Cyclist.. first I have to give me compliments to your build. Quite awesome.
Okay, I decided to throw in some of that Bio Spire and since it tells me to shut down my skimmer for 48 hours, I took the opportunity to clean and document that build, best I can anyway, since it's already built.
Okay.. so here's a picture of the skimmer completed. A roll of paper towel for size reference.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/14713622@N02/8105880112/" title="2012-10-20_09-36-00_89 by mrscheider, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8053/8105880112_46ce86e190.jpg" width="281" height="500" alt="2012-10-20_09-36-00_89"></a>
The parts list is pretty simple. A 24 inch piece of 4"ABS. These are pre cut pieces sold at Home Depot. Just make sure it's a true 90 degree cut on both ends.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/14713622@N02/8105893130/" title="2012-10-19_21-29-43_929 by mrscheider, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8049/8105893130_2ba98b1899.jpg" width="281" height="500" alt="2012-10-19_21-29-43_929"></a>
I had a piece of thin acrylic laying around so I used a band saw to cut some 4.5 inch squares. I needed a total of three of those. One as seen below was glued to the bottom of the 4 inch ABS tube. I used the ABS cement to attach it which works great to attach the ABS with the acrylic. After that, I put a bead of silicone around the outside edge. To the right in the photo you can also see the rubber 4 inch to 2 inch reducer. You'll see where that goes in a sec.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/14713622@N02/8105865959/" title="2012-10-19_21-42-27_833 by mrscheider, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8464/8105865959_81b17ee00d.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="2012-10-19_21-42-27_833"></a>
In this next photo you can see how I added the inlet (the top), the outlet (the bottom) and the airline and stone (the small grey tubing in the center of the ABS). This was allot easier than it looks. First I drill appropriate holes in the ABS. Then I used a 1 inch PVC adapter that had a male threaded end. That piece goes inside the 4 inch ABS and threads to a female threaded elbow on the outside of the ABS. I tightened this snug and again, sealed it with silicone. You can see this on inlet to the left in the photo below. Just a side note... it's easier to do this to the outlet BEFORE glueing the acrylic to the bottom of the ABS!
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/14713622@N02/8105880400/" title="2012-10-19_21-41-30_755 by mrscheider, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8327/8105880400_192755d62c.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="2012-10-19_21-41-30_755"></a>
After I had the inlet and outlets drilled and sealed I let them dry. For the inlet I used an elbow that had female threads on both ends. Seen above on the left of the ABS. I then used a male threaded hose barbed adapter to screw into the inlet and that conects to the inlet pump. For the outlet I added the 1 inch PVC so that it went to the proper height and returned the water to the sump. Buy putting the elbows on, it acts as a hook going over the edge of the sump to keep it stable when installed.
The solution for the airline was to use the ridgid tubing sold at Homedepot. It's in the aisle that has the tubing for R.O units and the water line for your refrigerator. This same aisle has the small plastic connectors for the standard air tubing we use for the air pumps. pictured below. What I did here was I threaded standard air hose through the ridgid tubing then attached the right angle adapter to the air hose.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/14713622@N02/8106051743/" title="2012-10-20_11-17-01_687 by mrscheider, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8051/8106051743_28a030dddb.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="2012-10-20_11-17-01_687"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/14713622@N02/8106051565/" title="2012-10-20_11-16-48_437 by mrscheider, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8472/8106051565_1980ca1e7b.jpg" width="281" height="500" alt="2012-10-20_11-16-48_437"></a>
On the other end, I attached the wood air stone seen above. The whole assembly is installed into the ABS and it exits the ABS through a drilled hole and then connects to a Rena 400 air pump.
For the collection cup I used a 4 inch ABS coupler readilly available as is all this stuff, at HomeDepot.
The cup was probably the trickiest and some finess is required here. Here's a pic of it below.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/14713622@N02/8105880700/" title="2012-10-19_21-40-18_747 by mrscheider, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8468/8105880700_08584fccf2.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="2012-10-19_21-40-18_747"></a>
Okay... so what I did here was with one of those three 4.5 inch acrylic squares, I traced the size of the coupler onto it and cut the acrylic on the band saw so that it would fit perfectly over the end. In order to attach the cup to the skimmer I used a piece of 2 inch ABS I had left from plumbing the tank. I started by finding the center of the acrylic, I drilled a whole at center and using a rotary tool and sanding tip I slowly worked my way out until I had a hole that would snugly accept the 2 inch piece of ABS. I cut the 2 inch ABS to about 5 inches. Half way through the coupler and enough to connect to the skimmer. I then sealed that into the cup with silicone. Here is a close up of that. Note also the drain plug I installed so that excess skimmate could escape into an external container. I basically added a barbed adapter similar to what I did on the inlet.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/14713622@N02/8105866267/" title="2012-10-19_21-40-37_481 by mrscheider, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8329/8105866267_9dc1e0e6d0.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="2012-10-19_21-40-37_481"></a>
Now the only thing left was putting it all together. which is where the rubber reducer comes in. Pictured below, the reducer accepts the 2 inch ABS extending from the bottom of the collection cup. It's then tightened into place using the hose clamp.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/14713622@N02/8105879133/" title="2012-10-19_21-38-34_605 by mrscheider, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8467/8105879133_14928e2223.jpg" width="281" height="500" alt="2012-10-19_21-38-34_605"></a>
Similiarly, the above assembly is then installed at the top of the 4 inch ABS and also tightened into place with the hose clamp and that's it!
Pump in some water, adjust to get the level right, turn on the air pump and you're in business!
It works great! In fact, I later added the 3/4 inch drain to the collection cup because it was skimming so effeciently that the skimmate was lifting the lid off the cup!
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