Venturi for DIY Skimmer

[GeoSquid]

I made a DIY Air stone skimmer over a year ago and it worked pretty well. The problem I have is that I've gone through 2 air pumps already and I hate using the wood air stones. I have an extra pump laying around and would like to convert to use on the skimmer. Does anyone know of a good venturi valve that I can connect that would work? I see some on the internet but they seem to have a metal spring that probably wouldn't be a good idea and I have no idea if they would work. Any suggestions or DIY's?

 

[fishguy242]

hi, have used in past ,exact valve ,was many years ago but spring was true stainless steel,ran for about 4 years ,never rusted :)

 

[GeoSquid]

Great. Thank you for the info!

 

[14 foot reef]

The Gold Standard in the Hobby, this is the brand all big name skimmers use. They have an option of ozone safe if you're ever going to inject Ozone, but those are about 50% higher in cost. Not needed if you never plan on ozone injection.

Venturi Injectors - Mazzei

The unique design and precision construction of a Mazzei venturi injector maximizes efficiency, suction capacity and mixing capabilities.

mazzei.net

 

[GeoSquid]

The Gold Standard in the Hobby, this is the brand all big name skimmers use. They have an option of ozone safe if you're ever going to inject Ozone, but those are about 50% higher in cost. Not needed if you never plan on ozone injection.

Venturi Injectors - Mazzei

The unique design and precision construction of a Mazzei venturi injector maximizes efficiency, suction capacity and mixing capabilities.

mazzei.net

Thank you! I was reading about these earlier - they are a bit pricey but probable worth it.

 

[tvan]

I remember beckett foam jets for diy skimmers. May not be available any more,,,,

 

[GeoSquid]

Looks like they still sell the beckett's.

 

[ilawis]

I just made my own by reducing plumbing fittings then opening them out again and put a washer inside the pipe to reduce it further and drilled a hole in the side of the fitting to suck the air in.
20mm threaded elbow M/F , 20-15mm threaded reducer M/M , washer , 15-20mm reducer F/M , barbed hose connector (25mm tail)
I dropped the hope through the 15-20mm threaded reducer F/M

 

[GeoSquid]

I just made my own by reducing plumbing fittings then opening them out again and put a washer inside the pipe to reduce it further and drilled a hole in the side of the fitting to suck the air in.
20mm threaded elbow M/F , 20-15mm threaded reducer M/M , washer , 15-20mm reducer F/M , barbed hose connector (25mm tail)
I dropped the hope through the 15-20mm threaded reducer F/M

That looks awesome! I bought a $9 1/2" one off
amazon. It's been working pretty good for about 6 mos so far. It's nice not having to worry about replacing wood air stones.

 

[ilawis]

That looks awesome! I bought a $9 1/2" one off
amazon. It's been working pretty good for about 6 mos so far. It's nice not having to worry about replacing wood air stones.

Yea and running off the manafold is good not having to have another pump in the system the only problem I have with it is the pipes make a bit of noise where the air and water mix I've found if I blow into the air intake it solves the issue but I can't find a pump yet that will blow enough air. I think it needs about 1500lph if air to go silent
Do you have any problem with sound?

 

[GeoSquid]

Yea and running off the manafold is good not having to have another pump in the system the only problem I have with it is the pipes make a bit of noise where the air and water mix I've found if I blow into the air intake it solves the issue but I can't find a pump yet that will blow enough air. I think it needs about 1500lph if air to go silent
Do you have any problem with sound?

No, I don't have a problem with sound. I don't have a sump, so my skimmer sits inside the tank in the corner and it's all under water. I used 3' tall 3" black ABS pipe as the skimmer body and used the air pump I was using for the wood air stones connected to the venturi at the bottom. The skimmer skims very dry, mostly solids and very little water. I have a 180 gallon tank with two surge tanks built in the cabinet above the tank that also have macro algae. It's also using a couple diy ATS's that do most of the filtering for the tank. Not sure how much the skimmer is really doing, but I do remove some serious sludge from it.

 

[ca1ore]

Late to the game ..... FWIW just don’t use the spring/white ball if you choose the mazzei. It’s unnecessary.

 

[AlexG]

Here is the design I used to make my own venturi out of PVC. I have been using them for years with great results.

 

[dadarara]

hope someone will see this question: maybe AlexG
I am trying to build DIY skimmer
I bought a low cost venturi on Aliexpress. its not producing the amount and size of bubbles I would think it necessary for the skimmer to work properly. I AM interested in NO pump solution but the original Mazzei venturi cost is high and make this project not economical (compared to average market second hand skimmer).
SO I am thinking maybe to make my own ventiri injector
have a ±500L(130G) reef. the maximum hight I have under the display is 90cm (±35")

Any suggestions of the diameter of pipe fittings I will need ? any other ideas and suggestions ?

 

[AlexG]

hope someone will see this question: maybe AlexG
I am trying to build DIY skimmer
I bought a low cost venturi on Aliexpress. its not producing the amount and size of bubbles I would think it necessary for the skimmer to work properly. I AM interested in NO pump solution but the original Mazzei venturi cost is high and make this project not economical (compared to average market second hand skimmer).
SO I am thinking maybe to make my own ventiri injector
have a ±500L(130G) reef. the maximum hight I have under the display is 90cm (±35")

Any suggestions of the diameter of pipe fittings I will need ? any other ideas and suggestions ?

I would say the design above should scale down with 1" & 1/2" pipe. What do you mean by no pump solution? A venturi will need a pump to push or pull water through it in order to efficiently make bubbles.

 

[dadarara]

Thanks for coming back
I mean no extra pump. I do indeed have 2 main head pumps (10kL/h) working in parallel and one of them is intended to be used to push the ventiri via a manifold.

 

[14 foot reef]

The venturi's rob a HUGE amount of head pressure no matter what size pipe you use. I would guess your problem is pump size and head pressure, not pipe size. I experimented with many pump sizes on my RK2 Commercial skimmer. Until I went to the suggested 1 HP ( yes 1 HP ) pump the venturi did not perform at all. I tested a 1/4 hp,1/2 hp & 3/4 hp. Until I put the 1 HP on the 2" mazzei, it just would not perform. Of course you dont need a 1 hp pump, but you are going to need something with a lot of head pressure to make a venturi work.

 

[dadarara]

what would be the translation of 1HP to water flow measured in GPH or LPH ?
does it depend on the pipe size? I have 1" pipes.

 

[14 foot reef]

what would be the translation of 1HP to water flow measured in GPH or LPH ?
does it depend on the pipe size? I have 1" pipes.

GPH & LPH can really vary if you have a high flow pump vs a pressure rated pump. I would contact Mazzei and describe your size venturi and they should be able to tell you the recommended pump size. You are going to need a pressure pump most likely for example, an MD20-30 RXT.
Venturi's take a lot of power, to drive, so now your talking expensive pump, AC most likely, so now louder and energy inefficient.
Here is a good place to start your research, Jeff is the master of venturi skimmers.

Protein skimmer, ozone, skimmer, venturi, in-sump, hang-on, Euro, stand-alone. downdraft, needle-wheel, protein

 

[dedragon]

With above on this you do need a load pressure rate pump for this which is why you see the usually used for much larger systems. It is soo cheap to find a used skimmer and just buy a new pump for it if it needs that i dont see a reason to do diy for these size tanks IMO