DIY cylinder idea

[8BALL_99]

lol I'm not talking 6 foot. They don't handle 3 foot Don't get me wrong a dart or two plus a Air pump could make for a very good large skimmer. I was just pointing out that a Volcano clone might not be the way to go since some dont think they have much more then size going for them. What size tank is this for?

 

[EnderG60]

I dont remember where it is, but someone on here made a skimmer body out of fiberglass. Made a mold of half a cylinder(with cone at the top) and made two peices and put them together and ran it with two dart NW's.

Seems like the best way to make a really large round skimmer.

anyone remember who that was?

 

[One Dumm Hikk]

Meleve mentioned "fudges" skimmer being fiberglass and looking like a hot water heater.

8ball, Its not for a particular tank yet. I am still researching on the equipment and how to build it myself. The system I have in mind is going to be roughly 2,000 gallons though with the display, sump, grow out areas and some other things in it.

 

[dew2loud1]

The larger volcano's worked great when forcefed the issues were primarily with the smaller units.

Fudges skimmer is the fiberglass one, it's very well crafted, the volcano tubes were seamed and hand bent, he had someone else doing it for him.

If you're doing it by hand I'd strongly recommend doing a cone or pyramid style, that will greatly reduce the backpressure on the pumps.

If you are doing a cylinder/square etc body shoot for a 1:3 or so height to width.

If I ever get my tubes back from spazz thats what mine will be, I have 12 feet of 24" OD cast tubing and was going to flange them in two foot pieces to experiment with 24"x48" and 24"x72"

Either way unless using the pyramid cone, plan on forcefeeding, I'll be using a forcefed laguna 4200 for mine.

 

[mavgi]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14155180#post14155180 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by One Dumm Hikk
Meleve mentioned "fudges" skimmer being fiberglass and looking like a hot water heater.

8ball, Its not for a particular tank yet. I am still researching on the equipment and how to build it myself. The system I have in mind is going to be roughly 2,000 gallons though with the display, sump, grow out areas and some other things in it.

I didn't know that you talk about 2000 Gallon , i thought it was for your 2 tank 120 & 90 .

Imo go with 24-28" body (24" diameter) no more than you can use few lagunas that will handle it very good without use any air pump or make big con like the one i did .

 

[coralfragger101]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14151346#post14151346 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 8BALL_99
<clip> Even the Reeflo skimmers with their much smaller bodies don't pull all that much air.

Sorry - Not trying to thread jack you but DANG IT!

My Orca 200 will arrive tomorrow.
Don't tell me I just made a mistake.

 

[One Dumm Hikk]

dew2loud, force feeding was always the only option to me unless it was less than 48" tall because of the head pressure associated with it. The idea you have of making it 24" sections is what I am wanting to do as well so that I can experiment with the height and see what works best height wise. If it ends up that 48" works better than 72", I could always build two skimmers at 48" tall. I want to try to do the same kind of thing with 12-16" tubes to experiment on a skimmer design for my 120G tank.

mavgi, I read it in my PM and meant to reply but didn't. The 90 was given away (need to correct that). The 120 is an island style tank that is not set up right now because of me having back surgery in 10 days or so (Jan 26). As it is right now, I only have a 75 thats a friends that has all my livestock in it.

The entire setup is being planned and me going through different parts of it and getting it mostly together in my head. In reality, its probably going to be my Xmas present to myself this year or maybe even next year depending on funds, surgery recovery, and my general health situation.

With trying to make tubes such a pain and not really needing to see in the body, I have considered just using 24" PVC pipe. I can get it for 55 dollars a foot. The only major drawback is that I have to buy it in 20 foot sections locally to get it. I could build just one 24" clear section at the bottom to see the bubble plate area and then go up from there with PVC pipe.

 

[One Dumm Hikk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14155798#post14155798 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralfragger101
Sorry - Not trying to thread jack you but DANG IT!

My Orca 200 will arrive tomorrow.
Don't tell me I just made a mistake.

No apologies. Anything to do with skimmers, designs, pumps, etc. can never be off-topic to me. And, knowing if there is an issue with an Orca 200 will tell me what to avoid on mine


I did just have another thought and am curious what people think. I sent James (Acrylics) a PM and he posted in one of the other threads that when you roll the acrylic that the ends where they join up want to tend to stay straight and not roll on around for you. Then to glue them you have to put them under tension to get them to meet up. So, it got me to wondering.

Can you take and make a 55-60% circle where you are making half the cylinder plus a few inches. Curve it, let it cool and set. Then trim it back to a half cylinder, then glue them together? Or, glue a flange on it and then have 2 half circles that bolted together to form a circle?
I think that may be the technique that Spazz used but I don't know.

 

[One Dumm Hikk]

Bump. No other ideas?