Euro-Reef DIY clone.

[Versus]

Better order an air filter/water trap for your compressor then, if you don't all ready have one

FWIW, I bought that POS, you get what you pay for thats for sure.

well its only like 30 bucks , so as long as it lasts me doing the skimmer and kayak i dont care .. i do have a high grade heat gun but the outlet is the size of a silver dollar. and i dont have to fabricate a nozzle in risk of blowing out the gun ( dont know how well it handles back heat pressure , Blow dryers just hit the breaker from you till they are cool again, not sure if this does that ) .. ALOUGH i can use it to make my riser tube instead of doing the oven thingy.

the main problems i have right now are making nice cut circles without a router table .. I have my drill and dremel . I saw rotozips have some sort of hole cutter but it doesnt look very promising,

i want like a ruler with a suction cup on one end and a scorer on the other.

but i have not been able to locate a device like this. what do you guys use? ( 8 inch dia , cant buy hole saw bits like that locally )

-brian

 

[yettihead]

I have all my acrylic cut on a cnc router at work. The company I work doesn't mind as long as you don't take advantage of this policy too much. So far I have also had some steel pieces cut for me out of scrap on our lasers also for templates. I have also had my skimmer neck transitions cut which I formed in the oven. I am not sure what I would use if I didn't have this option. You might try a plastics shop, it might be fairly inexpensive if they let you supply the material.

 

[woowoodengy]

hey guys hope i am not hijacking.

i have a top fathom skimmer it's 6"pvc (not clear) and it's 19" tall plus riser and cup with a total hight of 24" i have a 90 gal reef and want to upgrade my skimmer.

my skimmer is ok but as all of us i want better. i dont think i get enouth bubbles.

i have a 9.5 mag t'd to go to my skimmer and refugium with ball valves to control flow. the skimmer is run external. can i add a recurculating sedra pump to make this skimmer rock like a euro reef or is there more to euro's design than that.

my idea is to get the uniseals and just mount the sedra with a needle wheel to recurculat the skimmer and still use my mag for intake.

will this work what do you guys think.

i am very handy and have lots of tool but dont want to build a skimmer untill i move and upgrade the tank and have a basment as a fishroom then i will build a huge skimmer.

any imput will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Shoestring Reefer]

hey guys hope i am not hijacking.

i have a top fathom skimmer it's 6"pvc (not clear) and it's 19" tall plus riser and cup with a total hight of 24" i have a 90 gal reef and want to upgrade my skimmer.

Yes, you're hijaking, but I have the same skimmer so I'd like to hear the answer. :lol: From what I've read, after you add the needle wheel recirc, you can go to a smaller feed pump. That extends your dwell time (ie, water stays in the skimmer longer) and helps get some of the junk that doesn't skim out so well. Just my 0.02

 

[ejamsrhere]

I have a 6' TF and thats almost exactly what I did to it. Works much better now.

 

[Shoestring Reefer]

6' tall, not 6" wide? I'm not bustin your chops, because I know they made them on the big side (I didn't think they were THAT big, but maybe...)

Where did you locate the suction and return lines for your recirc?

 

[ejamsrhere]

yea... they make them really big. Mine was a 5'... I added another 1' to view.

http://topfathom.com/top-fathom.html

 

[grreefer]

hey guys hope i am not hijacking.

i have a 9.5 mag t'd to go to my skimmer and refugium with ball valves to control flow. the skimmer is run external. can i add a recurculating sedra pump to make this skimmer rock like a euro reef or is there more to euro's design than that.

my idea is to get the uniseals and just mount the sedra with a needle wheel to recurculat the skimmer and still use my mag for intake.

will this work what do you guys think.

I think your idea to add the Sedra (maybe a 5000) as a recirc. would work great.

 

[woowoodengy]

would my idea to turn my skimmer differ from the euro reef

 

[gatohoser]

Not in performance. In structure yes. I can see it working very well. Add more sedras if you need to like they do on the bigger skimmers.

 

[ejamsrhere]

naw... don't add more sedra's... it's a bit too small of a skimmer for more

 

[woowoodengy]

what sedra do you think should i add

 

[niko5]

Sedra 5000 input is 1"...output is 3/4"
Sedra 9000 input is 1"...output is 1"
Actual measurements....not sure. I can measure mine and get pretty close, but they won't be exact.

Anyone know the input/output size of the Sedra 3500

 

[ejamsrhere]

woowoodengy - look at er's site and look at the skimmer that matches yours in size. It will say which pump

 

[SHOmuchFUN]

Just FYI... I just got my sedra 5000 and both input/output were 1"

Luckily my friend ordered an extra 1" uniseal.

 

[ejamsrhere]

thats wierd... my 5k is 1" and 3/4"


Are you talking about the outside diameter of the elbow?

 

[SHOmuchFUN]

No, I'm talking about the outlet pipe size... I needed a 1" fitting for the outlet on my 5000. It actually came with a 1" elbow from fishsupply. At least they didn't send me the wrong size fitting, not that 1" elbows are hard to come by.

But yes, it was weird. It looks like the pump is originally a 3/4" MPT threaded outlet, but for some reason, there was a fitting that screwed onto the threads that made the outlet a 1" pipe size. That fitting was glued, so it couldn't come unscrewed.

 

[ejamsrhere]

Maybe they are trying to standardize them so that they are more interchangeable with the 9k... Is the width between the ventrui end and the output the same on the 9k and the 5k?

If thats the case it would make sense.

 

[SHOmuchFUN]

I dunno... I don't have or have ever seen a 9000. I thought I had received a 9000 by mistake. I never knew the sedras were so big and heavy! It's almost as bulky as my panworld external pump!

 

[Versus]

Its actually some sort of "filler" they put over the threaded piece , if you rub your fingers across it sometimes you can still feels the threads depending on how sloppy the job was.


As for my diy project? i need a router table , badly .. Also i went through 3 4x4' sheets of acrylic today trying to make the top of the main chamber .. I should of done the sammich the acrylic method but i was stupid and trying todo it without .. anyway , the outcome is I am not going to be saving any money and could of bought a ER .. at least i have tools i didnt have before. i dont know what im going to use them for once i get done making my aquarium canopy and all but =/ ..


Oh well

Total price excluding tools and assuming i dont waste any more material .. 267.00 , and the main body is only 1 foot of 8" dia