DIY skimmer - Help

S

Stipe

New member
Hey Guys,

I started constuction on my own needle wheel skimmer. My dad gave me a 5m long 4inch clear tube. Wow, i decided to make my own skimmer. THe main problem is that i have know idea on skimemr designs and hwo a needle wheel one works. I plan it to be 21.5inch high with a 15inch body and a 4 inch collection cup. Hwo does this sounds. Heres my plan

myskimmer.jpg


My biggest problem is that i dont know how the pump part works. I will be running it on a Resum SP-3800 500gal/h pump, with a modified needle wheel. Where should i position it, middle or bottom. Also as well as the ailine intake tube i was thinkign or running an air ston infron t of the intake and for those bubbleto be sucked in and turned into even littler buttons.

what do you think, will it work, do i need a diffuser?
 
the design of the body looks good (although the pic is a little small). You certainly don't need a bubble diffuser, but it might help, just make sure you fit in as many holes as you can. you also might want to make it removable to see how the skimmer works without it. on my skimmer i made a bubble plate but decided not to use it because it didn't make a difference. about your needle wheel pump, I don't think the airsone idea is a verry good one. best to use a venturi (which is the little thing that sits infront of the pump intake that allows you to hook up an air tube). you could probably buy one that will fit that pump, check out customaquatic.com, they sell lots of different sizes. I would really suggest buying a ready made needle wheel pump. custom aquatic also sells those. the sedras are really good. as far as actually hooking up the pump to the skimmer, uniseals, would work. check out asmskimmer.com to see how those work. the last thing i wanted to say was about the outflow assembly of your skimmer. you need to make that adjustable so you can controle the amount of water that is leaving your skimmer. this will help you control the water hight in the skimmer, thus the hight of the foam and the ammount that spills over into the collection cup. you can either find away to move the outflow pipe up and down, or use a gate valve (which would probably be easier).
here's a link to my semi DIY skimmer. It works really well and yo ucould probably find answeres to allot of your questions there.
 
Sorry i will make a bigger picture skimmer.

I know what a venturi is and im planning on using one. I can get needle wheels at work but i thought a custom one would be better, cheaper too.

I can make the pipe adjustable with varius connecters added, so i can take sections off to change the size. A gate valve would be great too, hadnt thought of that :). Thould i put a gate valve to and from the skimmer?.

Is the overall dimensiosn of the skimmer good?, does it need to be any longer, shorter, etc compared to the diamiter of the pipe?.

Also i was thinking of pipe work to and from the pump to the skimmer, also i saw another site has an airline from the intake of the pump to the output of the pipe into the skimmer, this is supposed to cycle the amount of bubles and chop them up smaller.

I couldnt find your link, and im having a look at that website :).
 
you would only want to put a gate valve on the main pipe flowing out of the skimmer. Your skimmer dimmensions look good, put if you had room/ enouph pipe making it taller will increase its performance. I think what you saw on that other website is a recirculating skimmer. what that means is the pumps intake is stick in the bottom of the skimmer so it proccesses the same water over and over again which increases the dwell time and really gets the crud out of the water. the only thing about this desing is you need either another pump to power flow water through the skimmer, or you need to run a line off your overflow line from your display tank. sorry, i guess i thought to put the link to my skimmer thread in. here it is, hope it helps
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=900088
 
the "other" pump doesnt have to be a large, high output kind. Actually, i think something as cheap a maxi-jet 1200 would be great, as the longer the water stays in the skimmer, the more air contact it has.

You would use your high output pump with the needle-wheel as the recirculating pump.
 
exactly. the rule of thumb for the skimmer feed pump (the little one) is approximately 5x the total water volume of your system per houre.
 
Hey guys, i was thinking, i could do a needlewheel with a venturi on my first pump which is 550gal, then i also have a spare pump with two outlets that i could use as a recirculating pump. i was thinking, with the recirculating pump (its 3600L per hour) i could connect one outlet to the intake of the main pump and one outlet back into the skimmer.

With all this flow i think a buble plate wouldnt be bad, also with all that chopping i thing the bubles would be tiny.
Also i need help in the placement of my outputs, middle, or bottom of the skimmer? I was thinkign near bottom as the buble would have most contact with the water.

What so you think?

Also im still waitign on a answear, are my mesuarments good, or too small for that diamiter skimmer body??

Here is some pictures, hope they turned out good.
 
Dam still small, but you get the idea, in the first piic tyou can see my recirculating pump with the intake and two outputs.

Also the blue lines and arows indicate water/bubble flow
 
you want a much higher flow rate through the recirculating pump than the feed pump. This keeps water in the chamber longer, resulting in more contact time with air.
 
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