instead of the drain and this won't risk reducing the salinity of the water.

How have you guys done it?

[ReachTheSky]

Well, in the case that it overskims, you probably wont be dumping the skimmate back into the tank, will you? I don't see why not. Even if you adjust it perfectly, sometimes big spawning events (corals, snails, bacteria, etc.) can cause skimmers to go bonkers. Just gotta be careful and keep an eye on it.

[shaggss]

A few companies make a skimmer collection container with a pressure switch on top which switches the skimmer off should it get full. Avast Marine rings a bell......

Here (http://www.avastmarine.com/ssc/do/product/proteinskimmers/Davy-Jones-Skimmate-Locker) ya go....

[j0tca]

Reach the Sky: The issue I' trying to resolve is the need to keep an eye on it. As shaggs mentioned, sometimes skimmers just go nuts. My concern is that happens when I"m not in town and in the past this has led to a sever reduction in salinity.

Shaggs:

I think there are some much better ways of dealing with skimmer waste than having to empty the collection cup all the time. The goal here is to make it as automated as possible and use the drain in the cup.

[ReachTheSky]

Hmm... If the skimmate is directed away I honestly can't see how it's possible to easily maintain salinity in the case that the skimmer goes bonkers when you're not there.

I did have this happen to me but I did not have a collection cup. My skimmer was directly in the middle of the sump so it overflowed back into the tank, then continued to skim on it's merry way once the event was done.

[Indymann99]

Hmm... If the skimmate is directed away I honestly can't see how it's possible to easily maintain salinity in the case that the skimmer goes bonkers when you're not there.

I did have this happen to me but I did not have a collection cup. My skimmer was directly in the middle of the sump so it overflowed back into the tank, then continued to skim on it's merry way once the event was done.

+1 on if your skimmer overflows better to have it back in the sump.

Also I clean my skimmer neck / cup every week so an external drain has never been necessary.

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn10/Indymann99/2010-10-04_19-45-03_365.jpg (http://s300.photobucket.com/user/Indymann99/media/2010-10-04_19-45-03_365.jpg.html)

[j0tca]

I generally produce more skimmate than the cup allows for in a week. An external drain is necessary for me but I"m not sure yet how I want to set up how it drains. Draining it into a container within the sump is the direction I'm heading but it seems painfully complex to do that. I'm wondering if there is another more obvious solution that I"m not thinking of.

[ca1ore]

I think it is a generally bad idea to run the skimmer cup to drain as it removes the visual cue that there is an overflowing problem. Also, I'd think that a full collection cup of gunk each week suggests you may be running your skimmer too wet.

[Usernam Invalid]

+1 on the skimmate locker safest option around

[j0tca]

Could you expand on your skimmate locker. How have you seen that set up before?

[Sn8kbyt]

j0tca if you are away from home on a regular basis for a week I would say your best option is to let your cup overflow into your sump. A day or two overflow with extra nutrients entering your tank would be better than possible low salinity right?

[Felix T Cat]

I installed a float switch into the cap of my external skimmer to an input on my RKE. When the cup fills it cuts power to the skimmer. I travel quite a bit and have had the skimmer overflow prior to the float switch. Since installing the float switch I've never had another issue (knock on wood)

[thegrun]

I have a float switch on the top of my skimmate container to shut off the skimmer if it fills and a setting on my conductivity probe that will shut off my ATO if the salinity drops below 1.023.

[Green Chromis]

:fish1: I run my skimmate into a floor drain and never had a problem with it. I run a big ETSS downdraft skimmer and it would fill a 5 gallon bucket in a week or so. When I ran the discharge hose to the floor drain it really help with the maintenance part of cleaning the skimmer. :fish1:

[ridetheducati]

Have skimmer cup drain to a container, not drain in the floor, and setup a float switch to turn off the skimmer when container is full.

Will the drain in the floor work, absolutely, but in this hobby you need to plan for the 1% chance the skimmer overflows excessively, especially when on vacation.

[ridetheducati]

:fish1: I run my skimmate into a floor drain and never had a problem with it. I run a big ETSS downdraft skimmer and it would fill a 5 gallon bucket in a week or so. When I ran the discharge hose to the floor drain it really help with the maintenance part of cleaning the skimmer. :fish1:

Knock on wood. Be careful, you may have woken the reef gods.

[ca1ore]

I have a float switch on the top of my skimmate container to shut off the skimmer if it fills and a setting on my conductivity probe that will shut off my ATO if the salinity drops below 1.023.

This is also what I do and is the best approach IMO. Only works if one has a controller of course ......

[nmbeg]

As for secondary container within/above the sump, hard to imagine how that container will be bigger or easier than the skimmer cup. I have same problem as you and can't think of any solution short of the switches described above but that seems too complicated. In the past I had an external skimmer with an overflow drain (drain near top of cup) that I sent back into my sump. My current skimmer is internal with a drain at the bottom of the collection cup. The drain is plugged and overflow goes back into sump.