A little gamble that paid off

[SunnyHouTX]

Earlier this year in April, I was having a hard time getting my 450 crystal clear. So in addition to changing the set up in my Eheims and increasing the flow rate through them, I decided to drop in five 4" disc air stones powered by a Pondmaster AP20 air pump in the overflow to help skim out junk out of the water column, thinking if it didn't work as planned, I at least have the oxygenation. I had read that freshwater skimmers were being used in pond applications and I figured I had a big enough bio load for this to work. We'll after 8 months, here are the results:





Felt good seeing all the build up.

[Andrew_B]

Awesome. Do you think its doing more than skimming extra food that sits at bottom of overflow?

[SunnyHouTX]

I doubt it, too much turbulence in there for anything to settle.

[aquabee]

Nice! Way to be creative!

[SunnyHouTX]

Thanks Beena.

Andrew, just to clarify, the overflow is functional in that it sends water down to the sump so that's where food particles would end up.

[Andrew_B]

Just depends how your overflow is set up. I have a tall durso standpipe in my overflow so food that goes into the overflow, generally sinks to the bottom instead up floating up and under the drain of the standpipe and go into the sump. Powerheads are place so food rarely goes there though

[Andrew_B]

Now you just need to come up with a way for that build up to a collection container for easy disposal

[SunnyHouTX]

Just depends how your overflow is set up. I have a tall durso standpipe in my overflow so food that goes into the overflow, generally sinks to the bottom instead up floating up and under the drain of the standpipe and go into the sump. Powerheads are place so food rarely goes there though

That's where I planned ahead and lengthened the intake of the dursos down about 18“ so they'll scavenge from the bottom

[SunnyHouTX]

Now you just need to come up with a way for that build up to a collection container for easy disposal

I might set up a foam block to absorb the skimmate

[Andrew_B]

Im lazier than that... I just threw a pleco and a couple assassins down there to take care of that food