D.I.Y 6" recirc skimmer... "Halp" needed :)

[Raptor]

Glad the 2400 worked out for ya, and looks to be a great fit stock. I would run it for awhile as is, the mesh mod may get ya too much air. You can always do it later. JMO
Looks nice.

 

[The Fragmaster]

Thats the plan Stan.....

Thank you !

 

[The Fragmaster]

I made a flange today ( RANDY) LOL!!
Randy Stacey put that bug in my ear when I asked him about cubes to use as atchment locations for the bottom.
I had to do it !
Its not pretty because I did it with my dremel but it works.

 

[The Fragmaster]

Well I was faced with a new problem today !
Where the fook do I find gasket material?
NO NEED !
I simply "planed" down and smoothed out all edges to mate flush then used a little bit of silicone in betwene the flanges. and I do mean a little.
Like 7 drops about the size of a dime all around it.
I tightened up the bolts and VIOLA a no leaking monster !


I did another test run, only this time I also lowered the recirc. pump out put about 2 inches lower in the chamber and installed a "T".
Then I faced the input on the recirc. pump downward a little to suck up micro bubbles and it WORKS LIKE A CHARM as well as adding about 2 inches more air to water reaction time ( in other words more bubbles with less micro bubbles).
Brand new skimmer and I am getting minimal micro bubbles at best.

Here are a few pics of the 2ND "grub tub" test.
This time I dumped in about half a gallon of skim-mate from all of my skimmers then let it sit out side for two days in the sun to spark the nasty stuff growing for some REALLY funky water to test it out on :LOL:
The tub is a 13g tub filled to about the 10g mark.
Here it is after the 2 day bake in the sun with 1/2 gal of watery skim-mate mixed in it.
EEEEWWWW SMELLY !!!

Here is the collection cup of the skimmer literally less than 20 minutes after it was turned on.

Tub water after about 2 hours:

Tub water after 4 hours:

A pic of the outlet so you can see I am not lying.
Virtually no micro-bubbles.

Bout .5 gallon of skim-mate pulled out in less than 6 hours.

Now its skimming slower.
When a heavy load is present it goes berserk-o and skims heavy, after its has about skimmed the majority of it all out it goes back to normal or nothing until something is introduced to the tub to skim.
Any one else experience this?
Bubble size problem maybe?

 

[The Fragmaster]

I now have it running for realz on my 100g prop tank.
Fingers crossed !!

 

[impur]

Did you end up adding the mesh? If you are worried about too much air, you could always put an airvalve on the venturi airline to fine tune it even more. Trust me, the mesh mod is worth it on every needlewheel!

 

[The Fragmaster]

Havent done the mesh mod yet or installed the gate valve.
I have a micro ball valve on the airline already.
It wont be too much air once I install a gate valve.
Then I can fine tune the level in the chamber to match.

Thanks for the tips just the same though!
Duane

 

[The Fragmaster]

Made use of the El' Crapo' skimmer body that came with my El' Crapo'
Proclear 150 wet/dry. It is now my skimmate collector LOL!

This is about 4 days worth of skimmate. ( its lighter at the top because the sludge and setiment has settled.)

Shook up and from the top down.
NASTY NASTY NASTY smelling rotten eggs garbage.

The heavier crap in the bottom

This little bastage is truely bad *** !
I cant believe it works this good with out a gate valve or the mesh mod.
and its not truely even broken in yet !
Think what it wil do with those mods !!!!

 

[dwdenny]

looks great might try this when I get the 40b going this summer. I have a 10' section of 6" PVC sitting here that was given to me so i could use that just like Randy's site shows.

 

[The Fragmaster]

Yup.
I followed his basic lay out an dadded my own touches.
I could definately have made this skimmer ALOT cheaper but I wantted to see what was going on in there ya know.

 

[The Fragmaster]

Broken in Smimmate and foam production.
THIS THING IS EVIL !!!
It litteraly blows the mud and crap out of the neck when it builds up onto the collection cup lid LOL !! (UNLIKE "some" exspensive units that are suposed to this cheap 'O D.I.Y. skimmer one does.)

Thats 2 days worth of skimmate BTW
I will snap a photo of the collection container so you can get an idea of how much this dude skims.
My tank is CRYSTAL clear now.

 

[Raptor]

Nice stuff there, I would not mesh mod it with performance like that. Looks like the pump is matched with the body. JMO Adding more air/water with the mesh mod COULD mess up a good thing.