Protein Skimmer plumbed into pressurized line

[Timothy Tom]

I would like to upgrade my protein skimmer for my 4 year old reef
tank, since I have had persistent problems with low grade nitrate, and
phosphates in the water despite low feeding levels. The problem is
that I have almost no room in the sump or the cabinet, so the other
alternative is to plumb it into a chiller line which goes into the
garage. Since all skimmers that I have seen use gravity return to the
sump, how can I do this. I figure that there must be a common method
since most fish stores I have seen have external skimmers which I
figure are also plumbed into pressurized lines.

[Phil Krasnostein]

I have not seen any skimmer that could be plumbed into a pressurised line,
because they all rely on creating a foam at atmospheric pressure, and hence
the overflow is also at atmospheric pressure.

Two possible solutions (without knowng what your system looks like):

Add a skimmer to the display tank, either airstone driven, or hang-on such
as the Red Sea Berlin type or,
run an additional circuit from the sump to an open "skimmer tank" which
would feed back skimmed water. The skimmer tank should be placed above the
sump, so that you can overflow the skimmed water, or else you will have to
run multiple pumps and level controls which would be asking for trouble.

Phil





"Timothy Tom" > wrote in message
om...
> I would like to upgrade my protein skimmer for my 4 year old reef
> tank, since I have had persistent problems with low grade nitrate, and
> phosphates in the water despite low feeding levels. The problem is
> that I have almost no room in the sump or the cabinet, so the other
> alternative is to plumb it into a chiller line which goes into the
> garage. Since all skimmers that I have seen use gravity return to the
> sump, how can I do this. I figure that there must be a common method
> since most fish stores I have seen have external skimmers which I
> figure are also plumbed into pressurized lines.