Gravity fed skimmer?

[limsc]

Experts out there..

I am thinking of starting a tank in future and was thinking of gravity fed to the skimmer.

However it seems that not many of us doing this way.

Read up some forums and the way it works seems not so difficult.

Tee off from the overflow pipe to the sump and control this tee off with a ball valve to the skimmer.

It may sound easy but i believe there must be some difficulties in there which i had not figure out yet.

Is it that the overflow pipe will air gushing down together that cause instability in the flow to the sump that prevent this option?

Any one can help share with me?

My future plan is a 3'x2'x2' tank running with a Deltec APF600 or AP600.

Thanks a lot...

[stevenkoh08]

ya for air to gush down will cause the standard performance of the skimmer as tuning also a problem

so that's the reason i do my tank with two down flow to the sump, one of it is taller than the one feeding the skimmer

so in this way u can have a full water feeding and some micro bubble only which won't even affect the skimmer

the other way is feeder pump

[stevenkoh08]

here's the drawing

[HW33]

i'm using gravity feed for my skimmer,so far so good being using it for 1 year.

water level in skimmer is quite constant:)

i try to post a pic of my overflow later.

[yooyoo99]

Wah setting up new tank liao....

Mine is also gravity fed, no problem with tuning the skimmer. Micro bubbles not a problem either.

I am using deltec skimmer as well. Overflow pipe has a valve and a tee. 1 end of the tee goes to skimmer, the other goes to sump. Valve can adjust flow rate between the 2 outlets. There is another valve at the skimmer water inlet, for fine tuning of the water level.

Only problem i have now is the return check valve (Y-valve) for the return pump. Off pump will cause choker to fall back and stop backflow, but when pump is turn on, the choker may or may not go back 100% to its parking position, resulting in lower flowrate. This sometimes cause my skimmer water level to be lower thus have dry skim effect. When choker goes back to original position, skimmer will work perfectly.

My proposal is not to install those check valve, but do remember to drill holes at the outlet of your return to break the siphon when pump is off.

FYI, no fish ever go suck into the pump, skimmer body not very dirty. I have no complains other than the choker problem which i will fix when free.....................................

[limsc]

Thanks steven, HW33, yooyoo99 for the advices.

Not setting up the new tank yet.

Just brainstorming now what how should i set up with the most electricity efficient system.

[BFG]

Why the need to buy a skimmer that require an additional feed pump? There are good skimmers that operate on a single pump to draw in water and still create bubble into the skimmer. Don't waste time and money buying such skimmers.