Bored! So lets design a Skimmer!

[eww]

Sounds cool Mojo. Our skimmer is available for comparison anytime you need. SWC Mini S Cone.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[mojoreef]

Sounds good, perhaps when I get back from the RAP this weekend.


Mojo

 

[ksed]

Any reason why you are going with cone?

 

[mojoreef]

I am not going with a cone, I just want to compare bubbles with a popular skimmer.

Mojo

 

[Guerry]

that looks very cool can't wait to see resualts of your side by side testing

 

[Skimmy]

Well its all kind of linked together. What is the size of the skimmer/sump section? what kind of pump are you getting?? and so on.

So if it were me and I had an old skimmer that wasnt good, or didnt have a skimmer, I would skip the whole need for a individual skimmer all together. I would instead look to convert a section (preferably the drain side 1st compartment) into a skimmer itself. If you follow the link I gave above they have a model that is only 2 1/2 x 12 inches, so you could just glue in a seperation wall in that first section to fit those diffusers and then cut a square to fit on top of it, from their you can cut out a hole to fit the neck and cup section of your old skimmer, or in your case and the need to build, lol build one to go on top. From their I would divert water directly from one of your drain lines (that way you dont have to buy any pumps) and then put an output in. From their just find a air pump that will accomodate those two diffusers??

So a hundred bucks in luft air pumps? a hundred in diffusers?? a few buck in acrylic?? I know its not 500 or 1000 but hey you could always send me the cash??? :high5:

Mojo

i think the sump chamber skimmer is a great thing....
here's a pic of one, just imagine it with nice ceramic air stones/diffusor on a manifold near the bottom.
or even with a pinwheel pump, but recirc'ed with air adjustment, and a seperate feed pump, for controlling both air and water through the skimmer.
http://www.saltwaterconnection.com/..._id=22&zenid=df9b476a16c07a6f63a0abcfaad30706

 

[Guerry]

Ok guys and gals, I orderred one of the 12"x12" air deffuses today to try in our test skimmer. I will have to change current box design once it arrives

 

[mojoreef]

Yea i was hard to do a check as I had to hold the diffuser in place while laying the tube on top. It worked but with the oils from my hands it kind of screwed up the chemistry in the water. We cranked it up on this weekend and man it put out an unbelievable amount of bubbles. Guerry I did check the channeling and you could modify the units size as long as you had a glue to replaced what your going to be bypassed.

Mojo

 

[wanareef]

So Mike, after reading all these pages that bubble plate looks promising. I've been wanting to build bean animals 6' air stone skimmer but he has yet to post the new manifold. With that new bubble plate, has started my brain going. Probably will need one of these air pumps http://c1.f3images.com/IMD/250/ES01656/Coralife-Super-Luft-Pump-SL-38-99.jpg with an output of 2.9 psi

I build this for my up-grade and am happy with the results, but now wonder if it's skimming what it's suppose to

10" cast tube, 6' neck and bubble chamber, 24" total height

I'd like to see that new bubble plate in action

 

[mojoreef]

Looks good Wana, the bottom line is to add contact time, so the ammount of time the water and air bubbles are mixing in the chamber of the skimmer. Figure that out by dividing the amount of water in the skimmer by the amount of GPH the pump is send into it.

For adding a stone I HIGHLY recommend using this line of stones

So on these stones you can use either the fat 6 inch single called the HOG or the dual HOG. The bubbles are deadly tiny and it has not top end on the amount of air.I put 4 of these in my beast and its great. They are called Micro pore air diffusers made by Deepwater. ANy of the local vedors that have an account with Sunlight can get them for ya. I got mine from Barrier.

For the air pump, yep that super luft is outstanding. it puts out 38 LPM which would be more then the 2200 dollar bubble king, with the exception that you dont need the water pump to make the air bubbles, from their all you would have to do is to feed the skimmer with a tiny power head.


Mike

 

[Guerry]

I've got to get my hands on a few those stones HInt Hint, anyway I finally took the time modify the first style deffuser we where playing with as pic shows this was a 12"x12" unit

what I needed was a 10"x10" so had to bite the bullet and say what a $100. if this doesn't work! First I taped cloth side of difuse to keep form ripping while passing threw the table saw

this worked well so next I need to reseal edges of unit, for this I used Weldon 16 which seemed to do a great job

the first skimmer box was still to small for the diffuser so built new one that could be openned for sevies or change need be

from there now that diffuser fit and could be removed I need to make new top plate

and this is the skimmer as of now, still need to finsh colection cup but thats another day

 

[Sasquatch]

Ima bit lost here? air feeds right to the membrane? how is water gating to the gate valve?

 

[Peppie]

Nice build.
I am planning a new 170, This type of skimmer is on my diy list. Thanks for jumping in and putting one together. It will save me a lot of frustration and I am sure a few $.
Ball park, what do you have into the build? ( cost wise ).

What ever it is, you could probably re-coop your cost if you would sell some of those extra tanks you have taking up valuable floor space in your garage/shop. LOL

 

[Guerry]

Ima bit lost here? air feeds right to the membrane? how is water gating to the gate valve?

The diffuser will actually sit about 3/4" lower than in pic. and flow thue the skimmer will only be around 225gph which will be supplied from overflow(one less pump to suck power)so water passing shouldn't be a problem, we'll see anyway LOL If all goes well I should beable to start testing it in the next couple of days

 

[Guerry]

Nice build.
I am planning a new 170, This type of skimmer is on my diy list. Thanks for jumping in and putting one together. It will save me a lot of frustration and I am sure a few $.
Ball park, what do you have into the build? ( cost wise ).

What ever it is, you could probably re-coop your cost if you would sell some of those extra tanks you have taking up valuable floor space in your garage/shop. LOL

thanks, right now I'd have to say around $250 for this test model

 

[wanareef]

Thanks Mike for the tip, I do have a contact that has an account w/Sunlight :whoo:
So Mike, is there a ideal position for the stones to sit? Probably just flat?

Would I still need a bubble chamber? Guessing not, since there is no heavy pump to pump the water in making a lot of current

So anymore on the test "bed"

 

[mojoreef]

On mine Wanareef I have a kind of table/plate that separates the stones from the output of the skimmer. So I put the stones right on top of that?? bottoms touching it. So far its been real good, with my air pump (which is far bigger then anyone hear needs) 100LPM the 4 stones handle it and then one stone for the ozone which is barely moving. I can tell you when I first put the layer of sand in the tank the skimmer was skimming it out, lol Kind of neat but then I had to take it apart to clean it. Ia still convinced that a $ 60.00 super luft air pump and a single or 2 stone unit would make any skimmer deadly. If you look at the numbers of air intake you could get up to 3000LPH out of this 60 dollar air pump, thats right up their with the big 2000+ dollar boys, BUT the big advantage is that you dont need that huge water pump to power it. This way you can control the water in and out of the skimmer (dwell time) with a cheap little PH (200GPH??)

The foam end product has been different also, more creamy then the sharp normal foam?? Now this could be because I have nothing in the tank and its still skimming like crazy?? not sure.


Mojo

 

[wanareef]

Mike

I'm more of a visual kind of guy - can you shoot a pix of it, please.

Always had problems with those darn word problems in math, if I can see it, I can fix it

 

[Guerry]

Ok guys I think I've got this skimmer working now, I tried the first air diffuser we were talking about and it was ok but the second style Mojo found is the ticket. The boss-Hog micro pour diffuser is where it's at. here is a couple of pic's of skimmer in action

I've been threw three air pumps so far first was an luft then an ecno 1 38lpm and now an Alita AL-15SA which is by far the best yet but have an AL-40 48lpm pump on the way to really kick it in the butt anyway here's pic of pump stand I made

and here is pic of co2 scrubber with custom backet I made, those stock backets just don't do it for me

 

[ksed]

Awesome Guerry!
Any pictures of the boss-Hog micro pore diffuser