Do you think this ghetto rig will skim anything?

[areze]

I gave up on having an awesome skimmer due to my complete failure at working with acrylic marginally succesfully.

so I made a big box, and a triangle trough, and popped some airstones in it and a hartford loop off the side. and you see what has emerged.

bubble size seems alright, but the flow is a little violent. I need to replumb the overflow into the skimmer directly, right now I have a eheim 1250 pumping to it, and its a bit much I think. but Im wondering if its worth going there or not, Id like to see it skim something before concerning myself with that.

bubbles seem small coming out of the stones, but some large bubbles form.

there is no neck obviously, and Im not getting much foam anyway.

anyway, should I toss this thing in the trash or give it a day or 2 to see if something changes...

as always click to make them bigger.

oh and no, there is no drain for the skimmate yet. again, before I wasted more time or materials I wanted to see it make some skimmate. plus if it overflows with bubbles or something, Id rather it not drain out to anything.

 

[HippieSmell]

It's making bubbles. I would wait for a few days.

 

[areze]

I cant figure it out, if you look at the bottom where I didnt get any photos there are infintesimal bubbles, Im talking really nice microbubbles. swaying in the current, not hardly rising at all.

then you get up towards the top and the bubbles appear huge, and their swirling all over the place. not sure why they go from nice pretty small bubbles to huge bubbles. I knew they would combine a bit, but this seems extreme. could it be the flow of the water in is just too much and the turbulance is messing with them?

 

[d.can82]

Deffinetely think the flow is too much. When little bubbles turn into big one, I think it usually points to too much turbulance. Try it with less flow and see what happens?

 

[TimberTDI]

So there is going to be no collection cup, just a drain line. I'm assuming skimate will overflow into that vee thing and just drain out. Pretty cool.

 

[areze]

yeah I think it was h20eng that did a square skimmer like this. but I think his had a stepped design and definitly looked better, also I believe he used a NW. Im using 2 air stones that are probbly too small for the air Im pushing.

I see skimmers with inches and inches of foam up into the neck, meanwhile I barely have a mm. the surface of the water is very choppy and rough from the bubbles rising to the surface very very quickly and creating updrafts.

 

[tinygiants]

areze,

I had trouble with my skimmer for a while. I could not get it dialed in. Now it is dialed in, but it functions in spurts. I start with no foam head. The bubbles just keep comming to the surface and popping. Slowly a foam head builds and it guts pushed to the cup. Then the cycle repeates. I thought my skimmer was bad until I thought about it for a while. Not every bubble can make it to the cup as skimmate. Can you imagine 35 CFH going into the cup? We would never be able to keep up with the top off. After talking to others, it is pretty standard.

In short, I would give it a few days. What can that hurt?

Dale

 

[areze]

lol my sleep patterns for one.

I had to pull the plug. long term I just cant handle the noise. project terminated.

a brand new LT15 pump will be for sale in the classifieds soon.

Ill save up and end up with a MR2 eventually I suppose. I could strap some NW to it or something, but I just dont think its worth it. I have to admit I bit off more than I could chew with the acrylic fabrication. the seams arent clean, and the bottom isnt flush(it has to be in sump, otherwise it will leak slowly).

heck, I may not be able to have a skimmer, theres no room in the sump for a skimmer at this point. no room for a external pressure rated pump either.

 

[hahnmeister]

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/101919flat_sided_skimmer.JPG

I like 1/8" plexi as well. The major problem I see with your design is the foam collector. You should make a drop-in cup or something with a higher, more gradual slope like above.

As for the Eheim, you should mount it recirculating style since it can be hard plumbed with MPT fittings on its inlet and outlet. This would allow you to run the throughput seperate and much slower for less bubbles escaping. And if the eheim is still too much, use one or two MJ1200 pumps.

PM me if you want diagrams and the like. Its really easy to do.