My DIY universal skimmers progress

[EnderG60]

Finally got the gasket and bolts and man it takes alot of em.

Anyway Big one is up and running all be it kinda pittifully bubble wise due to the mag 5 trying to push up 6 feet and power a down draft

Gonna get some nasty water and hopfully borrow a pressure pump from work to test this thing out better befor i bring it in.

 

[lakee911]

Don't make the mistake of thinking that your skimmer sucks because it doesn't make a lot of bubbles in freshwater. Freshwater doesn't skim. Bubbles rise faster and aren't as small. Even new clean saltwater will look much better than fresh water.

Looks nice,
Jason

 

[Joshua1023]

I think it looks great. I would bet it will skim like a champ.

 

[EnderG60]

the water is kinda salted(I put my last 3 cups of salt in there) doenst vinager work well for making bubbles?

Anyway I got a bigger pump to play with this weekend.

 

[Joshua1023]

Did you test the little one yet? Maybe that pump would work better on that one and you could tell for sure if that is the problem.

 

[EnderG60]

i still have to do the gasket and bolt thing on the smaller one, and at the height that pump is pushing its only flowing about 250gph. which simply is not enough for a down draft. Either way if the downdraft doenst cut it I can always slap a venturi or beckett on it.

 

[EnderG60]

welp a bit of vinager and a mag18 seemed to do the trick

gata rework the injector for the down draft but seems to be working well.

 

[EnderG60]

ok ive run into two problems both of which i think are due to the vinager.

First off im getting some bubbles out of the skimmer, which im hoping is due to just the vinager...anyone verify that?

Second which i hope is also due to the vinager...I tried to remove the cone at the top to install the diffuser plate and it was like the rubber had welded itself to the acrylic. I actually had to crack the cone to get it off and some rubber was still stuck to the bottom flang after i got it off.

I really hope this is all due to the vinager, but just in case would it be safe in the long run to lube the gasket with something like vasoline?

 

[EnderG60]

well while the repairs to the cone dry up I decided to see how the diffuser plate works.

here is a pic of the plate on, the plate on and spaced, and the plate off

as of now im not really sure if it helps at all. While there is more turbulance with the plate off, there seems to be more small bubbles. But with it on(either spaced or not) there is much less turbulance, and fewer bubbles going down into the bottom of the skimmer but i see alot more larger bubbles and the overall foam seems worse off.

what do you think?

 

[EnderG60]

OK small update.

Got some water from work as well as some really nasty skimmate to play with, and after a few modifications to the diffuser plate(larger holes and better chamfers) everything is working nicely. Also timed the skimmer output at about 450gph which leads me to think the mag i have has a 9,5 impeller in it. So I think with a dual downdraft a good 800+ gph pressure pump, or 1200gph regular pump should work.

Also snagged a venturi from work and put it on the small one, and it works very nice as well. And picked up some silicon lub spray for the gasket which helped the gasket sticking problem, and not be toxic.

I may shorten the riser tube ontop of the cones a bit, and i think im gonna make up some injectors for the small one to compare to the down draft.

 

[EnderG60]

Welp the downdraft just didnt work so i wipped up an injector slapped it on and bam...muuuuuch better.

So im thinking a basic injector(venturi, beckett or spray) along with a needelwheel or two for recirc will be the best thing for this design. Gonna mess around with placement and such on the small one once i get the cup for it done. And FYI there is a lil bit of dripping from the coupler on the cup so a union will be installed on the rest of them.

anyway here are pics of the big one up and running

and a wopping 4 days worth of skimmate out of this 200ish gallon system.