Design help for a protien skimmer

[plack]

Hi,

I want to build a skimmer good enoughp for a very heavily stocked 180 Gallon.

I like the silence and efficence of needlewheel and thus it will be !!

Now I am planning on sedra pumps probably 5000 model ( I also have an ehiem 1250 hanging around )

I want it to run outside of the sump !!

I'm guessing approximately Ø8" x 3FT w/2 pumps or Ø12" X 2 FT w/2 pumps-- Mesh modded. It may be square but the same area/Volume .

Recirculating ?

Anyone got any designs for this big of a unit? As far as how Tall the chamber
Should be before it narrows, and then from there how far till the top is reached?

Whats the advantages or dis-advantages of recirculating and/or different sizes. Any desighn links would be helpfull as I have only seen ones for either Ø6" Needlewheel non-recirculating or countercurrent/beckett designs.


Thanks for reading

Also if anyone has hot air welded acrylic to pvs sheet I am interested as to how that is done

Paul

 

[DonW]

Hi,

I want to build a skimmer good enoughp for a very heavily stocked 180 Gallon.

I like the silence and efficence of needlewheel and thus it will be !!

Now I am planning on sedra pumps probably 5000 model ( I also have an ehiem 1250 hanging around )

I want it to run outside of the sump !!

I'm guessing approximately Ø8" x 3FT w/2 pumps or Ø12" X 2 FT w/2 pumps-- Mesh modded. It may be square but the same area/Volume .

Recirculating ?

Anyone got any designs for this big of a unit? As far as how Tall the chamber
Should be before it narrows, and then from there how far till the top is reached?

Whats the advantages or dis-advantages of recirculating and/or different sizes. Any desighn links would be helpfull as I have only seen ones for either Ø6" Needlewheel non-recirculating or countercurrent/beckett designs.


Thanks for reading

Also if anyone has hot air welded acrylic to pvs sheet I am interested as to how that is done

Paul

Hot air welding is not easy especially two different material. The tool is expensive. You can get a elcheapo at Harborfreight but its not all that great. You can use mine if you really want to give it a shot.
Take a look at the h$s skimmers this will give you a good idea of size requirements.
If you want to run a NW skimmer external it has to be recirculating. There is nothing difficult about a skimmer. The flanges are probably the most time consuming.

Don

 

[sarmo]

check out this page www.randystacye.com. i just built the small re-circ skimmer. it went okay but i tried to use a maxijet for the re-circ pump and it doesn't have enough suction to pull in air. also i used pvc barbs and glued them in instead of uniseals. if i build again for my bigger tank, i'll use the same design but add size and get bigger re-circ pumps. i will base size on what the euroreef or other skimmers are.
have fun and good luck! PVC is cheap

 

[onehawksfan]

You can buy Euroreef modified Sedra pumps (same ones they used to use) and it's ready to rock out of the box ($250-ish). Check out Euroreef website or mod one your own.

 

[plack]

I am planning on probably using sedra pumps and mesh modding them > I am trying to get the most bang for my buck and esttmating I should have a fairly large skimmer one with 2 pumps and external !