Re-designed surface skimmer

[Paul B]

I don't have a sump but I still need to skim the surface of my tank and for many years I used this home made surface skimmer. The strainer on the bottom right side lets in some water but not enough, I let the rest of the water overflow into the top to skim the water. When the water in the device gets lower it creates more suction and more water is forced through the strainer on the side.
There is a powerhead that sucks water out of the tube on the left side and directs it to the large HOB protein skimmer then back to the tank via the algae trough. The problem is that without a sump, the water level in the tank varies a little from day to day even though I have an auto fill.
The surface usually has a film on it because this model was not automatically adjustable so sometimes the top of the unit was to deep and sometimes it was just above the water. To correct this I added a new top that is connected with floats so the top of the surface skimmer is just slightly below the water at all times so it very effectively skims the thinnest top surface film off the water. It will clear a film covering the entire top of the 6' long tank in a couple of minutes. My tank gets a film because I feed oily food every day like live worms and fish oil soaked pellets. I don't like those surface skimmers with the square teeth as they do not skim the very top surface very well.
This is the old model with the rigid top

New model with the two adjustable floats.

And how it sits in the tank skimming just the top fraction of an inch off the surface. I have been toying with this for many years and I think this prototype is perfect. If I get time I will build a better looking model.

 

[shovelrider]

Very cool and unique idea!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Yes very neat idea to solve a problem!

 

[mcarroll]

Dig it!! Nice work and nice ideas!

-Matt

P.S. What ATO are you running that allows so much daily variation?


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[Paul B]

P.S. What ATO are you running that allows so much daily variation?

It's homemade like everything else I do. It is also gravity fed with no pumps and is all automatic. The water comes from this blue bucket that is hung in my workshop about 25' from my tank. A hose goes over my ceiling and into a float valve on the tank. Water is fed to the bucket automatically from a RO then to a DI chamber. A home made float switch turns off the water valve when the bucket is full. My water level only varies slightly but I constantly remove water to hatch brine shrimp so it sometimes varies a little.

 

[GHill762]

the way it floats is like a hot tub filter (they have a built in floating surface skimmer).. I was thinking of something similar after sitting in my gf's hottub.. lol.. cool idea though, I love DIY!

 

[Paul B]

I am going to build a bio-pellet reactor. I don't need one but I think they look so cool. I may even build a large one for my living room that just because it looks so cool. But that one will have colored spheres in it just for looks. The one for my tank will be plumbed into my large skimmer so I won't need any additional pumps. It will just be an experiment like most things I do and I think I already have all the parts laying around. :wave: