Originally Posted by
kimini
Ah, engineering... okay, then we must consider additional factors such as: pipe length, number of bends, angle of bends, amount of draw-down necessary to sink the floating ring or door in the skimmer, etc. Also, it's an over simplification to assume laminar flow. If it was true, we'd all be using cheap short compact 90-degree elbows, but we all know that they introduce flow restrictions and turbulence downstream, hence the large expensive long radius turns that are supposed to be used.
Regardless, I already know that in MY case with the amount of flow I'm running, I simply cannot plumb the skimmer into the RDF as the system stands now. I should add that the reason I considered doing so was to eliminate the second pump in order to lower the energy costs. Currently, the second pump pushes skimmer water through two SG filters, so even if there was sufficient flow into the RDF to make the skimmer work, I'd still have to eliminate the SG filters to avoid the second pump. It's an entertaining problem.