DIY Skimmer Questions

reptileguy112 · Mar 8, 2015

I made a diy skimmer because I herd you need a skimmer when you are dosing with sugar and vodka so I made one. It is made of a water bottle with the bottom cut of and an air pump powering an air stone that is in the bottle. On the top a cut a hole in a little tupperware container and siliconed it to the bottle. The stone makes tons of micro bubbles but I have not had ANY skimmate after hours and haven't even had foam come out of the top. I will get pics asap. Am I doing something wrong?:squigglemouth:

reptileguy112 · Mar 8, 2015

Here is a pic. I now have a 1" thick tube with the air line in it so the water comes in at the bottom of the tank and get released at the bottom of the bottle.

reptileguy112 · Mar 8, 2015

I drew a pic.

tyler1503 · Mar 8, 2015

Skimmers are designed to have the perfect balance between water and air being pumped into them. If the balance isn't right, you won't get a decent skim mate. It's possible you need to bump up or reduce the amount of air being pumped into it.
If I were you, I would just look for a second hand factory made skimmer as opposed to DIY.
I have a limited knowledge of skimmers, so maybe someone else will chime in and be able to help you a bit better :)

reptileguy112 · Mar 8, 2015

I have seen videos of people who have done this much sloppier then me and it pulls up quite a bit of gunk. My bubbler is pretty powerful but does not have an adjuster. Anything I can do to reduce flow to see if that works?

strone · Mar 8, 2015

It's not going to collect anything for at least a few days bro. You have to give it time.

reptileguy112 · Mar 8, 2015

May I ask why it takes a few days? Does it have some sort of process with the bubbles or something?

strone · Mar 8, 2015

It has to dial in. It needs to get a slime coating inside the chamber to help collect the waste. Same goes with a 300 dollar skimmer. Just let it sit and run bro.

strone · Mar 8, 2015

I will take a pic of my skimmer for you in the morning so you can see what I'm talking about.

reptileguy112 · Mar 8, 2015

Ok, thanx for helping me figure this out strone. Also is the amount of bubbles that important to make it collect skimmate? Mine doesn't have an adjuster.

strone · Mar 8, 2015

Yes the bubbles are very important. What kind of stone are you using? You need a wooden stone for your skimmer. They create the micro bubbles you need for your skimmer to work. You can get 2 for about 6 to 8 bucks at your lfs. Even petsmart has them.

reptileguy112 · Mar 8, 2015

I know it is recommended to use a wooden one but my cement like material air stone actually makes tons of micro bubbles. I got it from my fathers work lab that has the high end stuff because they were done with the zebra mussel experiment and had some left over material. I meant is it important to has a specific amount of flow like too much bubbles because my pump is pretty strong.

strone · Mar 8, 2015

No you should be good then. For adjustment you can submerge it more or raise it up. But you don't want the bubbles to be to high when you first turn your pump on. You want to create a foam cap and let it rise.