Aquamaxx HOB Skimmer

[Summoner12]

These are the mods I made to my skimmer:

 

Being that the skimmer has the pick-up tube on the right and the return on the left I thought I'd want to reverse this. My logic was that the back of the nanocube flows left to right... in stock form the skimmer is backwards of this. So my first attempt to mod the skimmer was to add some plumbing bits to make the skimmer pick up water from the 'left' and return to to the right.

 

 

 

I don't have photos of it... but I did get the skimmer working in this configuration but the return dumping into the last compartment made for a massive amount of bubbles into the display.

 

I put the skimmer back to 'stock' and returned the water to the middle compartment. This worked fine for the time being but I had a InTank media basket on order and had removed the back vinyl in order to have a grow light. The skimmer was blocking most of the tank back area and making it hard to mount a 'grow' light for the cheato that was to be placed in the media basket in the first compartment.

 

So I devised a new plan, to have the skimmer all to the right side of the tank:

 

 

I ran some 'test' operations without glueing parts, just fitting them together.

 

 

 

Once this seemed to be working well enough I went and got the 'real' fittings that I had planned to use.

 

This is what I ended up with:

 

layout:

 

 

 

Assembled:

 

Painted:

 

Installed:

 

Some notes:

 

I had to cut the 'outlet', the bit that is glued to the skimmer that the return plumbing connects to. I shaved off maybe 1/4" so that the plumbing bits would fit without interfering with the false wall of the tank. I also drilled a hole into the 'plug' that is installed on the top of the T fitting. I started out small and increased the size until the level in the skimmer was low enough that it didn't gurgle or raise the water level. If you don't drill a hole the water level in the skimmer rises and falls and as it falls it'll suck air into the plumbing and gurgle loudly. I do use a bit of filter foam over the return elbow to defuse the bubbles that are popping and keep the salt creep off of the tank. I do not use an ATO on my tank, so when the water level drops during the day the skimmer is louder because of the bubbles coming out of the return plumbing. Also micro bubbles in the display are of a lot greater volume when water in the back end of the tank are low because of how the flow into the last compartment. If the water level is maintained there is less micro bubbles. If anyone has any tips on how to eliminate them completely, let me know (aside from removing the skimmer haha).

 

NOW, in an attempt to get rid of the micro bubbles I did make another return plumbing setup that dumped the water into the first compartment above the filter media. This did not work very well. It was louder, a lot more salt creep and the return and the tank flow of water made the water level in that compartment rise up a lot. Almost making the surface skimmer I use, useless. I may have some photos but I didn't like the way it turned out so I don't recommend it.

 

I am all ears for any input or comments. Just remember, I am new to the hobby... so I may state the obvious to some of you. I just hope this is helpful to some.

[Whys]

Whoa... you put an Aquamaxx on a 12g? Holy bejesus!

 

I thought about putting that thing on a 14g system, but... people think I'm crazy. :]

 

Can't wait to see how this works out.