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  • #1

    Pic of the BK and a question ...

    Got the sump drilled, BK hooked up and it's bee-u-tee-ful. However, I'm doing some freshwater tests, fired up the BK and all I got were very few large bubbles. Very few. Is this normal with FW? Boy it is dead silent though!

    I do also have to say I wish the intake of the RD wasn't so small. It makes it very difficult to gravity feed it. The red PVC that is glued in is probaby 3/4" diameter and it really restricts non-pressurized flow.



    Decorated



    It is all designed to fit in the right compartment, and it does!



    My wife is a wonderful person to allow this in her beautiful home ...

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  • #2
    Nice, what size tank is that?

    Nick
    275 Gallon Envision Acrylics Tank, 70 gallon sump, BK 300 internal, Zeovit, 5 sequence darts (1 on a oceansmotions 4-way), medusa dual controller, 2 ebo jaer 250w heaters, 1/2 hp JBJ comercial chiller, 4 RO IIIs w/14k hamilitons, 4 VHOs super actinic, deltec pf500 Ca Rx, 3 reef ceramic pillar, and 1 reef ceramic mini-reef, 5 ceramic closed loop intake screen covers, with 50ish pounds of LR

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    • #3
      Miguelito, you sure thats going to work? I needed to raise my output piping up/down to tune it. If not, you will either get too much wet skimming or not enough dry.

      by the way, you werent lying when you said you had a BIG house! I should of flew over during the hurricane when you asked me too.

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      • #4
        My wife is a wonderful person to allow this in her beautiful home ...


        We just must be so wonderful that anything goes.

        SteveU
        “People are very open-minded about new things - as long as they're exactly like the old ones.”
        ...Charles F. Kettering

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        • #5
          the freshwater thing is normal. freshwater isn dense enough to make the tiny bubbles.

          Comment

          • #6
            man Edward has a godo point i over looked that, you need to raise the output pipes in order to tune it like he said.

            maybe you could raise you sump up and down? although that would be a pain, it looks like that may be your only opition at this point?

            maybe use some wood under the sump and raise it....

            Nick
            275 Gallon Envision Acrylics Tank, 70 gallon sump, BK 300 internal, Zeovit, 5 sequence darts (1 on a oceansmotions 4-way), medusa dual controller, 2 ebo jaer 250w heaters, 1/2 hp JBJ comercial chiller, 4 RO IIIs w/14k hamilitons, 4 VHOs super actinic, deltec pf500 Ca Rx, 3 reef ceramic pillar, and 1 reef ceramic mini-reef, 5 ceramic closed loop intake screen covers, with 50ish pounds of LR

            Comment

            • #7
              Well I have to admit its a best guess - but I looked at the other BK skimmer set-ups and it seemed to be about right. Since I'm pushing only 500GPH through two outputs, the water level in the skimmer body should equilibreate (sp?) close to the bottom of the "T".

              I would not imagine I'd want to run the water level below the angled part of the neck, only higher if needed. To raise the water level I will use the wedge pipes.

              I made a lot of deductions and educated guesses and was as precise as possible when drilling. This is my 5th external skimmer (ER 12-2 RC, H&S 3x1260, 2x1260 and A110) so hopefully it operates similar. But I know in the 3x1260 that produced more air than this skimmer, I kept the water level pretty high up the neck.

              But we'll see!!!

              I am running into some big time decision making on pumps. Its hard to find the perfect pump. I might do a RD on the CL - but they don't make a pump small enough for my sump return (450-550GPH).

              Also - I'm afraid there is a chance that the small red PVC will not allow 500GPH. If this is the case I can either decrease the gravity feed, or use a separate pressurized feed, which I do NOT want to do. Feeding a skimmer with overflow water always has to be the optimal goal, IMHO.

              Oh - the tank is only 150G. It will eventually go on a 225 or so.

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              • #8
                Idealy you want around 500gph for that skimmer. Not sure if you can get it with your overflow since it's not pressurized or not. You could get a larger return pump, like the RD you mentioned, then "T" off part of that to feed the skimmer.

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                • #9
                  I posted in the RC forum as well but thought I would answer here as well. Great looking set-up and I am very jealous. But as Nick can attest, that last "over" baffle may cause you problems with bubbles entering the tank. This would be the time to make any changes you may need. I don't know your designed water depth in that sump or potentially the slow 500 gph of the turnover for it may avoid the bubble issue. Just an observation on my part. Again looks very good.
                  265 gallon SPS tank. Bubble King 300 Internal, MRC CR-6 Calc Reactor. 3 400 watt 20k Helios. 90 gallon Frag tank plumbed into main display.

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                  • #10
                    LOL, loggin off for the night - here is what I just posted on RC ... (some is already mentioned in this thread but wasn't there)

                    ----

                    CAReefer - I had to change my baffle placement like 5 times during the construction of the sump due to unforeseen circumstances. This ended up being a comprimise and I think it'll be OK. I'm only running ~500GPH thru the sump so I doubt there will be a lot of bubbles. The water should shoot down into the first single baffle - bubbles will flow to the top, and across to the "under" baffle and stay at the top. I don't think there will be enough force to pull the bubbles underneath that baffle.

                    One complaint I have is that the narrow red PVC that you see coming out of the Red Dragon is too narrow. I don't know if I can get 500 non pressurized GPH thru there without backflow issues. But I'll find out this week. I think that since the recommended GPH on this RD is 300-600 (per the pump sticker) - the inlet should take 600 non pressurized GPH. It still might, we'll see. I had about 725GPH and it couldn't come close to handling it in my fresh water tests.

                    I think that Klaus will include US adapters for all further US shipments. Another recommendation I might make is to make the "T" on the riser tubes threaded. I had to cement in the red PVC tubes (the horizontal ones).

                    Will keep you posted!

                    (ps, the stickers will come off and get shredded if the Chefs lose to the Donkey's on MNF)

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Even with only 500 gph you can still get bubbles, trust me on this it treall sucks! you may want to take his advise and changes the baffles now while you can.

                      i would hate to have you go through the same problems i am right now.

                      Nick
                      275 Gallon Envision Acrylics Tank, 70 gallon sump, BK 300 internal, Zeovit, 5 sequence darts (1 on a oceansmotions 4-way), medusa dual controller, 2 ebo jaer 250w heaters, 1/2 hp JBJ comercial chiller, 4 RO IIIs w/14k hamilitons, 4 VHOs super actinic, deltec pf500 Ca Rx, 3 reef ceramic pillar, and 1 reef ceramic mini-reef, 5 ceramic closed loop intake screen covers, with 50ish pounds of LR

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        That sounds about right.. the last water compartment looks to be too tight. Make it wider and possibly taller in order to let the bubbles have more room to go up instead of through your return pump.

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          Thanks guys for the advice. I'll fire it up and see. If I have microbubbles, there are a few tricks I've learned that should help. Worst case scenario - it's a small sump and is very easily removable. My friend who built it can make some revisions or I'll just pay him to build me a new one (he's sidewinder777 on RC with the incredible 375G tank).

                          Today I'm trying a few different pumps to see if I can gravity feed this. The suction did not increase as I was hoping when I turned on the RD, which was a bummer. I think this is a design flaw. It should be able to take the same amount of non-pressurized flow as the skimmer recommends (up to 600GPH).

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Hey do you mind PMing me those tricks? at this point i am willing to try anything to fix these stupid microbubbles!

                            Nick
                            275 Gallon Envision Acrylics Tank, 70 gallon sump, BK 300 internal, Zeovit, 5 sequence darts (1 on a oceansmotions 4-way), medusa dual controller, 2 ebo jaer 250w heaters, 1/2 hp JBJ comercial chiller, 4 RO IIIs w/14k hamilitons, 4 VHOs super actinic, deltec pf500 Ca Rx, 3 reef ceramic pillar, and 1 reef ceramic mini-reef, 5 ceramic closed loop intake screen covers, with 50ish pounds of LR

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              Originally posted by nbd13
                              Hey do you mind PMing me those tricks? at this point i am willing to try anything to fix these stupid microbubbles!

                              Nick
                              Better still, David please post for all to benefit from these, thnx. Bob
                              "There might be something to this ZEOvit"

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