DIY Skimmer test

[lawfish]

Hey all:

I finally got around to building my DIY skimmer. I set it up on my 75 gal. tank this morning to test it. Yoiks it creates quite a bit of foam. In the one picture you can see that the riser tube is completely filled with foam. After 2 hours it is already starting to remove some nasty stuff. I think that I just need to fine tune it and it will be ready to go.

Let me know what you think Colin. Any advice appreciated. Oh, for pics of the skimmer before being hooked up see my previous post.

George

 

[lawfish]

Hey all:

Follow up. Now that my DIY skimmer is broken in it is really pulling alot of gunk out of the water. It is producing nice thick dark gook at an amazing rate

 

[cthulhu77]

wow...looks like it is working quite well! any chance you could post the schematics of it?
Greg

 

[lawfish]

Hey:

I'd be happy to, but I need to sit down and lay it all out so that it would mean something. I'll try to do so and post it here in the near future. For an initial basic idea I based it on one that I saw in the reef central DIY forum.

George

 

[Colin]

Nice one!

What sort of money did it end up costing? Or what would it cost next time round now you know what you are doing?

 

[lawfish]

Hey Colin:

I think that the cost in materials is approximately $50 to $60 in acrylic and pvc fittings. Of course that is excluding the pump to run it. The nice thing about this type of skimmer is that you do not need a huge pump. I have a Via Aqua 4900 (1000 gph) on it and I have to reduce the waterflow substantially with a ball valve. I'm pretty sure that a 500 - 700 gph pump would work great so figure $40 or so for a pump.

Of course that is assuming that you have the basic tools necessary to work with acrylic sheet and tube. The main problem is getting a clean enough cut so that you can solvent weld it. I use a 10" Table saw with a triple chip blade. Many people may be able to buy pieces pre-cut to size.

Once I put together some type of instructions I'll let you know.

George

 

[Colin]

Cheers George, sounds good. And to think that would cost a good couple of hundred to buy in a shop!

Sure you could make money on it once you have it fine tuned!

C