fragmatic
retired reefer
(this was copy/paste from another thread thus you have to click the attachments to see them...)
Here are some pictures of my DIY skimmer from a old Vertex reactor. You will quickly see skimmers are NOT rocket science.
The first picture shows the whole mess skimming away. It stands at about 24" tall ...AND... was making soup within an hour of install... so much for skimmer break-in periods!
Here is a picture of the barrel showing the input from the needle pump, the bubble mass (gives an idea of bubble hang time, most IMPORTANT), the air adjustment, and you can see where I placed my exhaust.
In this picture you can see my collection pot at the top. Inside is the PVC reducer bushing with a piece of plastic florescent light tube protector for a protein riser. Clearly skimmit is flowing over the riser and into the pot. ..OK... yeah.. It clearly shows my flub up job with the heat gun..(I lived over it) . but this sucker gets it done!!! In an earlier post I think I said my collection pot was a candy container but looking at the picture I remember it was some brand of cheese fuffs... perfect! ..if you don't melt it..LOL.. The heat gun reason was to warm the round hole I cut in the bottom of the cheese puff container so it would fit the outside of the PVC reducer bushing well.... ummmh... don't do that... the polyurethane cheese puff container portions that the heat hits shrink faster than a speeding bullet...
The last picture is of my version of a skimmit collection bottle. The point of this picture is to show the needle pump inside this wing of my sump to the left of the bottle. The PVC "L" in the foreground is part of the piping from the needle pump to the skimmer barrel.
Here are some pictures of my DIY skimmer from a old Vertex reactor. You will quickly see skimmers are NOT rocket science.
The first picture shows the whole mess skimming away. It stands at about 24" tall ...AND... was making soup within an hour of install... so much for skimmer break-in periods!
Here is a picture of the barrel showing the input from the needle pump, the bubble mass (gives an idea of bubble hang time, most IMPORTANT), the air adjustment, and you can see where I placed my exhaust.
In this picture you can see my collection pot at the top. Inside is the PVC reducer bushing with a piece of plastic florescent light tube protector for a protein riser. Clearly skimmit is flowing over the riser and into the pot. ..OK... yeah.. It clearly shows my flub up job with the heat gun..(I lived over it) . but this sucker gets it done!!! In an earlier post I think I said my collection pot was a candy container but looking at the picture I remember it was some brand of cheese fuffs... perfect! ..if you don't melt it..LOL.. The heat gun reason was to warm the round hole I cut in the bottom of the cheese puff container so it would fit the outside of the PVC reducer bushing well.... ummmh... don't do that... the polyurethane cheese puff container portions that the heat hits shrink faster than a speeding bullet...
The last picture is of my version of a skimmit collection bottle. The point of this picture is to show the needle pump inside this wing of my sump to the left of the bottle. The PVC "L" in the foreground is part of the piping from the needle pump to the skimmer barrel.
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