D.I.Y 6" recirc skimmer... "Halp" needed :)

[The Fragmaster]

I have been toying with the idea of a DIY recirc skimmer for quite some time now.
Well I finaly took the plunge!
I followed Randy Stacey's skimmer plans to an extent and added my own touches along with those borrowed form Eroreef skimmer designs.

The reaction chamber is 6" O.D. x 5 7/8" I.D. x 18" tall Extruded acrylic.
I used the same floor drain as described on Randy's site but I put my own little twist on it:

Since the floor drain was ment for 6" I.D. PVC and swallowed the 6" O.D. Acrylic I improvised and it turned out SWIMMINGLY !
What I did was place the cone ( "drain") wide mouth up on the floor and then set the tube in it.
I centered it up by rule and by hand the best I could then carefully reached inside witha fine tiped black marker while holding the tube in place with my right hand ( I'm a lefty !!)
and I marked the contact point all the weay around the diameter.

Then I removed the tube and measured 1/8th inch UP from my line. I then took my dremel and cut away a 1/8th" x 1/8th" lip for the tube to sit on over the antire radius. ( Very painstaking but SOO worth it !)

When I finished with that I test fit the tube and WOW! I got it on the 1st try! ( A few little reshapes needed here and there ofcourse but over all it came out very nice on the 1st try )
After I placed it on and made sure it was even I stepped back and looked at it. My 1st reaction was " dang THAt THING STICKS OUT AND HANGS OVER LIKE A SOAR THUMB !!" LOL!!
Soooooo....I then decided to cut the rest of the way through to remove the large over hang.

When I was finished shaping sanding and fitting I glued the cone on with weld on and made it water tight.
( Its not prety but it does the job nicely)

So then I was left with the daunting task of trying to find a cap for the bottom that I could make fit the 6" O.D. tube.
YEAH RIGHT !!! NOTHING I found in any hardware store would work . Out of shear desperation and lack of better ideas I thought "hey why not try and use what you have? The cut off part of the drain?" So i cleaned it up sanded it down a little and VIOLA !!

It fits like it was made for it! So now I had to think of a way to seal the LARGE hole in the bottom. LOL!!
EASY ! I used the drain cover as a pattern and layed it down over some 1/4" acylic sheet I had lying around and VIOLA !!
Fits like a glove !!

Again I used weldon to glue it and made it water tight.
Now I dont know if I want to make it removable or seal it up and clean it the best I can through the top ?
If I make it removable that will require ALOT more time and enginuity and I am almost out of all of that at the moment LOL!!!

So then I used the same plan Randy laid out for the removable collection cup, save for one thing. I went with the larger grey colored 2" I.D. Union. Why? Because I didnt like the whole
"solid white" Theme LOL! as it turns out this was a better idea.
Its easy to grab on to and require less force to twist on and off and seals up easier as a result.

 

[The Fragmaster]

So then I was left with making the collection cup.
I used the same type of cup from the same manufacturer that Randy did only I purchased two of the same cups WITH lids

I had some 4" O.D. acrylic lying around from and old point of sale bottemless skimmer that came with a Proclear Aquatics 150 pro series wet dry so I cut a 1.5" section of it off and centered and glued ( with weld on) it on the lid of the cup.

As you can see I skipped a couple processes on you where I cut out the hole for the 2 " I.d. pvc., and where I cut down the male threaded portion of the Union.
Its prety straight forward. it dosent need to be a perfect seal because the are the cup is going to be sittin gon has a large sealing surface. I traced the pipe and used a dremel with a diamond wheel.

then I cut a length of 2" pvc glued it in place inside the Union and then layed on a nice even, thick, coat of weld-on over top of the none threaded side of the union
(WITH THE FEMALE THREADED PORTION ON BEFORE HAND)

 

[The Fragmaster]

Then I cut dow the male threaded portion of the unin flush with the threads and glued it in place using weld-on on to the skimmer cone.

I also scavenged a drain niple from an old collection cup and bored it out, as well as cut it dow so it would fit flush with the intirior of the collection cup when installed and glued in place using weld-on.
It accpets 7/16th O.D. x 5/6th I.D vinyl tubing.

 

[The Fragmaster]

SO here is where I am with this thing now...........
( No capping on my basement stepps !! LOL!! )

 

[The Fragmaster]

SO any who.....

I have 1x 1 1/4" uniseal for the return to the sump/refugium and 3 x 3/4" uniseals for the suply line from the tank, as well as for the intake and return for the recirc pump.
I aslo have and will be installing, 3 x 3/4" solvent unions to the intake and return on the pump, as well as the supply line.

This little monster has a 6" O.D. x 5 7/8" I.D. x 18" tall reaction chamber with a 1 3/4" tall actual coned surface that funnels into a 7" section of 2" ID riser tube into the 5 1/8"" tall x 5" 1/8th" wide collection cup Actual hieght with lid installed is around 6" tall)
giving it an over all height of 30 1/2" inches.

Now is where the "halp me" part comes in.
What size and what brand pump should I buy for the recirc?
How should I make the venturi?
As in which method/ mod should I use?
Do I have the valve in the right spot for proper adjustment of the water level in the reaction chamber?

None of the plumbing is set and glued in place yet ( save for the 1 1/4" uniseal )and the ball valve is the only thing I could find localy.
Last but not least.....
Where would I fnd a 1 1/4" gate valve? No one has them localy

Thanks for your time and your help with this fellas !

Also a BIG BIG THANK YOU to Mr. Stacey for making our lives a little easier by posting such a great and easy design to freely copy !!

 

[The Fragmaster]

OH yeah.....

So far this is my cost with out the pump: $122.51
The pump should be around $50.00 shipped. So I figure with the gate valve ( if I get one) and the cost of the pump I will be in the $200 - $220.00 ( $170-$190 using the ball valve probably)range for a recirc skimmer that is comparable to an octopus 150 recirc ( and mine is 3.5" taller at the reaction chamber I think? So that will up the tank volume it can skim a little as well )that goes for $300.00.
Thats still a huge savings when you take shipping into account for an octo 150 recirc. (If it works LOL!!!)

 

[patedship]

How are you going to be able to tell how high how the bubbles are in the riser tube?

 

[The Fragmaster]

Peek in through the top silly

No seriously,
I will be able to tell by how much moisture the skimate contains, and how fast its comming out and be able to compensate for it.

 

[revhtree]

Awesome! I can't wait to see it in action!

 

[Azurel]

That looks great, hope it works better then anything you could have bought for $500 buck.....Can't wait to see how much it pulls.....

 

[ecotoxlady]

Looking forward to seeing this badboy running!

 

[follow3]

Hey Fragmaster,

Where did you find the original plans?
Do you have a link?

Looks awesome so far!!!

 

[The Fragmaster]

http://www.randystacye.com/diy_needle_wheel_skimmer.htm

Well I bit the bullet and decided on a GenX 2400 Needle wheel @ 633 gph.
I plan to mesh mod the impeller so this thing "should" kick some serious **** !
I am also going to make my own venturi following randy staceys quick patch design and play around with different air inlet diameters to hopefully get as close to 30-35 scfh as possible.

 

[chadfarmer]

best match for that skimmer compaired to other commercialy skimmers is the gen-x 4100, the sedra 5000, and the aquabee 2000/1


i am making a 6 series also with a quick disconnect probally going to use a ocean runner pump

 

[The Fragmaster]

Not with a mesh mod pump it isnt a good match LOL!
A GenX 4100 with a mesh mod will preoduced enough foam to fill a 55g drum in a few minutes LOL! ( Not litteraly but it will be way to much for my 2" neck &
6" diameter x 18" chamber).

We'll see how it goes though. The pump should be here by the end of the week.

 

[The Fragmaster]

Ok..... So here is where I'm at now with this little monstrosity:
( as always...no cracking on the basement steps LOL!!)

I drilled out all my inlets, outlets, and feed line.

I modified all the 3/4" unions via cutting off the excess down flush with the threads just as I did the collection cup to conserve space through length the best I could.

As you can see I went for the Euroreef design.
I like the reputation and I have seen the erformasnce those monster give so I figured I might as well try my best to copy it
since I dont have $300.0 layign around. LOL!

The 1st thing your going to notice is the stock venturi that came with the Genx-2400. Dont flame me just yet Its still in beta stage.
Then your going to notice the venturi seems to be glued to the pvc union. IT IS hehe. In efforts to keep costs minimal ( and because its an odd size) I simply deburred it and used
weld-on #16 to glued it to the union ( in the same manner as the collection cup). So far its worked out nicely.

Then your probably gonna wonder how in the heck I have the PVC union mounted to the pump outlet?
In efforts to keep costs low and (in true DIY fashion) I used what had. I simply used the largest barbed fitting that came with the pump and used my trusty dremel to cut the barb off down flush with the last step down after the barbs ( just above the nut).
Then I rounded the flats of the nut off with my dremel and VIOLA !! It fits PERFECTLY into a 3/4" solvent union!
I used my weld-on #16 again to glue it. ( I think some where before I said I used #12 but it is infact #16)

The rest is straight forward and as you see it.

Tomorow night I will give it a test run in a 13 gallon rubbermade container full of fresh saltwater and 2-3 cups of skimmate.

 

[Azurel]

That thing looks dangerous.....Can't wait to see it in action......He if it works out you may just have a new line of product....

 

[Acro76]

Looks pretty good Fragmaster!

The only thing I would change is to swap out the ball valve for a gate valve on your skimmer output... But if you don't have a problem finding the "sweet spot" of this skimmer with a ball valve, by all means keep it as is.

 

[The Fragmaster]

I haven't done the mesh mod yet, and nothing is glued yet so no worries on changing the ball valve to a gate valve yet. I just wantted to test it out with what I had 1st.

Ok so here are some pics of the trial run today.
SUCCESS !!!!

Mind you I still have not secured the bottom on so there are MASSIVE micro bubble and pressure leaks around the bottom.
Over all thouhg I am VERY please with the stock venturi as well as the over all performance thus far in its "beta" stage.

Here is a photo of some skimmate litterally minutes after turning it on. I dumped about 1/4 cup of skimmate from a seaclone 100 in there to see if it would pull any thing out right after this photo.

(You laugh.. but I swear to God pound for pound I have yet to find a skimmer that works more efficiently on my 29 than the seaclone 100. I dont know if I just lucked out and got a good one or what but it pulls out black gold fellas)

5 minutes after turning it on dumping in some skimmate and making minor adjustments....

3/4" uniseal on feed line

A peek in the top secret test tub LOL!
MICRO BUBBLES AWAY !!! I expected alot at 1st because some adjustments and permenant fixes still need to be performed yet.
AND it hasnt even broken in yet.

 

[The Fragmaster]

Outlet sample to see exactly how bad the micro bubbles actually are that are making it out of the return really are.( because the bottom isn't sealed up yet)

30 minutes worth of skimming

I am SUPER pleased with it thus far !!

And fellas I can only go by what I have now because I haven't used any other type of venturi yet but with the way I attached it this venturi ROCKS !
( I 'll get into exactly what I did in a bit)