H@rry's Ghetto Skimmer

[H@rry]

I recently set up 3 large tanks in a horseshoe arrangement with a common sump. During the planning stage I was looking for a protien skimmer to handle this load. The prices were pretty steep! While I was trying to decide which one to get I happened to be in Sam's Club and noticed what they called an "3 Gallon Unbreakable Beverage Dispenser". I was impressed that it looked like a protien skimmer upside down! Being a DIY kind of person I spent $20 to give it a try.

Here's a pic of the box and the receipt.

This is the base.

This is the body.

This is the lid. (I haven't found a use for this piece)

Here's what it looks like put together.

The first step in converting this to a protien skimmer is to cut out the bottom of the body. I found a bowl that was about the right size and used it to mark a circle on the base. Actually I think the more that you can cut out the better it will probably work.

Here's a couple of shots showing how I cut the bottom out.

When it's finished it looks like this.

 

[H@rry]

Here's some plumbing fitting I bought to start the project. I already had a few and I went back and got a few more.

Now, with the Dremil tool, enlarge the hole in the side to accept the fitting. Notice that I ground the shoulder off the fitting so it will fit into the depression in the body.

I cut an 11 inch square base for the body from 1/4 inch plexiglas from Lowe's and cut a hole for the supply fitting. The reflection from the roof of the sun porch makes this shot a little confusing. I later realized that I needed to use two pumps; one to circulate the water and produce the bubbles and another one to supply the skimmer so I later cut two more holes.

I needed to raise the whole body off the bottom to allow for the fittings and tubing so I cut two "risers" from the plexiglas and attached them to the base with Weld-On.

This is how the water exits from the skimmer. The pipe is cut to be about 1/2 inch from the base.

Here it is all put together. I glued the body to the base with Weld-On. The side of the body is very thin at the edge where it was intended for the top to sit on and I managed to crack it loose on one side when I was fiddling with it. I got a tube of Epoxy and resealed the entire bead and let it dry overnight and it holds fine now.

The next thing is to provide for the air intake. I got a fitting and drilled it to accept a piece of ice maker tubing.

On the end of the ice maker tubing that will go inside the fitting, drill several small holes on only one side of the tubing. It wants to make a lot of burrs so take some time to clean all these off.

Glue the tubing into the fitting with the holes facing the intake of the pump.

I used a GenX GX4100 pump with a needle wheel impeller for the circulation pump. I forgot to take a picture of the hole that I cut in the top of the cup but you can see it in this picture. It is about 1 inch.

 

[H@rry]

Here's another shot of it put together.

I later realized that I needed two pumps. I needed one for recirculation and bubble generation and another one for the feed pump.
Here's the final configuration along with a top down shot.

This is how it looks from the bottom

This is the whole thing ready to go. The recirc pump is a GenX GX4100 with a needle wheel impeller and the feed pump is a MaxiJet 1200.

And finally, here it is in action. That's a floor tile on the top. It needs something heavy on top as the cup will want to float off when the water comes up in it. The top also keeps the spattering down. What you see around the bottom is polyester fiber. I have so much bubbles and churning from the drain pipes and the skimmer that the cabinet was getting wet. I cut a sheet of plexiglas and tried to get it to fit tightly around the skimmer but I had some cracks to fill it.

In the pictures I showed a ball valve to adjust the water height in the body but I found it very hard to make the small adjustments necessary so I changed it out with a gate valve. Now I can make micro adjustment and get it where I want it.

The footprint is about 11 x 11 but the pump sticks out about another 6 inches on one side. That probably could be eliminated with more tubing. The height is 20 inches.

 

[rarelyseriousb]

Nice idea. you could even make a bubble plate for that and recirculate the water. very inventive. cant wait to see it in action. Diy is the best.

 

[rarelyseriousb]

your post beat mine lol. so the cup is just held in place by friction? does it leak around the neck?

 

[rarelyseriousb]

sorry for all the posts. but you could take the lid and cut down the diamiter. it should then slid up the body some and create a bubble plate (after drilling holes) .

 

[H@rry]

your post beat mine lol. so the cup is just held in place by friction? does it leak around the neck?

Yes it leaks, in-sump only!

 

[TritonsGarden]

Wow that is really neat H@rry. Did you pick up an extra one for Margaritas?

Jack

 

[rarelyseriousb]

H@rry you crack me up man. I just noticed your avatar changed ha ha ha

 

[H@rry]

Wow that is really neat H@rry. Did you pick up an extra one for Margaritas?

Jack

Actually we went to Sam's one day this week and they had a big pallet display of them in the aisle. We got one to "put up". Now M@ry Ruth says we'll use it for the grandkids when they come on the weekend. I think it'll be more like Kool-Aid than Margaritas though!

 

[Yellowtang]

Looks like an oversized version of the new $1,000 cone skimmer.

JR,

 

[GSMguy]

Nice, it will work better if you just cut out that section of tube with the tiny holes in it, no need for that section it will pull more air without it. Extend the tubing 1/8" into the intake tube, as water is sucked thru the intake it will draw in air, the needle wheel will turn that into small bubbles.

If the pump doesn't draw air after removing the section in question you might need to add a simple reducer to the pump intake. Either way the result will be much better bubble density.

 

[kfennell]

Man that looks Really really nice for a cheap DIY

 

[Reef Pets]

The things that you guys come up with...... I think its awesome.

 

[JimW]

Saw this in action today. It works like a champ!

 

[Weasel1960]

Hello H@rry, I am new and looking at doing some DIY projects to stretch the budget. Your ghetto skimmer intrigues me but for some reason the pictures you posted are no longer accessible. Any chance you could repost some of the more important ones? I have already looked on line and that beverage container is still available and sold on amazon. Also after you built it how well did it work for you and what would or did you change.

 

[H@rry]

Sorry, the pics are long gone. That was 11 years ago and I can't find the pics.

The biggest problem I had was the "neck" (if you want to call it a neck" was more of a dome shape instead of a funnel shape and it was extremely hard to get the flow rate dialed in to get a dry foam. It would either flood the cup or nothing at all unless you got it just right. I have since removed it.

 

[Weasel1960]

No problem and I appreciate the reply. Thank you.

 

[H@rry]

OK, I found the pics and uploaded them to my website:
www.harrysfrags,com/images/skimmer_1.jpg

skimmer_1 through skimmer_29.

 

[Weasel1960]

Hi Harry thanks for the link unfortunately it’s not working. I did the obvious fix of replacing the , with a . but that didn’t help. I did check out your website however. Beautiful corals, will definitely keep you in mind once I get my tank that far. I plan on having a mix of softies, LPS, and SPS