Advice please

[Brando457]

I'm a bit annoyed, not avast's fault, but my own dumb stupidity.

I bought an avast skimmate locker, but given the height of my baffles in my sump, height of the skimmer, and height of the sump itself I can't use it.



As you can see the skimmate locker sits lower than the trim of the sump, the skimmer collection drain sits well below that rim, and well idk.

I am considering putting it inside the sump, but not even sure that'd be worth it.

Any advice/recommendations??

You guys make such high quality products and I would love to be able to use the skimmate locker. This is of no one's fault, but my own for not measuring things properly!

[Want2BS8ed]

Brando457, I am using a 30-gallon long aquarium for my sump and my skimmate locker sits in the return chamber.

Avast cut some longer legs for my skimmer so it sits higher in the first chamber of the sump. When I converted over to the recirculating design, I used the old base plate and the original legs as a platform for the skimmate locker. That allowed room to keep a heater and several smaller pumps for ozone reactors, etc. underneath the skimmate locker.

The only tricky part is you will either need to leave some skimmate in the chamber (what I do) or figure out a way to weight it down because it will float if empty.

One side benefit, and this is really why I did it, if the locker should overflow (oh say because 'someone' forgot to put the float sensor back into the skimmate locker before leaving town for a couple of weeks - on two occasions no less) it is contained within the system. Not ideal for the inhabitants, but much better than spewing skimmate all over the carpet, which of course is replaced with fresh top-off water lowering salinity and stressing coral (and spouses left with soggy carpet!).

Mike


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[Brando457]

Lmao speaking from experience?

Thanks that's what I'll do then. I stopped at home depot and picked up some PVC to make my skimmer stand

Sent from Brando's mind

[Brando457]

So filling it with water didn't work, had it halfway full and it still floated!

In my skimmer thread someone recommended to maybe try using tunze magnets on it to hold it to the side glass. That is a possibility I may try.

On another forum one person recommended drilling the sump to allow for the hose to pass through, I'm not too keep on putting a small hole just for the skimmate locker.

If the magnets don't work I'll probably sell it, dumb mistake on my part :doh:

[Want2BS8ed]

Can you raise the skimmer and locker using some egg-crate and PVC?

I have a tall baffle in my 30-gallon sump as well. Raising the skimmer improved its efficiency - less depth, greater air draw, etc.

[Brando457]

I raised the skimmer 3" using egg crate and pvc, if I go any taller then it won't be at the optimum height. I could add a tall baffle like you said and raise the skimmer even more, but prefer not to redo my sump if I don't have to. Thanks for the advice