Help - built in surface skimmer advice needed

[Andrew Butler]

I purchased the Borneo wild stainless steel skimz in a bid to make things easier to clean, do away with the separate skimmer and also make things look a bit easier on the eye - to me at least.

So I've just fitted the 'skimz' and I cannot get it to run without the filter gulping air in unless the acrylic skimmer section is in the position like below - well and truly underwater. The bottom section is open as much as it can and letting as much water through that part as possible.

The filter is a Fluval G6 which has an actual flow rate of 1000lph.

Can anyone with experience of these types of skimmers give me any advice?

I have thoughts in my head but are along the lines of the filter is too powerful for it so options would then be abandon the idea completely or drill some more holes in the bottom neither of which I like the sound of unless anyone can help?

Thanks
Andrew

 

[Andrew Butler]

So.............

I have adjustable flow on my filter but even though Fluval say it can be 'used to regulate the water flow with no harm to the motor or its components' this is infact untrue as it does damage the motor. 😡
I ran the filter temporarily with reduced flow then ramped it back up again gently and the skimmer head seemed to work; albeit a little noisy and jumpy as you can see in the video (link below to my Google photos)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/31nJFybrMQfNWZN98

I'm thinking my only option if I want to keep this is to now increase the available area of intake at the bottom and drilling the holes out a little bigger is probably the easiest option I think.
Or Maybe the less risky and costly approach would be to drill some holes in the acrylic skimz head and see if this helped first
Decisions.........................

Anyone with experience or better ideas more than welcome still!

Andrew

 

[Iain Sutherland]

No experience with Borneo but have NA stainless pipes and looking at the Borneo inlet holes they look pathetic and will block very quickly.
The NA ones have slots all the way up the pipes, id suggest making more holes and increasing the hole size. I wouldn't play with the skimmer part though as that isn't the issue.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Andrew Butler]

No experience with Borneo but have NA stainless pipes and looking at the Borneo inlet holes they look pathetic and will block very quickly.
The NA ones have slots all the way up the pipes, id suggest making more holes and increasing the hole size. I wouldn't play with the skimmer part though as that isn't the issue.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Hi Iain,
I agree the holes in the bottom section are pathetic!
I was thinking of drilling some holes in the acrylic stem of the skimmer as that part is easily replaceable too.
So long as these holes are between just under the 'air lock' part of the cup and where it meets the stainless steel do you see this causing any effect on how it works?
Andrew

 

[J@mes]

I’ve found that the skimmer (on the EA version) works best when the inlet is perfectly level. It takes some fiddling to get the flow right.

 

[Andrew Butler]

I’ve found that the skimmer (on the EA version) works best when the inlet is perfectly level. It takes some fiddling to get the flow right.

Thanks for the input James but I'm quite sure this isn't down to it being level just being unable to get the required amount of water through.
I'd like to think it is quite level though!

 

[Siege]

I run both the EA and Viv glass skimmers. If the bottom intake is blocked both pull the skim bit down just like your pictures show.

Yes agree the holes look very small. Don’t know how good your diy is (mine is crap) but can you drill them so they join up and and make more of a slot? May be easier to drill holes all over. Added benefit of more all round flow also....

 

[Andrew Butler]

I run both the EA and Viv glass skimmers. If the bottom intake is blocked both pull the skim bit down just like your pictures show.

Yes agree the holes look very small. Don’t know how good your diy is (mine is crap) but can you drill them so they join up and and make more of a slot? May be easier to drill holes all over. Added benefit of more all round flow also....

I've sent an email over to the retailer and they suggest the problem is no air under the 'swimmer' as they refer to it; if you can't see it in the photos there is infact air under there.
I'm quite sure it is down to the bottom intakes not letting in enough water so I think I'm going to have to increase the area of the bottom intakes.
Thinking enlarging the existing holes by drilling them a little bigger is the easiest step, if I need to add more holes doing that neatly would challenge most people.

One thing I'm unsure of is adding a couple of holes in the plastic swimmer stem between the bottom of the swimmer head and where it meets the stainless steel neck, just unsure of the science behind this and whether it will affect the plastic swimmer function. I can get a spare on of these if it goes wrong!

This is meant to be a premium product which is why I opted for it thinking it would function - how wrong I could be!

 

[Andrew Butler]

I tried drilling some holes in the plastic swimmer section as this is replaceable should it not fix the problem; well it didn't work and I thought maybe I should just bite the bullet and drill out the holes in the SS bottom section and void the warranty.
The strange thing is when I calculated the area of the holes in the bottom section it should have exceeded the area of the 16mm hose by 1.5 times.
I thought sod it I will have a go at making them bigger! - so I drilled them out to 2.5mm instead of just under 2mm and I think it has worked.

Holes need a little clean up


Video of it before it got dialed in a bit better but I think this is about how it should work!?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/fV3FH4jKVbuN5eUP7