Mojo~'s DIY Skimmer Build

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mojo~

mojo~

Skimmer Guy
OK OK, No I am not out to make skimmers. But I am going to make myself two skimmers. One cone and one cylinder.
I have had so many skimmers and now its time to make my own and bring all the things i like into one. Well the best I can with the tools available.

Still not sure of everything but I do have some drawing done up on cad. most pretty rough as I will have to see what I can do with my imagination yet.

Well just for fun I thought I would see if I could make a bubble plate before I went further. I actually already ordered some acrlyic and pvc to make this thing. It will be heavy. 1/4 cast body on the cylidner skimmer with 3/8 inch base and lid plates.
The cylinder skimmer will be 6 inch body. The cone will be 8 inch base.
um lol here is the bubble plate sample.

0_IMAGE_146.jpg



Gotta start somewhere. tHe actual bubble plate will be made from 1/2 in cell cast.
 
before you doing the bubble diffuser :
1.what are the pumps you plan to mod on those skimmer
2. what the neck size you plan on those skimmer
3. what is the height of the skimmer boody
4.Ricric or In sump style

as for the bubble diffuser leave it for the end since you will may need to make more holes or use different column height.... you want to test the skimmer without it and then to play with that as needed

good luck:D
 
Oh I have thought about all that. I just made one just see how it would look. But to answer some of your questions.
Being the skimmers is for my 57g rimless. I plan on somthing between 700 and 1000 lph. So either a tunze hydro or aATB mini airstar.

Neck will be around 4" +- .25 ish depending onpump.
The cyclinder will be around 12 inches. I know it seems short but overall it will have more reaction area than most popular skimmers in this size range.

and in sump for sure. No recirc for me. Just never been a fan.
 
But I will make several plates when said and done. I have measurements from other skimmers that pull this much air and water. I have a pretty good idea what I will need to do to get it to work. If nothing else I can hop on the phone and maybe some friends I have made here can help me out. Its pretty nice having people like Victor (ATB),Jeremy (premium Aquatics) Jon (Warner MArine). And I am sure I could call others lie Jeff from MS as well if I have some question s . all very knowledgable. Really makes a project like this kinda fun and informative.
 
I did make a drawing on Cad. I took a picture with my phone.I can post a pic. its kinda hard to see. But right now I am waiting for the stock to show up. I still need to get the acrylic for the neck. Well if nothing else it will make one heck of a paper weight. Should be a heavy skimmer. lol.
 
Well here is a picture of the transition plans for the PVC neck transition. This will be made out solid pvc block. Side view
0_IMAGE_144-1.jpg
 
The Lip on top for the 4 in neck is 1/4 in . THis allows for the nick to fit in there and make for a smooth transition.
 
For those of you who have a hard time visualizing it wil look similar to this but the one I am building is a little thicker/taller
P1000145-1.jpg
 
If you can melt piece for acrylic to make a Con funnel straight one it will be better . there is some few post here how ppl did them it's easy and will work better than the one you want to do, also try to make it at least 4"-5" high

as for the neck i was recommend to go with 4.5" ID since the skimmer body to short and you will need a wider neck to deal with bubble size....or if you already got the tubes... do not cut the neck yet ..... i believe that 10-12" length will work good but the best is to try the all tube and to see where is the bubble start braking when you run the skimmer this will give you good idea what the size of the neck need to be when it's run with the pump you decide, like that you will be sure no issue with flood , it will help you to control better on the bubble size and will give you the correct point where to cut it when you want to skim dry or wet...

the bubble diffuser will help you to control on the pump air and flow .... but if you wll build the skimmer and test it as i said you will see that you will not use the bubble diffuser since the skimming performance will be alot better.
 
I thought about not using a bubble plate but more of a inner cone kinda like the super marine skimmers do with a bubble plate. I ll have to test it out and see. I want to be able to take it apart as I make changes. We will see how it turns out. I am actually making two skimmers so it will be interesting. Once cylinder and one full cone.
 
you can make them removable it's not big deal use one ring for the skimmer base and plate for the bottom with O ring between and you done.If you will go with funnel con on the cylinder body you will see that it will perform almost the same. and yes as for bubble diffuser ppl lock on that but truly is killing the performance ....turbulence not effect on skimming performance if you mod the skimmer right.... when you will do the test you will see that i am right about that.... this toy without bubble diffuser perform twice better than with the diffuser....



<center><
PIC_0011.jpg
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so is that a dyi cone you made? looks good. Looks like you would get microbubbles as low as the air mmixture is.
 
Yes it build form 3/8" cast acrylic and i got 3 of them , no issue with any micro bubble when they run correct. also it's depend on feeding to.... here is another one smaller run under my tank :14½" Base x 34"Height x 6.5" Neck Diameter feed from 300GPH up to 900GPH (now feed with 900GPH) pull from Minimum 40LPM and can handle 75LPM no prblem with micro bubble unless feeding and breaking back again.you can see it run with the bubble diffuser without it is perform better also it's Ricric Style to. Hope to have some time to test on them also DC pump that i got to compare performance.


<center><center>
PIC_0239.jpg
 
ok more parts came in today. I got some starboard to play with. And I got my cylinder body today as well. I also got the PVC block to make the neck transition. The parts are coming in.
 
Alright just a quick update.
Here is a parts list that I have and the machining starts this week.
6" cell cast tube 16" long 1/4 thick $35
5" tube 12 in long $9
4.5" tube 12 in long $8
4" tube 12 in long $7
3/8 thick black starboard $15
3/8 thick grey pvc $10
2 inch thick 10x10 pvc block $80

Ill take a pic when I get a chance of the materials I have gotten so far.
Should start coming together later in the week.
 
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