Skimmer - Question help me please.

Hehe thanks .This hobby from year to year is comming more popular . We have like 2-3 good forums like this one .I dont know what means LFS but online shopping is good , we dont got that big prices but the normal shoops are in few big cities and people from other cities need to buy online.

Your Bohhun

 

thanks Bohhun - LFS - means local fish shop

we are going to be asking you to post pictures of your set up in the show off your fish tank section

good to have you on this site

Steve

 

I dont got good camera to make fotos but latter i'll try and if they will look well i'll post them.

Your Bohhun

 

I have not built this yet but its something I have toyed with for a few weeks now. It may need some modifications but it should, in theory, work as its designed. Won't be a bubble king but it will pull skimmate out of the water. You could easily use 3" and 2" instead of 2" and 1" pipe also. It will just cost a little more for materials.

Materials needed:

2" (50mm) PVC pipe 24"(60cm) long
1 2"(50mm) Cap Fitting
1" (25mm) PVC pipe 6"(15cm) long
2 reducers to go from the 25mm to the 50mm pipe.
One air pump.
Several air stones.
Air line to go from pump to the stones.

Cut the 2" pipe to 18" and 6".
Put the first adapater on top of the 18" long 2" pipe.
Insert the 1" pipe.
Take a dremel (or any other tool that will do it) and remove the lip from the inside of the second adapter. There is a small ring that stops the 1" pipe from sliding through. Remove it.
Now, place the adapter on the 1" pipe turned the opposite way of the first one.
Put the 6" piece of 2" pipe in the second adapter. The second piece of 2" PVC should extend higher than the first piece of pipe and the end of it cut on a 45 degree angle.
Put the cap on the top piece of 2" pipe. The cap should sit almost directly on top of the 1" pipe.Do NOT glue the cap on, you will need to remove it to clean it out. On the side of the cap where the 45 is, drill holes in it. As many as you can but stay behind the 45. The holes do two things. It lets the air escape and it lets you see in the "cup". You want to stay behind the 45 so that air can get out but the skimmate won't go out the top. At least not easily.

What you should end up with should be something similar to this crappy drawing I made in MSPaint:



In the drawing:
Red: 2" PVC pipe
Orange: 2" x 1" adapter. The adapter may be flat instead of a "bell" shape but it doesn't matter.
Blue: 2" Cap with the holes behind the 45 degree angle on the 1".
Green: 1" PVC pipe with a 45 degree top on it.
That brownish looking would, hopefully, be your skimmate.

You will have to be creative and come up with a way to hang this on the inside of the tank, against the glass. You will need to be able to raise and lower the body of the skimmer. Its how you adjust how wet or dry its going to skim.

The airstones will simply go at the bottom of the tube and that's it. The air will pull water up into the pipe and get the proteins with it.

As you raise/lower the body of the skimmer, the water level inside will change and thats how you adjust how wet or dry it skims.

If you decide to build something like this, please post pictures of it and a build thread. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

If you decide not to build one like this because of materials or any other reason, let me know. I have some more crazy ideas in my head on how to DIY a skimmer with things around the house, depending on what you have around the house

 

More notes:

The 2" PVC pipe that is on the bottom, should be cut so that the center of the two couplings are about an inch or so below the water line in the tank. In the original I said leave it at 18" but that won't work on a 20G tank. It will be too tall out of the water for an air stone skimmer without a feed pump. How long that ends up being is something you will have to figure out. It depends on the fittings, the water depth you keep your tank so I can't tell you how long it needs to be.

The length of the 1" pipe is something you will end up having to experiment with. The 6" is probably going to be too long but start with it too long and you can shorten it. Its easier to shorten pipe than stretch it out

 

Thank you ill try to make it in weekend :] if it will looks nice i'll post pictures

 

did you check the links i posted? I almost built one of the injection ones but had trouble buying round acrylic for a decent price. also don't use a air stone try to get a wooden air diffuser as they put out better micro bubbles, i had tryed different air stones when i modded my seaclone.
either way good luck!

 

I checked them but i dont got sump so i wont have any place to put them.And this one with airstone "Skimmer Design 101" i maked something like this but it didnt work

 

ahh, yeh definatly try an woodon air diffusor. I could never get the stone ones to work(you want the bubbles to be small). I found some at petco that where made for nano skimmers.

 

I'll try do this this week and in next week i'll order wooden air diffusors