MY DIY Skimmer design...

[Salty Brother]

I want to make my own skimmer becuase of size issues and I think the way it is designed will be a lot better than the skimmers that can fit my area. This pic is all real sizes, 1 box = 1 inch. The pipe going into it is the drain pipe. There will be two rows of 1 inch holes at the bottom to let the water out. Then there are 3 wood air diffusers powered by a powerful air pump. It is all going to be made of 3inch acrylic, with the 1in at the collection cup. Is this a good design, any flaws that can be fixed? Thanks for the help!
Patrick

 

[Salty Brother]

Oh ya, forgot some minor details, it is in a 10gal sump, the line approx 14in up is the first baffle, and the wavy line above that is the water level.

 

[njp14333]

i am by no means an expert on diy skimmers but iv read one thing you might want to take into consideration. supposably if your air pump is powerful (as you say it is) and your wooden air diffusers are too small, it will cause the bubbles to be too large which will make the skimmer basically useless. so in other words you need to make sure your wooden air diffusers are "overrated" for the air pump (what size air diffuser would be appropriate is something i couldn't tell you, like i said im no expert). this also doesn't mean go out and buy a smaller air pump, because that obviously won't make the skimmer very effective either.

also, you may want to make the transistion from the skimmer neck to the cup a little smoother, or else the foam may have a difficult time getting into the cup. (it may just be the sketch that makes it look like a rought transistion, so sorry if you already know this).

 

[Salty Brother]

OK, thanks for the tip on the air diffusers, I will use the powerful pump, just get larger diffusers. But I dont get what you mean by making the transition smoother, it would just be a 3in to 1in cone, what else could I do??
Thanks for the help!

 

[njp14333]

in the pic it looks like the 1 in. tube goes about 3/4" past the end of the 3 inch cone. ideally you would want the 1 in. tube to be flush with the end of the 3 in. cone, if that makes any sense.

 

[Salty Brother]

OK, I understand what you are saying, how do you suggest I hold the collection on to the rest?

 

[njp14333]

what if you made the 1 inch tube protrude past the end of the cone only like an 1/8" instead of 3/4"? i would think that would still be enough to "lock" the cup in place, and it shouldn't be all that rough of a transistion. the only thing you might have to worry about is if your cup isn't heavy enough, the pressure from the foam might actually lift the cup off the skimmer. just make sure you build the cup out of thick acrylic and you should be good to go.

 

[Salty Brother]

Ok, I get what your saying, thanks for all the help!