Protein Skimmer help

[AzeX]

Hey, I've recently have been lookin into DIYin a skimmer and had a few questions.

I plan to follow this plan

I was wondering, for the return side, I need a pump there as well right? It won't be gravity fed to my tank since I plan this skimmer to be hang on back style.

If so, should both pumps be the same basically?(same GPH, head pressure thing..)

What should be the GPH overall for this skimmer? I read somewhere 1-1.5 turn over of your tank volume.

Pump suggestions? I've been looking at Quiet Ones, they look pretty awesome.

Any suggestions or ideas to modify this design?

(I plan to make this skimmer almost as tall as my tank, which is about 18 inches high) This is for a 29 Gallon tank

any help is appreciated, thanks

 

[Rborgia]

Are you saying you would like to use 2 pumps? one feed and one return? if thats the case then things will be really tricky! I haven't seen that done and not sure of you can get both to pump the correct amount to keep a steady flow without increasing/decreasing the water level in the skimmer.


Since you want to make this a HOB then you would use a brack at the bottom of the return line and hang the return pipe into the tank. You will probably end up with bubbles for a while, until the skimmer is broken in.

This is basically the same system Lifereef uses.

picture from Lifereefs webiste.

Rich

 

[pmui]

The plans you have is for one that's inline to a sump.

The use of 2 pump is going to be a PITA, to try and get them to pump equally is almost impossible. I would not put a pump on the return side.

As you can see in Rich's skimmer the return water is te overflow pressure from the input pump.

 

[AzeX]

Ah i see thanks. I didn't want to run 2 pumps, but lookin at those plan, I couldn't help but wonder why would the water go through the return line when it can just overflow the cup or something lol. But seein a real skimmer with the design I'd say its a safe bet.

What GPH pump should I use? is 200ish to much? I wanna get one of those Quiet One pumps, there pretty cool.

 

[pmui]

a small pump will work. You mention it's for a 29gal. tank, I would imagine a maxijet 400 or 900(powerhead) will be sufficient.

Peter

 

[pmui]

i just notice on the plan it's venturi driven. That means you need a decent size pump. A QUIET one pump will work better than the powerhead.

 

[Rborgia]

What size skimmer are you building? The one pictured is 24" (h) and about 6"(w) and Lifereef sends a mag9.5 standard with those(950gph). Obviously you wont need a skimmer that big (it is rated to 180 or 200 gal). but since you are doing venturi, you definately want a powerful pump. If you are concerned about the return flow, you could always increase the size of the return pipe and put a valve on it, if 1" isn't enough then you are stuck with it.

But.. I run a Lifereef SVS24 (similar to what is shown) and I use a mag 9.5 and I have the valve 1/2 way closed. I doubt you will have any issues.

Rich

 

[AzeX]

Its basically a carbon copy of that plan up there, but I decided to go free standing. Unfortunately, the "stand" that my tank is on is a cabinet so I can store things under there. I don't want this skimmer taller then my tank either lol theres enough equipment on the table. I would probably have the skimmer 24" tall though. Tank is 18" and the canopy is about 6-7". I plan to use a Quiet One 1200 (originally I was going to get Quiet One 3000, but I think thats a little overkill for my tank) Its not heavily stocked...yet.

You guys think Quiet One 1200 is good enough? Has a rated GPH of 296 and max head 6.1 ft. and I plan to run it in-line.

You guys have any suggestion for changing anything from that plan? I was thinking making the inner tube's diameter bigger so I can kind of "spin" the water as it rises the the inner tube.

 

[Manny]

I had a venturi on my hang on skimmer and it worked fine. I took it off and added an air pump with an air stone and it kicks ass!

Good luck!

 

[Tonyscoots84]

if you want to do a diy skimmer speak to aaron. he made a really nice skimmer.

 

[spykes]

Hey, I've recently have been lookin into DIYin a skimmer and had a few questions.

I plan to follow this plan

I was wondering, for the return side, I need a pump there as well right? It won't be gravity fed to my tank since I plan this skimmer to be hang on back style.

If so, should both pumps be the same basically?(same GPH, head pressure thing..)

What should be the GPH overall for this skimmer? I read somewhere 1-1.5 turn over of your tank volume.

Pump suggestions? I've been looking at Quiet Ones, they look pretty awesome.

Any suggestions or ideas to modify this design?

(I plan to make this skimmer almost as tall as my tank, which is about 18 inches high) This is for a 29 Gallon tank

any help is appreciated, thanks

for the price of the parts + the tools (assuming you dont have all the tools and knowledge) you would spend more money making a skimmer cracking the acrylic and making imperfect gluing rather then just buying a coralife super skimmer. the pumps and everything to run these venturi style skimmers take alot more money and not efficent. There is alot of math in creating a skimmer, dwell time etc... you need to just buy a skimmer.

 

[AzeX]

That I understand. But i just love to make stuff and would rather spend more money making it then buying one. But thanks for your opinion =)

Also something else came to mind and was wondering if this works. I thought of trying to combine a downdraft style skimmer with a Venturi Valve right before the injector spraying at the baffle balls, you guys think this works?

 

[cali_reef]

combine a downdraft style skimmer with a Venturi Valve right before the injector spraying at the baffle balls, you guys think this works?

Nope.. foaming water have no pressure to be effective on bio balls.

 

[aaron]

I made a recirculating skimmer recently which is my most successful to date. It is by no means perfect though, and i am continuing to tweek the design to get it to work as efficiently as possible. while skimmers appear to be very simple there is a lot of science that goes into their design. I have made a number of dud skimmers before this one. My advice, if you want to make your own skimmer is find a frined or someone on this board with a skimmer you like and copy it as closely as you can. this should help to ensure you end up with a useable skimmer and not a costly learning experience.

 

[AzeX]

lol yea thats true. Thanks for the advice.

My plan atm is a skimmer thats 6" in diameter and possibly 18" high foam reactor chamber. The Mag 5 I want to use will pull water from an overflow box I plan to DIY as well. It will feed from the top and using a 45 degree pipe, point it downward, making a downward circulating current. I copied that idea from a site which I don't the address either This is a stand alone skimmer to sit next to the tank. The current problem I have is finding the acrylic tube for the foaming chamber.

Most of the online sites want me to buy 6' in length of there tube and thats WAY to much for me. I went to the Home Depot in Flushing and asked for Acrylic Tube and they don't even know what I was talking about. The guy pointed me to the lighting section...

Where do you guys get your tubing?

Also, will going smaller in diameter really hurt that much? I was thinking 4-5 inch really. Also, I'm worried whether the return will be enough. The return is 3/4" pvc piping and needs to pump the water up 18" to my tank. Not sure if it can do that or not.

 

[aaron]

You can buy 6" tubing cut to length at Plastics world on Canal street, though i warn you now its not cheap, especially if you want the stronger cast acrylic rather than the cheaper extruded kind. Also I think you'lll find going down to 5" will significantly lower the cost of the tube.
A lot of guys bought their acrylic tube from Canal plastics which went out of business about a year ago (their prices were more reasonable than PW) - there was a bit of a feeding frenzy down there though i havent seen too many finished skimmers being shown on the board.