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Gravity fed skimmer - again!
Sorry to belabour this, but I want to get it right the first time.
I saw the following quote on a website, which seems to conflict with your real world experience. [quote] The skimmer suction line MUST be hooked up directly to the pump. The skimmer will only work with suction under pressure. It will not work by gravity feed into the vortex, (water takes the path of least resistance). Almost no water will flow from the skimmer to the vortex if you install the skimmer incorrectly. All you need to do is build a manifold on the suction side of the pump with two valves. Valve #1 is to control the volume of water from the filter, while valve #2 is to control the volume of water from the skimmer. [END QUOTE] I thought I would test this, so I plugged the overflow (skimmer) in the bathroom sink and filled the sink to the brim. When I unplugged the overflow I got some decent skimming of my test debris. When I partially opened the bottom drain I continued to get skimming, but perhaps a little slower. I could not open the bottom drain fully or my skimming experiment would have been very short lived. Not very scientific, but the skimmer still worked, even with the bottom drain in operation. I had planned to plumb my skimmer/bottom drain much the way the bathroom sink works. But after my experiment, I think I will run both pipes into a Wye with a gate valve on the flow from the bottom drain. So I can control the flow of the BD and address my frost concerns. |
#2
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Gravity fed skimmer - again!
On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 13:58:15 CST, "Bill Stock" wrote:
[quote] The skimmer suction line MUST be hooked up directly to the pump. The skimmer will only work with suction under pressure. It will not work by gravity feed into the vortex, (water takes the path of least resistance). Almost no water will flow from the skimmer to the vortex if you install the skimmer incorrectly. All you need to do is build a manifold on the suction side of the pump with two valves. Valve #1 is to control the volume of water from the filter, while valve #2 is to control the volume of water from the skimmer. [END QUOTE] This may be true, if one doesn't decrease the bubble size that holds up the floating ring. I've got 3 running, 2 very nicely via gravity. Putting a valve between bottom drain so only skimmer runs, or bottom drain only partially would be very nice to have. Sounds like you're coming up with some very good idea. ~ jan ------------ Zone 7a, SE Washington State Ponds: www.jjspond.us |
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