what's the best skimmer design?

I would like to make my own skimmer. I have found 3 different ways at this point. Wouldn't mind without air pump. I want to do it the best way for my aquarium.

 

If there is no air pump- most DON't have that these days- tjhat is rare,
then it has to have a pump, with a venturi style intake to draw the air into it to make the bubbles.

Most all newer skimmer pumps have some sort of needle/brush wheel that sort of shreds the bubbles up, making them smaller.

A skimmer is a type of fractionator I think it's called- w/o googleing it.

 

There is a guy locally that built his own tower skimmer with a wood block diffuser. He thought it was the great piece of technology since the 10 speed bicycle. When I told him about the Berlin wall he started crying and was grateful the Cold War was finally over. The year was 1989.

All sarcasm aside to make an efficient smaller sized skimmer you need to have a professional acrylic shop. Cone design with a needlewheel pump is in my opinion the best design out there. Downdraft skimmers are second. You could build a decent downdraft skimmer from PVC though and incorporate an air pump or Becket modification but these tend to be far less compact than a cone/needlewheel design.

 

lol thanks

 

Not sure I understand why you want to make your own? Reef Octo makes some impressive skimmers.

But if you want to make one I hope someone can help.

 

want me to post my mspaint drawing of a downdraft skimmer?

 

So using a pump to force water down the intake tube with air (either agitated by media like bioballs or using Becket style injection) the bubbles and water mix in the large base chamber and the bubble rise up through the tower graduating to smaller and smaller bubbles before the cup, sort of like a cone, making sure you get good dryer skimate. The output on the base should have a gate valve to control the bubble level in the tower. I put a person in there to depict that you need to have a good deal of size for effectiveness, but if your filtration is in another room it doesn't matter. The pros of this type of skimmer are that they are pretty stable; Set it and forget it. The cons, extra large pump needed and size.

 

Ok that's an impressive drawing. too big I get it.

 

Well there is a bit of hyperbole in that image as well, but Scott (Grimm) has a 5ft downdraft skimmer for a 65g NPS tank build. I had a E.T.S.S skimmer for a build and swapped it out for a SRO2000xp because it was only 28 inches and I know im going to have a bigger bioload on the new 125, but still its was a big 28 inches. The taller they are the more 'stuff' they pull out.

Anyways, after everything is said and done the pvc parts may end up pretty pricey alone.