DIY skimmers

[sk8fun]

Hi,
I was woundering if any of you out there have built and used a DIY skimmer.
I'm want to know how well they work and if they work as well as a store bought one. Also I have a 100 gal FO tank with about 70 lbs. of live rock and was thinkig about getting a Urchic pro if building a skimmer will not work. Do you all belive this skimmer will work well for me.


TIA!!!!

 

[Iconoclast]

I can't help you with how well they work, but I wonder as well how well they do work. I am about to setup my first salt tank and am looking at a DIY Wet/Dry filter and protein skimmer.

 

[brovo2zero]

i have built 2 D.I.Y protine skimmer from the plans located on this site they stand a wopping 5 foot 9 inches tall and removes 6 cups of waste each from my 1000 gal tank a day and keeps my water cristel clear ..

it stands rite becide my tank in a custom utility cubord were i keep all other stuff like calcium reactor and nitrate reactor boath of witch are D.I.Y ..


1 x 1000 gal tank
1 x 100 gal sump tank
2 x weir over flow
2 x 1800 gal ehime inline pumps
1 x eheim 1048
3 x 800 gal power heads
3 x 40 keilo bags of white silica free sand tripple washed
125 keilos of live rock

9 x bittle sea stars
9 x blue sea stars
9 x orange/red sea starts
15 x clown anemimies
10 x brown clown fish
15 x yellow tail blue damzels
1 x football sized rock with rock anemimies
6 x spider crabs
6 x hermit crabs
15 x algae snailes
9 x turbo snailes

sea grass
micro algae various -Caulerpa racemosa,Maiden's Hair,Rhipocephalus,ciocalypta Penicillus, etc etc i wont list them all hear

i have 5 gray mangrove trees in my sump

5 x brain corals
6 x Acropora yongei
3 x Tri-color Acropora Green at the tips, with purple branches and a golden brown trunk.
6 x Neon-White Star Polyps
5 x Blue-tipped Acropora sp
8 x Red Gargonian

ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 0
ph = 8.4
temp 24 degrees c
specific gravity of 1.024

no pics at this time

 

[Mako]

I made a huge one for my 55 gallon. I used a 30 gallon plastic waste can for a sump (ie, a very tall narrow sump) so I built the skimmer as an in-sump skimmer. All PVC pipe. Not in use at the moment, I changed the tank over to native fresh/brackish.

I don't have the plans I used drawn up but it's basically this way:

Body of skimmer, 4" PVC, about 28" tall I think.

Top Neck of skimmer (where foam comes out and collects) is a 4" to 2" reducer (shaped kinda like a funnel) with the 2" neck pointing up. This was NOT cemented to the 4" body, it was designed to lift off.



Collection cup wall- Glued an 8" piece of 4" PVC to the top of the neck (the thing above) to act as the "wall" of the collection cup. Was tricky, didn't fit over the reducer right, I had to ream out the 4" PVC to make it fit over the reducer. Used PVC glue.

Tapped an exhaust line from the bottom of the collection cup to dump into a 3L soda bottle (not air tight, had to poke a pinhole in the soda bottle to allow air to vent out).

Added the Powerhead to nearly the top of the 4" PVC body, at an angle downward and also an angle sideways, to make it "vortex". Ran an air tube up into the intake of the powerhead. Sucked in a LOT of air with the water, great! (I used a Maxijet 1200).

Drilled many exhaust holes at the bottom of the 4" PVC for the water from the powerhead to exhaust from.

Sounds complex, but is quite simple!
I'll try to get a drawing done soon.