Large skimmer questions

[kangadrew]

What's the largest skimmer someone has built so far?

Another question - what type of protein skimmer is the RK2 lineup? Like, how would someone go about building their own version of one of these? What type of skimmer would I have to find plans for in order to recreate one of these?

Many public aquariums run RK2s, but the five-figure asking price is going to be out of my budget for the build (it's hopefully going to be a very large touch tank with bonnethead sharks and rays for a school).

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[kangadrew]

Alright, I think I have come up with something.

The skimmer is based off of a RK2-150 protein skimmer - for reference, a RK2-25 or a RK2-50 could easily run on a 3,000+ gallon tank housing up to 4 whitetip reef sharks (this was from a post by someone in the public aquarium industry). So a 150 is a massive skimmer - that retails for about $9,500. To build this thing, it would start with a 6.5 foot high main body with an end cap on the end, made from 36" diameter PVC. Harrison Plastics is an online store that sells PVC up to 5 feet in diameter which would be more than enough to build a truly massive skimmer, like the ones used on massive public aquariums (the RK2-2000 is the largest one and it retails for about $50,000).

After the body is built, the inlet and outlet would have to be added. The inlet would be a simple PVC pipe with a ball valve or two on there for flow control. It would be connected to a 1hp pump with a venturi valve before this - Lifereef is the only company I have found that sells these on their own. The outlet would be a simple PVC pipe with a ball valve or two on it for flow, again. No need to make anything more complicated than it has to be.

Next would come the collection cup - to start, some type of acrylic cone would need to be built, and the top piece cut off for the bottleneck part of the skimmer that the bubbles spill out of (not sure of a technical name). This would be sandwiched between two polymer plates and attached to the top of the 36" diameter PVC. Note that the diameter of the collection cup is 20" and it is to be 24" in height - this is proportional to the dimensions of the RK2 skimmer of equal size.

The collection cup would be just what it sounds like - a collection cup, again nothing fancy. Made from clear acrylic tubing, 20" in diameter, 24" high. Removable. That's about all I've got.

I think I've covered pretty much everything of this except for price. This doesn't have all of the bells and whistles that the RK2's have but it's a big skimmer that does its job. Costs really break down to:

6.5' length of 36" PVC - well, a 10 foot length of 24" PVC costs about $1,000 new, so this would be the most expensive part - however you could probably make a few good connections and get a scrap piece of 36" for $500 no problem
Custom acrylic collection cup - assuming it's DIY, the acrylic would cost about $120 plus $10 for a can of some adhesive to hold it together
Your end cap for the bottom is probably going to cost about $120 (very rough estimate, I honestly don't have too much of a clue on this but that's my best guess)
PVC pipe and fittings for the inlet/outlet(s) should be given a $350 budget
Figure we will run six venturi valves on this (I am talking to Jess at LifeReef about the configuration) and that will cost about $500 for them all
The acrylic needed to build the bottleneck piece between the body and the collection cup will probably cost $60
Various nuts and bolts and plates and such to connect the acrylic bottleneck, the main body, and the collection cup will get a $50 budget
The pump is about $450

So for all of that, you're going to pay (as an estimate) $1,800 (that gives you an extra $90 in case I estimated anything wrong). That's 20% of the cost of the similarly-sized RK2, so it's not that expensive in comparison. Let me know if I have any flaws in there ;)

 

[Pepcrylic]

A 20'' X 24'' collection cup if made with acrylic is going to be way more than $120.

 

[kangadrew]

A 20'' X 24'' collection cup if made with acrylic is going to be way more than $120.

I am talking about completely DIY, meaning that you simply buy sheets of say 1/4" acrylic and bend it into the tube, the lid, and the bottom of the cup. Then you use a blowtorch and a thick metal pipe and bend it around the pipe to create the collection cup's main tube shape. Then use the bonding agent to attach the top lid and the bottom piece (after drilling a hole in the bottom piece for the bottleneck)

You could also pour acrylic resin into a mold to make the cup. Acrylic tubing in a 20" diameter is approximately $10,000 for a four foot length of it - more than the retail value of the skimmer itself. Although Jeff at Lifereef is going to give me another price quote on acrylic tubing so perhaps I can get it wholesale

Right now I am trying to create a few sketches and come up with venturi placement.

 

[hawkinsrgk]

There is a post on here called "my little monster" I think that has a very large diy skimmer. It looks to be a cheaper option

 

[kangadrew]

Is is this one?:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-diy-skimmer-pic-heavy.207557/#post-2370853

This is the only thread about a DIY skimmer that comes up (this is actually false, there is one more but it doesn't appear to be as professionally-built as this one), and it's not a venturi -the main feature I want in a skimmer, as it has been recommended to me by multiple experts in the field - including an employee at LifeReef. I will be running six venturi valves on the big skimmer (if I decide to build it) - still trying to configure those, I'm having a hard time doing that but another hour or so of playing around with it and I will probably have a good design I've settled on.

I am going to build a smaller version of this skimmer first and test it to see if it works, I'll sell it in the marketplace after I'm finished with it for the cost of materials.

In other news, I recently got another skimmer to play with - a Reef Octopus HOB-1000 Classic, going to run it on the 60 gallon reef for now instead of a turf scrubber (found it on Craigslist for free, it runs like new!)

 

[hawkinsrgk]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-protein-skimmer-for-1600gallon-system.251541/

This is it. Sorry it took so long. Took forever to find it.

 

[Pepcrylic]

That was me who built that skimmer. It worked great. I have since replaced it with a Lifereef 60''. My DIY skimmer had a bad pump and it caused the skimmer to sometimes over flow. It would run great for weeks on end and then all of a sudden it would overflow. Bubble Blaster 10000 pump. I would get salt creep in the inlet housing. Then I found that the pump would run really really fast at time , and really slow at others.
Molding acrylic is easier said than done. I molded the cone neck on that skimmer.I was able to get 2 good cones out of 5 attempts. Then getting opposing flat side for th top and bottom was no easy feat either.
I spent a lot of time building jigs.

 

[hawkinsrgk]

That was me who built that skimmer. It worked great. I have since replaced it with a Lifereef 60''. My DIY skimmer had a bad pump and it caused the skimmer to sometimes over flow. It would run great for weeks on end and then all of a sudden it would overflow. Bubble Blaster 10000 pump. I would get salt creep in the inlet housing. Then I found that the pump would run really really fast at time , and really slow at others.
Molding acrylic is easier said than done. I molded the cone neck on that skimmer.I was able to get 2 good cones out of 5 attempts. Then getting opposing flat side for th top and bottom was no easy feat either.
I spent a lot of time building jigs.

That skimmer looked absolutely awesome. You did a great job on it

 

[hawkinsrgk]

I would have thought a skimmer like that would have required a pump like the reef flow barracuda

 

[Pepcrylic]

It was enough pump and air to power the skimmer. If I were to do it again I would use the air system like the Lifereef skimmer employes

 

[AlexG]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-protein-skimmer-for-1600gallon-system.251541/

This is it. Sorry it took so long. Took forever to find it.

I am still in the process of building my skimmer for the 1600gallon system. If you were going to go bigger I would consider using an HDPE tank for the skimmer body as it is a cheaper alternative to pvc or acrylic. That's why I am using the cone bottom hdpe tank for my skimmer build. If you need clear pvc in larger diameters there is a supplier that sells by the foot called flexpvc.