I agree. I feel like doing the same. Do you have any blueprints on this? I think reef octopus is looking at your design. LOL
Do you have any pics of your build process on this? I might actually use this until I get the skimmer I want.
Eddie Ed
Don't really have pics of it being built because I literally just threw it all together the day I laid eyes on the bottle but the bottle itself you'll understand when you see it. Most plastic bottles have little bubble feet on the bottom for stability. I just cut out those bubbles, making sure to preserve some structure and a little disc at the bottom of the bottle. Then I drilled the bottom using maybe a 1/4" bit (in hindsight, it might be better to drill before you cut off the bottle legs).
If you get a Lee's limewood airstone (hell any limewood airstone would work just as well), it comes with a little plastic plug for your airline in the chunk of wood. This is what I superglued into the hole at the bottom and attached the airline so it comes out and up the side of the bottle. Rubber bands will degrade with time so I actually supplemented it with a zip tie at the neck but there's no reason why you can't just use zip ties to secure the airline just don't pull them too tight.
For the top of the bottle I actually had to use two piece of PVC to convert the 3/4" screw top to a 1/2" barb elbow but you can probably get a one piece fix like this:
Then I used some 1/2" vinyl tubing to connect the elbow to a crystal geyser bottle I have sitting just outside my stand since I have literally no room inside the stand. For an air pump I use a regular Top Fin air pump. I read that for air stone skimmers the higher the rating of the air pump the better it'll run because there's a lot of backflow from wood airstones. I used an airline T-Fitting to utilize both ports and a check valve to make sure water can't go the other way. The pump has a dial regulating air flow but I used a 2-way control valve anyway to make finer adjustments.
That's basically it. The total list of materials:
-1 Plastic Pellegrino bottle with bubble feet cut out and hole drilled in the bottom
-2 Plastic Crystal Geyser bottles for skimmate
-3/4" FPT -> 1/2" barb elbow fitting (Home Depot kept arguing that the threads are different so it wouldn't work but it works fine for me with little to no leakage. You could probably seal it up too if you wanted)
-1/2" vinyl hose to transport skimmate
-Limewood Airstone (I used Lee's but you can use any kind really)
-Airline tubing
-Air Pump (higher the output the better)
-Airline T-Fitting to utilize both ports on the pump (OPTIONAL)
-Airline Check Valve for peace of mind
-2-Way Airline Control Valve (for air flow adjustments)
I had most of this stuff except for the barb elbow and a fresh limewood airstone so I paid maybe $10 (got the airstone two-pack so I had a replacement handy)
I'll grab more pics of the setup.
