Any risk to running skimmer intake to outside?

[19Mateo83]

I see a lot of folk say they run their skimmer air intake to outside to draw in fresh air for ph reasons. Is there any down sides to this coin? Does cold air conning in over work your heater in the winter months? How about pollutants that may be in the air?

 

[ryanjohn1]

As long as your heater can handle the temp your fine. You can rig up a sort of carbon “filter” for potential pollutants

 

[CasperOe]

Not really; although you might want to consider the location so as to avoid any contaminants being sucked into your skimmer

 

[Gtinnel]

Depending on where you live and how cold it gets it can definitely cool your tank down. During most of the year I only need about 200 watts of heating on my 125g tank but once it gets cold outside I have to run around 500 watts to keep up. Like already mentioned as long as your heater can keep up with the demand then it’s not a big deal.
I have been running my airline outside for several years and contamination has never been an issue for me. I’d say a lot of it depends on how close you are to neighbors and the chances of someone spraying insecticides near your air line. I live in a relatively rural area and the worse thing that I have is smoke from someone burning a fire. I try to turn my skimmer off if I know someone is burning but I’ve never seen any negative effect from my tank when I haven’t turned it off.

 

[tsharpe291]

I see a lot of folk say they run their skimmer air intake to outside to draw in fresh air for ph reasons. Is there any down sides to this coin? Does cold air conning in over work your heater in the winter months? How about pollutants that may be in the air?

I live in north east Ohio and it gets fairly cold in the winter months and my 130 system doesn't seem to struggle with heating. hope I didn't just jinx myself

 

[Waters]

Should be fine....air heats pretty quickly once it is inside. That being said, I just run a reactor with soda ash connected to the skimmer that accomplishes the same thing without worrying about contaminants (although it does have a cost associated with it, obviously).

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

In illinois wineter my skimmer would drop my reef temp 10-20 degrees if I did not plan ahead. But I also run big Beckett skimmers. The amount of air injected , the temp differential and amount of water you are heating will all become factors. My airline has a valve to the outside that closes when outside temos get really cold

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

The 3/8” Hose is long enough the air is warmed up by the house. In a small jar placed a Layer of Filter Dacron, Layer of Charcoal and another layer of Dacron to Filter the air.