Just bought a used ETSS for $50.00. Cleaned it up and it works great. I've never owned a beckett skimmer and has a question. When I disassembled it for cleaning, there are quite a lot of bioballs in the beckett injector shaft (Not the main chamber, but the black shaft to the main chamber). Are they supposed to be there? What's the purpose of them? Breaking down the bubbles? Breaking down large particles? or both? or none of the above?
Beckett
- Thread starter danmhippo
- Start date
Etss is not using beckett? 
I know mine is ETSS for sure, most likely a stock one too. I bought it from a local LFS as used. I guessed I was wrong from the start.
So the bioball is to break down air pulled in from the venturi? So it's an essential part of the skimmer?
I know mine is ETSS for sure, most likely a stock one too. I bought it from a local LFS as used. I guessed I was wrong from the start.
So the bioball is to break down air pulled in from the venturi? So it's an essential part of the skimmer?
Yeah, I doubt there's room for a becketts head and bio balls. What model ETSS is it? If your sure there's a Becketts head on it (BTW ETSS skimmers are downdraft skimmers) take those BB's out of that sucker.
You can put a beckets head on these skimmers but you need a pretty good size pump
What pump are you using?
You can put a beckets head on these skimmers but you need a pretty good size pump
What pump are you using?
Dan,
You can get decent performance from a ETS that has been converted to a beckett based system... but in no way confuse with a skimmer designed for a beckett. It has several design features that need to be addressed.
1) Beckett needs to be operated in a air tight chamber with a air control valve. The valve will control the bubble size. The downdraft tube is just to large of a chamber for this use. Some people have made a chamber within a chamber to address this. In my ETS skimmer that I had 1.5 inch PVC fit inside the down draft tube.
2) The output of the beckett needs to be submerged in the skimmer sump. You will see this design in all beckett based skimmers. You can not get the extremely small micro bubbles that make the water look like milk without this.
Not all beckett skimmers are tuned different than a ETS. Mine is however. My Beckett skimmer swirls the water in the contact chamber at fairly high speeds which increases contact time as bubbles don't rise vertical. Doing this requires the water level to be operated very high -- like just an inch below the collection cup. And I still get a very dry dark nasty skimmate that smells worse than anything my ETS 800 ever pulled out. PM Bullet beckett skimmers don't do this are are tuned more like a ETS skimmer.
You can get decent performance from a ETS that has been converted to a beckett based system... but in no way confuse with a skimmer designed for a beckett. It has several design features that need to be addressed.
1) Beckett needs to be operated in a air tight chamber with a air control valve. The valve will control the bubble size. The downdraft tube is just to large of a chamber for this use. Some people have made a chamber within a chamber to address this. In my ETS skimmer that I had 1.5 inch PVC fit inside the down draft tube.
2) The output of the beckett needs to be submerged in the skimmer sump. You will see this design in all beckett based skimmers. You can not get the extremely small micro bubbles that make the water look like milk without this.
Not all beckett skimmers are tuned different than a ETS. Mine is however. My Beckett skimmer swirls the water in the contact chamber at fairly high speeds which increases contact time as bubbles don't rise vertical. Doing this requires the water level to be operated very high -- like just an inch below the collection cup. And I still get a very dry dark nasty skimmate that smells worse than anything my ETS 800 ever pulled out. PM Bullet beckett skimmers don't do this are are tuned more like a ETS skimmer.
You guys are right, I looked up in ETS's site and found mine is closely resembled reef devil. Though I am not 100% certain as it looks a bit different, but the description of height and dimension generally fits. I am guessing mine is an older model thus difference in the looks of it.
If beckett requires air tight environment with valve for air input, then mine definetly does not fit into that description. So most likely, mine is down draft skimmer. Now, if it's down draft, is the bioballs still necessary?
If beckett requires air tight environment with valve for air input, then mine definetly does not fit into that description. So most likely, mine is down draft skimmer. Now, if it's down draft, is the bioballs still necessary?
The bioballs are there in the ETSS to generate the foam, if you remove them, it just won't work right, unless someone else has a better idea or replacement for the balls.
I use the older reef devil(it has a rectangular mixing chamber). There are 15 bioballs in the column driven by an Iwaki MD40R. Having some problems with it though. I have to clean the skimmer every week because of the mud building up in the neck. Maybe I need a bigger skimmer.
I use the older reef devil(it has a rectangular mixing chamber). There are 15 bioballs in the column driven by an Iwaki MD40R. Having some problems with it though. I have to clean the skimmer every week because of the mud building up in the neck. Maybe I need a bigger skimmer.
Danmhippo:
Mr durso is right on the money...these are very different skimmers and no way to confuse ETSS downdraft technology and Beckettvalves, they work slightly different, but end in a similar result (bubbles).
If you want to read about differences between these skimmers technologies check out this article. It will explain why the bioballs are present in a downdraft (and yes they are required w/ spray heads) Additonally feel free to read up on beckettvalves and their application to home aquarium skimming technology.
Lastly there are a number of DIY'es where people have upgraded their ETSS units over to beckett driven units. Here is one of the better DIY conversions complete w/ picture (bottom of the page)
frank
Mr durso is right on the money...these are very different skimmers and no way to confuse ETSS downdraft technology and Beckettvalves, they work slightly different, but end in a similar result (bubbles).
If you want to read about differences between these skimmers technologies check out this article. It will explain why the bioballs are present in a downdraft (and yes they are required w/ spray heads) Additonally feel free to read up on beckettvalves and their application to home aquarium skimming technology.
Lastly there are a number of DIY'es where people have upgraded their ETSS units over to beckett driven units. Here is one of the better DIY conversions complete w/ picture (bottom of the page)
frank
danmhippo":t616lzfx said:
Jimmy,
I hate to be a party pooper but those RD's are lousy skimmers. I used one for about 3 years and hated if. If it had the small bio balls then it didn't have the beckets mod. Home Depot has the model 1048 ( I think that's the number) Beckets head, its really easy to do but your going to need a larger pump, someting like a Mag 12
How did the magnet work out?
Mark
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