Cali Kid Corals

DIY Nano Skimmer

Tamazula

Tamazula

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I think this is my next project. I can't find a skimmer that fits in my tank (BC29) in the only suitable constant-water-level chamber (chamber 1) that fits with the magnets that are already in that chamber. The closest thing I could find is the AquaticLife 115, which some people have used successfully.

So I am leaning towards a DIY out of plexi. Has anyone worked on such a small skimmer before? Thoughts and experiences even with larger DIY skimmers?

It's going to end up being about 12-14 inches tall, and maybe 3x3 on the sides... I am going with a small Maxijet with a custom milled needle wheel impeller and a venturi added to the intake. Should have measurements soon but here's a drawing to give a rough idea of the cross section, NOT to scale.

skimmer.jpg


I don't think I need all those baffles for a bubble trap because it's basically going from this right into a pad of filter floss, so it might be a simpler design. Will post pics as I go forward.
 
I don't think that will work with the intake on the collection cup under the water line. I'm using the AquaticLife 115 and it works great IMO. In fact your design looks exactly like it except for the intake being under the water line.

edit: it is a bit loud. mine turns off when the lights go out.
 
I was running a Tunze for a while and didn't like it. It only fits in chamber 2 and you have to cut up the plastic of the tank and the hood to get the collection cup in or out unless you buy a 3rd party cup from some place like inTank. Also, without an ATO, the water level fluctuates and the Tunze is very sensitive to the height of the water column, so it skims either not at all or too wet as the water level slowly changes (even with diligent by-hand top-off).

The point here is to fit the skimmer into chamber 1 because of the constant water level. The Aquatliclife 115 fits in chamber 1 but like I said, it doesn't work with the frag mags that I have back there, so I can't use it. :(

Sfork, thanks for the advice... I sort of threw that together in MS paint in a few minutes and wouldn't have the opening of the collection cup too far underneath the water "surface", although from what I've seen in these smaller skimmers, the volume inside the skimmer body is almost completely foam anyway since the only water inlet is through the needle-wheel+venturi. I noticed that when the Tunze DID skim well, it's collection cup opening was pretty close to the water level surface. It will probably take some tweaking and I want to build in that tweakability, so to speak, to make adjustment easier..

All in all this is just making me want to get a bigger, plumbed tank so that I can run a real sump. With a Biocube, I feel a bit like I'm playing pretty competitive tennis with a 4 dollar flea market racket. Oh well, maybe when I move. :)
 
I don't know the layout of the back of the Bio Cubes but IME you should be careful with the Tunze 9002. I bought one for my 28g JBJ Nano Cube a while back after reading online that it would fit. They had since changed the mounting mechanism such that the only way it would fit would be to cut the mount off. I just recently went with an Aquac Remora with a Rio 900 which just fit and had the benefit of letting me keep the filter basket of cheato in the larger compartment in the back. The skimmer is still breaking in so I don't know yet if I'll be happy with it long term.
 
Tamazula said:
All in all this is just making me want to get a bigger, plumbed tank so that I can run a real sump. With a Biocube, I feel a bit like I'm playing pretty competitive tennis with a 4 dollar flea market racket. Oh well, maybe when I move. :)
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I've been thinking the exact same things for the past several months. I just don't have any room for a larger tank in my current place though.
 
I have a CPR SR3? designed for a BC29, long gone is the BC LMK if it's of your interest. Should be buried somewhere so I need a couple of days to dig it out and my wife being absent 'cause she does not like when I pull all the fish related things out of the closet (yeah, that bad)
 
Sfork said:
That's what I ended up doing 8). That's why I got my 33.3g rimless mr aqua tank.
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That's a pretty sweet little tank... I'd probably go a little bigger, personally. I don't want a monster tank, but definitely am feeling cramped in a 29 (cube). Still, the big thing is the lack of a real sump.
 
xcaret said:
I have a CPR SR3? designed for a BC29, long gone is the BC LMK if it's of your interest. Should be buried somewhere so I need a couple of days to dig it out and my wife being absent 'cause she does not like when I pull all the fish related things out of the closet (yeah, that bad)
Click to expand...

I might be- like I said chamber 2 isn't a sure thing for me because the water level does change but now that I have my hood, my evaporation is about 50 times slower than it was before. PM me and maybe we can work something out?
 
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