Lily Pipe to replace surface skimmer and some questions =)

[madnugget]

Hi guys,

been done a bit of searching on little pipe and found out that many said it could clear the surface scum. anyone have any experience on how effective is this compared to surface skimmer?

this is a link that i saw :YouTube- ANS Lily Pipe

i know some will reply that it would cause co2 loss due to agitation. is it significant? What about when a na reactor was used (which has high efficiency) where the co2 is dissolved in the water?

reviews also said it could reduce the water movement too. would like to hear some response about this too.. currently my 2026 outflow for my 1.5ft seems a little strong. (hooked up with chiller and reactor already) dont mind having a slower flowrate.

lastly, would to bros here to share any "ideal" position or the reason they placed their inlet and outlet. (for example inlet at back right corner and outlet at front left corner etc)

thanks~ keep the comments coming in =)

[BFG]

Yes, lily tube will produce a different type of flow, that it will slow the water flow down tremendously. As for the surface scum, it might suck the surface scum below the water surface but the surface scum might resurface. I have not used the glass lily pipe before though.

[Biotopeshop]

The lily pipe produces a vortex just below the water surface. This spinning action draws the water along with the protein downwards before it is being mixed with outlet flow. From there, the protein is broken up as water is circulated around the tank, returning back to the inlet.

At night, it is lifted up to provide aerations for the tank.

Regards

Thio

[blue33]

Due to the open mouth of the lily pipe, it slow down the flow when it throw out the water to wider surface for better distribution and at the same time the surface scum is suck down in vortex wave, causing the dilution of surface scum and somehow the surface scum disappear. As for the CO2, when those CO2 bubbles reaches the top it will be suck down by the vortex wave created, due to the design it hardly disturb the water surface. As for me i dont lift up the lily pipe in the night for aeration as the vortex wave do suck in some air. Hope this help.

[madnugget]

woahh.. looks like met what i wanted! reducing strong flow and able to break surface scum. so can i totally remove my surface skimmer? is there a certain height that it has to be in order to create a vortex that pulls the surface?

haha no one gave me reply regarding the "best" positioning of outflow and inflow..
opposite each other? at the same side??

[blue33]

look at ADA Amano tank, it tells. the neck is where it suppose to rest at the tank edge. i seen lots of people break it also.

[blue33]

Cheap surface skimmer can do the wonders also, but there are some surface skimmer in the market dont work, not every surface skimmer work actually although the design is similar. IMHO

[Biotopeshop]

In our practice, inlet and outlet are at the same side, allowing the water to flow in a full circle.

[sfk7]

Also, deadspot usually occur beneath the outflow so by placing the inflow beneath it will minimise the deadspot.

I'm using ANS lily pipe with eheim 2236 for my 2ft. The vortex doesn't remove the surface scum effectively. Got to lift it up at night to break the surface of water to effectively remove the scum.

[Shadow]

unfortunately it is not as effective as surface skimmer but then its look ugly . The lily pipe vortex is depend on the water flow, the higher the pump flowrate, the bigger the vortex.

[zonkkie]

very interesting to see the vortex work. I feed my fish mini pellets and those near the lily pipe will get sucked into a vortex before being released. Simple way to see how the water is flowing in my tank.

[reveru]

it helps if you put the lily pipe below the surface within a certain distance. i'm using the ANS lily pipe and i find that for me, the optimum distance is within 1 cm from the surface of the water to create a sizable vortex to draw in the scum on the surface.

[madnugget]

wow... seems like its not good for using with fan operated tanks, where the water level keeps getting lower everyday..

[eviltrain]

i'm going to poison you, get a chiller. its good for your mini pelia too~~

[reveru]

DIY auto top-up if you use fan, as an alternative to using a chiller.

actually, no issue even if the water level drops. lily pipe will still work. but will get noisy once the vortex starts to draw in air bubbles from the surface. a lot of gurgling noises. will still remove the surface scum though. so if you don't mind the noise when the water level dips, a lily pipe is a good investment.

[zonkkie]

ya, i use fan and lily pipe too. The gurgling sound you can think that it is like a small stream flowing, hopefully it calms more than irritates you. But I do top up water everyday.

[eviltrain]

And remember to clean the pipe at the U part. once algra grow on the inside , the water flow will decrease dramtically. Based on experience

[madnugget]

sure! thx.. i bought it already, so far so good =)

[mikeang]

Hi,

finally found the thread after I posted another just now.

Can I confirm if I really need to pull the lily pipe out at night? Or it's ok to leave it in the tank as it is? Seems quite troublesome to pull up and down on a daily basis.

Will the lily pipe help or hinder the CO2 integration into the water?

Additionally, the input and output are supposed to be on the same side of the tank, right? From what I gather, it depends on the tank setup? At the Green Chapter shop, I saw they were put at opposite ends.

Hmmm. Appreciate additional help here as always.

Thanks

Michael

[madnugget]

i didnt pull up the lily pipe. but it is sure effective in clearing surface scum..