Another DIY skimmer questions

[Tim224DT]

Hello, I have been wanting to get a new skimmer for a while now but cant afford a new one. So i have decided to possibly build a skimmer for my 72 gallon FOWLR tank. What size pump should i use for this? Is there any comments as far as the design of it taller, shorter, smaller??

Thanks for your help!

Tim

[wharyat]

Looks good to me; mag 7-12 would be good.

Is that a DIY venturi? If so, it works best placed before the pump.

[Tim224DT]

Originally Posted by wharyat

Looks good to me; mag 7-12 would be good.

Is that a DIY venturi? If so, it works best placed before the pump.

Ok so make the mag inline use and then before the pipe runs into the pump put the venturi?

Tim

[Tim224DT]

If i were to make it 3" wide vs 4" wide would that make it that much worse? Or would it skim close to the same? In other words would it be better to make it 3" wide?

Tim

[wharyat]

I would stay away from 3 inches; mine is that size and I had to add a second reaction chamber to stop all the microbubbles. 4" also gives you a bit more volume allowing longer contact time. One thing I noticed in the design, you will want to add another pipe sealed on the bottom, over the return pipe (pic attached); this will also help with mbubbles; Geoff's triple pass design.

[Loverotties]

4" is better!

[Tim224DT]

Ok thanks guys, I will do some more reading on designs and stuff and i will post a new picture of what i might build in the next few days. I need to get AutoCad program to draw these things better with. As of right now im just stuck with MS Paint.


Tim

[wharyat]

Oh I forgot; yes, the venturi needs to be threaded directly on the pump's input, or you won't have much if any bubble production.

[Tim224DT]

another question is it better to have a swirl motion with the water in the chamber or just make the input kinda like a backpak skimmer is just dumps the water in. Did that make since?

Tim

[wharyat]

I have tried both, putting a 90 degree elbo pointing against the side and creating a vortex, and just dumping it in with no specific flow in mind; the swirling effect seemed to work a little better, and that's now how I run mine. Really a rather miniscule difference.

[Tim224DT]

Originally Posted by wharyat

I have tried both, putting a 90 degree elbo pointing against the side and creating a vortex, and just dumping it in with no specific flow in mind; the swirling effect seemed to work a little better, and that's now how I run mine. Really a rather miniscule difference.

Ok thanks. I will keep that in mind with making it a vortex(swirling) design.


Tim

[Tim224DT]

Ok i did some changes to the look of the skimmer. Tell me the pros and cons of this design. The water inside the chamber will be like a vortec or a swirling effect. The bottom will be sealed with a fixed plug made out of PVC that HD sells. One question that i have is how do you get the inlet and outlet pipe to seal to the 4" chamber without leaking or breaking the seal? Is there some kind of gel glue that i can use to seal it? Should the inlet be lower or higher or is it ok about 1/2 up the chamber?


Tim

[wharyat]

To get an input and output I used a hole saw the same size as the outside diameter of the pipe being used, then used pvc (liberally) and it seals great. But I would use some uniseals instead, easier and less permanent.

I would keep the input towards the bottom of the skimmer, and make the third pass pipe longer, up to the bottom of the elbow of the return pipe.

[wharyat]

Roger has a 24" skimmer; here is his thread containing some pics.

[Tim224DT]

OK how kinda like this design then? S just plain PVC glue works well? I was planing on using a hole saw to cut my holes in the chamber. So just cut the holes put the pipe in the chamber and use PCV glue to glue it an it will work then.


Tim