Any tips on splitting water from an overflow to Protein Skimmer & Sump?

[Joyride]

I just ordered a protein skimmer (recirculating protein skimmer RPS-1000 (http://cgi.ebay.com/RPS-1000-Recirculation-Protein-skimmer-Pacific-Coast_W0QQitemZ280069624672QQihZ018QQcategoryZ4631 3QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l126 2)) and I'm thinking that rather than using another pump to pull water into the skimmer, that I could split the water coming from my overflow and have some go to the skimmer, and the rest into my sump.

I'm wondering if anyone's got any suggestions on how to do this effectively. I don't think I should be putting my entire flow (~200 gph) through the skimmer as I imagine that the water would me moving too fast and would not get enough dwell time in the chamber. As such, I'll need to come up with some way of splitting the flow.

The obvious approach is to to a tee off the main flow pipe into two valves, one bound for the skimmer, the other bound for the sump. My concern with this approach is that the pump output will slowly reduce between cleanings, requiring me to adjust the valves on a pretty regular basis.

Are there other approaches? Am I overly concerned about the adjustments?

Should I just buck up and use another pump?

-Chris

[bbl_nk]

Why add another piece of equipment when gravity can do it just as well? You only need 1.5-2 times tank volume per hour thru a recirc to be most effective. What kind of overflow do you have? I built a HOB and used this method Feeding Recirc Skimmer (http://www.randystacye.com/feedingskimmer.htm)

You could also tee off the mail line and reduce down to the smaller diameter and control with a ball valve.

[coralife]

Actually 200GPH is probably fine for your skimmer, but if you want to feed your skimmer gravity feed and then use a Tee with a series of Ball Valves on each end to control flow

Jake
(http://www.ReViveCoralCleaner.com)

[Joyride]

Why add another piece of equipment when gravity can do it just as well? You only need 1.5-2 times tank volume per hour thru a recirc to be most effective. What kind of overflow do you have? I built a HOB and used this method Feeding Recirc Skimmer (http://www.randystacye.com/feedingskimmer.htm)

You could also tee off the mail line and reduce down to the smaller diameter and control with a ball valve.

Thanks for the link Brian, that's a cool idea. I'm a little squeamish, however, about drilling holes in my overflow. It's a CPR and it's doing really well for me.

I was at Home Depot tonight after work and thought of a way that uses gravity and a ball valve or two to my advantage, similar to what you and Jake suggested.

My plan is to do a tee connection off of the main drain line from the overflow and have it be inline with the flow, where the two sides of the tee that go straight through are parallel with the flow, and the 90 degree part is perpendicular. On the bottom of the T, I'm going to reduce the pipe down to 1/2" pipe and put a ball valve to flex tube, which will go to the skimmer. I'm going to take the 90 degree part directly into the sump without any valves (or at least I'm going to try).

My theory is that gravity will help out and feed a certain amount of the water down through the pipe into the skimmer, and whatever's left will just go to the sump. The leftover part won't be restricted, so if the skimmer feed line becomes clogged over time, I'll have less of a chance of the whole system backing up.

I'll try and snap some pics of it as I build, since I'm not sure my description is all that easy to follow.

Thanks,
-Chris

[Joyride]

I got it going tonight. Only one big(ish) spill. :)

Here's a photo of what I did to split the overflow:
http://www.chenry.com/tankphotos/IMG_2085.jpg

At the top of the photo is the overflow. You can see my tee connection, and the split into the small hose fitting to go into the skimmer. I had a bit of a time getting the tubing onto the barb because the tubing that fits onto the barb on the skimmer is 3/8" ID, and the only plastic barb I could find at Home Depot was 1/2". Lots of heating the tube and swearing later, I got it on.

I'll try and post some pics of the skimmer, etc. tomorrow night. I'm beat right now and need to hit the sack.

[bbl_nk]

Awesome work, very clean! DIY comes with the extra pains of something going not as planned, but its the extra sweat and cursing that make it even more enjoyable at the end of the day....but that's just me :)

Do you have a gate valve on the output of the skimmer? between adjusting that and the ball valve for flow, you should be able to get your skimmer dialed in pretty nicely and am looking forward to the pics.

I build my own overflow (Ocean @ Home: DIY External Overflow - My First Acrylic Project (http://oceanathome.blogspot.com/2008/08/diy-external-overflow-my-first-acrylic.html)) and used the modified barb fitting on the link I posted earlier. Right now I don't have a skimmer online, so it is just capped off but ready and waiting. If I ever decide it doesn't work out, I figure I can just cut a small acrylic square and cement it on and go with something like your setup.