I got the itch to try something different for a skimmer. I worked on a few for members here, hope you are all still satisfied. And I made a couple for myself, but they were all needlewheel skimmers. At work a little while ago I started playing with a huge, dual beckett skimmer and decided to make a smaller version.
Becketts and downdrafts are awesome skimmers, the only problem is that they require large, powerful, pressure rated, expensive pumps that take up a lot of space and use a ton of electricity. This is still in the planning/r&d phase, but it looks really promising. I am using a mag7 pump to run it, 65w, not much bigger than your fist. I don't think a 65w pump on a skimmer is excessive. Tonight I put the airflow meter on it for the first time and was a little surprised.
The numbers are a little hard to read, most of the time it pulls between 40-45 scfh on the meter.
The body is just a 4 1/2" tube with no bottom, and a 3 1/2" neck. This thing easily pushes foam all the way out the top, so I am getting about a two foot head of foam. I wish I had an orp meter so I could see how much it affects that. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I will have it finished and have a better idea what it will do. I will leave the pump in the sump and plumb it externally, the Mrs. will love seeing another piece of fish equipment in the office.
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