Reef Octopus skimmer GAC air filter - 3D printed

[BeanAnimal]

Hi - I don't create threads often these days and this is not overly interesting....

I feed frozen food often, Ocean Nutrition Formula Two for example.

About 30 minutes after feeding, the skimmer stinks out the entire house. I decided to design and build an activated carbon filter for the skimmer's exhaust air.

The design is pretty straight forward. Two small containers to sit above the lid's exhaust holes and a frame and locator pins to keep them in place and prevent the carbon from spilling.

I designed in F360. The view below gives the general idea. Sorry too lazy to explode view of the components or animate.

Design was build for EASY 3D printing with no support.

1x piece base
2x hollow lower inserts, to be covered with nylon window screen.
2x hollow body towers
2x perforated lids. I may or may not add window screen to the inside of these.

The lids have little catches to prevent them from falling off. All of the components are permanently glued together except for the lids.

I made the cups fairly large so that I don't have to change carbon as often and so that there is good contact time. I don't know how long the carbon will last, time will tell.

The locator pins were set in oblong slots so that they could be adjusted before final glue up.

The lower inserts allow the window screen to be easily glued on and trimmed off, instead of printing the base and body tubes as a unified solid. I did not want to fiddle with trying to glue screen inside and wanted the screen elevated off of the skimmer lid.

See photos below for visual explanation.

Stage 2 will be dripping peroxide into the skimmer cup from one channel of my dosing system. I think a few ml a day will be more than enough.

Not much more to say. Pretty straight forward.

 

[Idech]

Stage 2 will be dripping peroxide into the skimmer cup from one channel of my dosing system. I think a few ml a day will be more than enough.

What will that do ?

Is your system superior to just putting some carbon directly on top of the holes on the lid ?

 

[BeanAnimal]

What will that do ?

Is your system superior to just putting some carbon directly on top of the holes on the lid ?

The carbon should absorb a good bit of the smell, but adding a bit of peroxide to the collection cup should knock it down a bit more by neutralizing some of the biological activity there.

In theory you could just dump 20 ml or so in after you clean but before it fills. I think adding it in bulk after the fact may cause a good bit of foam. I have no idea how long it would be effective if adding it first. I have spare dosing heads, so I just figured that I would automate it, and save myself the hassle of another maintenance task.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Well executed!

 

[REEFRIED!]

I love this idea. I thought of something similar. Was also wondering if just placing some GAC in a porous container inside the cabinet would have similar results?

I would love to try something like this but not as tall. Almost like the full circle minus the float switch area and maybe 2” tall? Would hold the same amount of carbon as your pics.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I made it tall for volume and contact time. A shallow disc would hold as much but forcing the air to channel through it to take advantage of that volume and get good contact would be a bit more challenging.

 

[lazidog]

Hi - I don't create threads often these days and this is not overly interesting....

I feed frozen food often, Ocean Nutrition Formula Two for example.

About 30 minutes after feeding, the skimmer stinks out the entire house. I decided to design and build an activated carbon filter for the skimmer's exhaust air.

The design is pretty straight forward. Two small containers to sit above the lid's exhaust holes and a frame and locator pins to keep them in place and prevent the carbon from spilling.

I designed in F360. The view below gives the general idea. Sorry too lazy to explode view of the components or animate.

Design was build for EASY 3D printing with no support.

1x piece base
2x hollow lower inserts, to be covered with nylon window screen.
2x hollow body towers
2x perforated lids. I may or may not add window screen to the inside of these.

The lids have little catches to prevent them from falling off. All of the components are permanently glued together except for the lids.

I made the cups fairly large so that I don't have to change carbon as often and so that there is good contact time. I don't know how long the carbon will last, time will tell.

The locator pins were set in oblong slots so that they could be adjusted before final glue up.

The lower inserts allow the window screen to be easily glued on and trimmed off, instead of printing the base and body tubes as a unified solid. I did not want to fiddle with trying to glue screen inside and wanted the screen elevated off of the skimmer lid.

See photos below for visual explanation.

Stage 2 will be dripping peroxide into the skimmer cup from one channel of my dosing system. I think a few ml a day will be more than enough.

Not much more to say. Pretty straight forward.

Could i get a copy of the stl files you made, might be easy to adapt to my skimmers

 

[reely989]

Hi - I don't create threads often these days and this is not overly interesting....

I feed frozen food often, Ocean Nutrition Formula Two for example.

About 30 minutes after feeding, the skimmer stinks out the entire house. I decided to design and build an activated carbon filter for the skimmer's exhaust air.

The design is pretty straight forward. Two small containers to sit above the lid's exhaust holes and a frame and locator pins to keep them in place and prevent the carbon from spilling.

I designed in F360. The view below gives the general idea. Sorry too lazy to explode view of the components or animate.

Design was build for EASY 3D printing with no support.

1x piece base
2x hollow lower inserts, to be covered with nylon window screen.
2x hollow body towers
2x perforated lids. I may or may not add window screen to the inside of these.

The lids have little catches to prevent them from falling off. All of the components are permanently glued together except for the lids.

I made the cups fairly large so that I don't have to change carbon as often and so that there is good contact time. I don't know how long the carbon will last, time will tell.

The locator pins were set in oblong slots so that they could be adjusted before final glue up.

The lower inserts allow the window screen to be easily glued on and trimmed off, instead of printing the base and body tubes as a unified solid. I did not want to fiddle with trying to glue screen inside and wanted the screen elevated off of the skimmer lid.

See photos below for visual explanation.

Stage 2 will be dripping peroxide into the skimmer cup from one channel of my dosing system. I think a few ml a day will be more than enough.

Not much more to say. Pretty straight forward.

Are you still using this @BeanAnimal ? Would you be willing to share/sell the STL for this?

 

[zaxtron]

if you thaw the frozen food, and rinse it with a little bit of aquarium water and throw just the food into the water which the fishes should eat completely, there is nothing left to the skimmer to catch,
I do that way and no smell at all