what to do with an old Seaclone

[aaron]

Now far be it from me to bash seaclone skimmers like the countless others on this web site. I have used a sea clone in the past and found it to be a lot better than no skimmer at all. But, at this point I have a Reef Octopus which I am pretty happy with so I really didnt need the old seaclone gathering dust in the corner so I decided to put it to good use.
For those of you that dont know, I moved to Sydney last year and after a break from tanks have been finally putting together a new system. Those who know me also know that I am a bit of a tight arse, and would much prefer to DIY equipment that just open up the wallet and pay for stuff.
After discovering that phosban reactors are $80 -90 here in Australia I decided to make my own out of the discarded seaclone. so here we go:

I dont have a lot of equipment, just a dremel with a router attachment and a drill press attachment. everything else is done with hand tools.

 

[aaron]

Once I had cut the top and bottom off the skimmer I cut away the narrow internal pipe that comes up form the bottom and filled in the hole in the base with a piece of acrylic.

Next up I cut two flanges for the top out of 1/4" acrylic. I routed one (the clear one) with a narrow channel to fit the top of the skimmer body and on the other side routed a V shaped groove to seat the O ring. This same groove was repeated on the top (blue) piece of acrylic.

Once I had the two flanges I drilled and tapped holes for the 1/4" nylon thumb screws to hold the lid on and compress the o ring seal.

Sorry about the lack of detailed photos, I get so into it when I am working I forget to take any.

 

[aaron]

Next I drilled a hole in the lid and added a poly hose connector that I had ground the thread off. on the inside of the lid I pushed on a piece of 1/2" PVC pipe that goes down to the bottom of the skimmer body. I added a flange at the bottom of the pipe to disperse the water and hold a piece of filter foam in place to keep the media off the bottom of the filter.

 

[aaron]

here is a shot of the bottom showing dispersion flange and how the 1/2" PVC seats into the bottom of the old skimmer body.

 

[anthony27]

that is a awsom idea insted of trashing them like alot of us do I bet you will get better use out of it now then you did before as a skimmer

 

[jerl77]

see they are good for something nice job pics in action?