Output of protein skimmer at sump

[Froggy]

Hi,

I have a question to pose to everyone, hoping to have my curiosity answered.

Can the output of the protein skimmer which is located at the sump be pumped straight into the tank above? As far i've seen no one is doing that, instead the output of the P.S is channeled into a compartment which houses the return pump.

Taking into the following conditions:

1) The skimmer is matched with a corresponding input pump (eg. weipro 2012 with 2500L/H pump)

2) The input pump was a sufficent head pressure for the distance between the sump and tank

Thanks for the valuable input on this matter...

[Matt06]

The question is: What is the purpost when you wanna do that? Actually, water before filtration is best for the skimmer and that the output of the skimmed water should then be output to the sump for futher filtration. Reason being that the incoming water is the one which contain most "organic waste" while the rest of the particles will be handled by the sump.

[planetg]

froggy,

my skimmer pulls out lots of gunk cos i'm using an external skimmer and my flow rate is very low. the key is to control the skimmer output to produce as thick foam as possible. you wouldn't want lots of watery foam in the skimmer neck.

just my experience.

[Tanzy]

You cannot do that. The output being above the protein skimmer will certainly flood the skimmer. Remember the skimmer is open to the atmosphere and not air tight. The water level in the skimmer cannot be lower than the water level in the output pipe.

Also, it's not good to have the effluent from the skimmer going into the tank before it has gone through a few baffles because it has many tiny bubbles that escape from the skimmer. If it enters the tank it will cause cloudiness and salt spray.