Mame "clone" skimmer

[scottishreefer]

I had been looking at the glass Mame skimmers for my pico reef (Fluval spec) and I couldn't decide whether to bite the bullet and order one from Japan, but although they are a nice bit of kit, they are expensive for what they are. I also considered making a "clone" of sorts using acrylic. One Japanese website I looked at gave some of the dimensions for them so I decided to jot down those and guesstimated the rest by looking at some of the pictures I found. I looked up some glassblowers and sent a rough sketch of what I wanted and I managed to get someone to make me this.

I got hold of a stopper from a medicine bottle and got some glass tube to attach the wooden airstone. Added a bit of hose I had and here we have... a Mame "clone".

Just need to make myself a bracket of sorts to fit it properly in the filter section and get a better stopper and an airline elbow rather than a straight connector for the top just to tidy it up a bit, but its foaming nicely already.

 

[kevantheman35]

nice! how much was it to get a glass blower to manufacture that?

 

[scottishreefer]

I managed to get it for £20. Believe it or not I received a quote from one company that wanted £194 including delivery.... I could have got 2 of the "real" Mame skimmers delivered from Japan for that money and still have a couple of quid left.

 

[scottishreefer]

I initially tried a new JBL wooden airstone but I had to use both outlets (500l/hr) from my air pump and it still wasn't producing a great amount of bubbles and also the pump was buzzing because of the back pressure. I changed the airstone to one from Aqua Medic and it produced loads of bubbles on one outlet and it's skimming much better now. The "original" is supposed to be able to cope with up to 31.7 US gal so this is more than capable of coping with 2.6 US gal. Overkill maybe, but it's a perfect fit and doing the business so that's what matters.

 

[rip]

very nice build

 

[revhtree]

Cool!