Need Help with Protein Skimmer Setup

[damsels]

Yo brothers,

I need some advice on the setup of a protein skimmer, thanks.

Current Situation:

I am running a 4ft x 2ft x 2ft tank which is placed at one side of my balcony. The tank fit into the breadth of my balcony almost exactly, so no space outside the tank side to hang anything...

The tank is running with an 6 inch IOS on one side of the tank and of course a portion of it is already used to house those filtration media.

What is left is a 10inch x 6inch x 2ft height space. In this space, I have a water pump to draw in the water to a chiller. I am also housing a simple air-bubble skimmer but it is hang mid-height of the partition. So the main thing now is to change it to those pump-driven I think, more powerful.

My Concerns:

1) I am not sure how those pump driven skimmer should work? Can I just use my existing water pump to draw in the water to the skimmer, and through the skimmer the water go to my chiller? Or do I need a 2nd pump for that?

2) If I do need a 2nd pump, I really wonder how to house all these equipment within a 10 inch x 6 inch liao

3) Even if the existing pump is enough, I believe those pump driven skimmers are slightly more bulky and have to sit on the bottom of the tank? I am not sure whether it can be hanged too...

In short, I really have problem figuring how to house the pump(s) and skimmer together in a 10 inch x 6 inch x 2ft height space.

[Archilles19]

1st question....do you have a sump?

If there's one then see if it can go in there & use another pump to fire up the skimmer. If not.....

Anyway water to the chiller should be filtered first..don't ever run a chiller with unfiltered water....the detritus may chocked your pipings.

If the pump to the chiller is aleady pumping filtered water then you may connect the output point of the hose from the chiller to any venturi skimmer..meaning from pump to chiller to skimmer...either back to filtration chamber or direct to the tank...but with a few point to take note of:-

1) Is the existing pump strong enough to power up the skimmer. Normally venturi skimmer like the Weipro requires strong pump or it will not work efficiently. You can get this info from the skimmer packaging or manual supplied with it. If the pump is not enough than you need to change but.....

2) Is the new pump too strong for the chiller then it will takes longer time to cool the tank water because it passes to quickly through the pipings.......

That is why normally pump for skimmer only applied to the skimmer & nothing else.

There's a lot of hang-on type skimmer in the market for various capacity......choose wisely... the bigger the better it cleans

[blueheaven]

Tell the mods to move the thread to the equipments forum for more chances of replies

[Archilles19]

Ya lah brudder Blue....I think this thread is in the wrong place

[damsels]

Thanks for the advice, let me re-post the message in the other section. Sorry about the mistake.