DIY Recirculating Skimmer

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
That picture skips ahead a little bit. It also is a reminder of some missing photos. The pictures of the construction of the white box (the skimmer sump) didn't survive. Anyway, it is just a plastic box. I made it using a free sheet of white acrylic that was rescued from a dumpster. The clear flange material was also free.
The gasket is cut from a camping mat ($5 at Walmart). It is closed cell foam. I've used it on other flanges and for floating food rings. It is also awsome as a vibration damper (under or around pumps).


 
This is the bubble diffuser. Notice that it has two parts...

The eggcrate part is four stacked layers. The purpose lends from wind tunnels in that it smooths out the flow of the current.

It was cut on the band saw to fit a scrap of acrylic tube...

The lower bubble plate is plastic pegboard with some extra holes drilled in it. I made it removable in case it ever needs to be cleaned (thinking about snails and small fish, etc.).


...and then I plumbed it so that it is centered in the main body.
 
And here it is installed...

Notice the plumbing. There are two inputs and two outputs. This is so I can run it as a recirculating skimmer. I don't think I will though. Tests from my needle wheel pump showed that it chops the bubbles up too small when it recirculates. Yes, I know, but the bubbles are in fact too small to remove from the water column in a timely manner. I made the sump box extra tall to help remove the bubbles.
 
Here's the plumbing inside the box. At the bottom is the two pipes with 90's pointing toward the center. These are the outputs. They are using the bubble diffuser assembly as a sort of baffle. It also helps keep the downward water flow even as it exits the reaction chamber and thus allows the air bubbles to rise better.
 
And lastly, going back to the skimmer cup, remember this picture?

...put that and this together...

...to get this.

You have to drill a two inch hole in the bottom of the cup. The cup gets glued to the top piece of the trimmed down union. Then the tube gets glued over the hole.
 
The cup and union ends up looking like this.

And then it gets topped off with a lid made using a circle with a ring glued on. The ring is slightly smaller than the circle. Its purpose is to keep the lid centered. The ring fits inside the cup and the circle rests on top of it.

(I still need to track down one more inner ring to direct the skimmate foam downward into the cup.)
 
And to finish, the shot of the completed skimmer in its new home (the tank is at least a month from completion).
 
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