I had a rough time yesterday with my overflow and the noise associated with it. To the point that I came pretty close to throwing in the towel and just using powerheads in the tank, an
HOB skimmer (which I already have), and putting the heater into the
DT.
I know I'm going all OCD, but the noise coming from the overflow was starting to drive me freakin insane. I finally got it to a more reasonable level by putting a valve on the output of the return pump and closing it off some to restrict the flow. I starting to question my
DIY intelligence, as this seems like a totally solvable problem.
I'm also trying to decide what to do about my protein
skimmer. I've go an
HOB Remora
skimmer that my friend gave me, but I've got a couple of problems with it.
1. The plastic is opaque and I can't see inside to determine if the bubble size is correct.
2. When I hang it on my
sump, the water coming from the
skimmer has a 6" fall to reach the water level in the
sump, making more noise AND more bubbles that end up in the
DT. Not cool. For a while I was running it with one of those filter socks like I've got on the water intake into my
sump, but I removed it because I got to thinking that over time it would become a
nitrate factory.
So, now I'm looking for
skimmers and am open to suggestions. I need to keep the cost below $150. My total (actual) water volume in the tank and
sump comes to about 45 gallons. I'd like something that hangs on the back of the
sump or, if it's got a small footprint, goes into the
sump directly. I also need a way to have the output not cascade down into the water. Did I mention that I want it to be as quiet as possible?
Looking over at the Drs. Foster & Smith site, I saw
this Coralife skimmer and wonder what peoples' experiences are. Are there other
skimmers I should be considering?
Thanks,
-Chris
