recirculating ev-180

[plugpitch]

Just wanted to see if anyone has ever mod their aqua c ev-180. I have an older model that I feel doesnt skim enough. I have it running on an eheim 1262. I was thinking of recirculating with the eheim and have my overflow water feed the skimmer. Any suggestions or pictures of ones that have been done?

[homebrewdude]

It is not skimming enough on a 60 gallon tank??
Maybe there is nothing to skim??

I have a tank twice the size as yours and it skims like crazy.

[plugpitch]

I figure I have a high bioload in my tank. I have a chevron tang, naso tang, black clown, 2 heirichi, and 2 chromis.

[homebrewdude]

Do you have the skimmer set up proper to skim?
Do you skim wet or dry?

I get about a gallon of skim a week

[plugpitch]

I have it set up for semi-wet. The water is about 2 inches from the bottom of the clear acrylic body. there is no consistent skim. I've noticed that in the mornings it would have nice small bubbles, but towards the afternoon the clear acrylic body would have no bubbles at all. I've been running the skimmer off the eheim for about 8 months.

I probably get a gallon every 2 months. That's how low skim I get.

[homebrewdude]

I think the water should be near the bottom of the clear tube.
I have my air dialed back about half.
I run the water outlet valve wide open.

When the air is dialed back it seems to be consistent.

My bubbles drop when I feed the tank.. I think this is normal

[plugpitch]

When I had my gate valve open all the way and the water was at the bottom of the clear acrylic, I felt that the bubbles never reached the top of the collection cup.

[homebrewdude]

Thats probably cause you had to much air.

It takes time for it to adjust, a day or so.

[plugpitch]

Ok, I'll try that. Do you think modding this skimmer may improve its performance?

[homebrewdude]

I doubt it.
Also make sure the air inlet is clean.
I dump RO water on the intake when it is running

[plugpitch]

Yeah I regularly do that too.

[homebrewdude]

There is also a AquaC thread that goes over setting them up and mods.
I think the main mods are changing the pumps and adjusting the air inlet.

One guy made the riser taller, but that was a major mod

[plugpitch]

where is this thread? Is it usually in the diy section?

[homebrewdude]

It is in the lighting/filtration

[kimoy]

try using a higher gph pump. i am running a mag12 on my ev180

[kgross]

I have a mag 12 on my ev 180 and it skims pretty well now. I started out with a mag 7, sucked, went to a mag 9.5 skimmed ok but no consistently, kinda like yours. Moved up to a mag 12 and now it works pretty well.

Kim

[homebrewdude]

When you run the Mag 12 how do you have your air set?

[kgross]

Mine is the older model that does not have an adjustable air intake.

Kim

[AlexB650]

Originally posted by plugpitch
When I had my gate valve open all the way and the water was at the bottom of the clear acrylic, I felt that the bubbles never reached the top of the collection cup.

This skimmer is just funny to adjust and take some patience doing so. I use a mag 7 and the gate valve is only closed 1/3rd of a turn and the air valve is all the way open. I would stsrt by just leaving it open for a few days. Trust me that the foam will make it it into the cup. and then start trying to adjust it--only go the slggtest turn and then leave it for a couple of hours to see if it's where you want it

[plugpitch]

I played a little more with it last night. I followed the Aqua C thread and turned off the air, then adjust the gate valve to make the water just below the tray in the box. Then I opened the air valve about 1/3 and after a few hours it looked like there were small bubbles. Today, it has a dark bubbles trying to rise to the top. It's almost there, but I feel that I might have found the right spot.