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Xtreme Billyblanco Skimmer


Davidd

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Here's my protien skimmer for my 24g cube. It's made with a siphon tube like BillyBlanco did a while ago. The thing is, I put a little microjet pump on it for maximum crap contact. It has a blue color scheme too :) tehe....The tube is a big tall siphon tbe, and the collection cup is an old fish food container. I used various pvc couplings for the intake, return, and bottom piece. It has a regular lee's air difuser(sp.?), and is all held together with plastic ties. The great thing is, is that it all fits in the middle compartment of my cube. I used the Doriftu casette overflow mod, so the water level in the back compartment is low enough for the cup to fit under the hood. I tested it out, and it pulls out some serious crap! here it is:

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the cup on the left is normal aquarium water, and the one on the right is from less than a minute of wet skimming. s'right. you heard.WET. this is probably because I just got rock, and I'm cycling... Still, it's pretty exiting, because I made it, and it's working!

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Undertheradar

Yeah, I pulled out a few cups like that within an hour just a week ago...cuz i just got in 45lbs of stinky LR...

 

You know, if you stick an airline into the intake of your water pump, it will become a asperating skimmer and you can prolly due without the air pump.

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Undertheradar

well, its not a true venturi because the air is getting sucked into the pump intake along with the water, and then chopped up like you said...but yes, that is the idea. A venturi would be a valve at the output of the pump that would use the suction of the water as it rushes past the air inlet on the pump outlet to suck in bubbles. The method I am talking about is called asperating or reverse venturi.

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OK. I tried the asperating idea, but it kind of made my pump a little too noisy...what ev. I don't think I'm going to mess with it now. I raised it up, so it's not wet skimming, and it's working awsome. The skimmate was black. not tea, or what ever. Black and syrupy. I held the cup up to a halogen bulb, and no light passed through. This thing makes my lee's skimmer look like a childrens play toy. seriously. I drew a picture to illistrate it:

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First off, this is awsome I have been looking into a skimmer that will fit into the back of my 24 gallon NC. I am glad to see I am not the only one with this wish.

 

Second, (Turn on IGNORANCE FILTERS) who is Billyblanco? Is this skimmer homemade, bought and modified or straight off the shelf?

 

Thanks for any insight you can give me!

 

Christopher

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yeah, I'll try to get some better pictures up close. And BillyBlanco was some dude from the UK, who made a siphon tube skimmer, and then everyone started making them... I took the design to the extreme with a pump!!!!

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ya give us some more detail on how u made it, etc. seems like it works well. give me something new to build and stick in my 24g nano

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shao-lin nano

Ya, i'd like some more details on your skimmer too. Can you like put up a detailed schematic of the project? And how long did it take you to make?

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OK. Time for some hardcore details. I'll be posting a lot of pics, so watch out! Here's the collection cup up close to start out. It's made out of a fish food container. Make sure the cup fits in the back, because I had to find a tall skinny one. Drill a hole in the bottom that fits the top piece of the siphon tube, then put it on, and seal it with glue. This way, the skimmate won't leak back out. Then, cut the vinyl tubing so it just barely reaches the top of the cup, for maximum holding capacity. put that on the siphon tube piece, so the cup is sandwiched between the blue plastic piece, and the vinyl tube. Be sure to drill a hole in the lid, so the air can escape (obviously). Here it is:

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Here is the pump. I think I said it already, but this is a little micro-jet pump. I connected 2 90 degree pvc elbows,put them through a hole drilled the tube. I don't really know the sizes of everything, because I just took a bunch of things to the hardware store, and started fitting things together.

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This is the bottom half of the skimmer. I was in the pumbing department, and I was like "crap....What am I going to use for the bottom of this thing?!!!" and then THUNK!!!!! This pvc reducer fitting thing fit perfect! It just had a hole in the bottom, that I covered with a piece of blue plastic, and it had a thing that screwed it in place. For the return, I used another 90 degree elbow, so the bubbles wouldn't just fly out the side. This way, in order to get out, they need to go down, and bubbles like to go up (unless you have the pump setting on too high...). There's also a small hole drilled for the airline hose to go through.

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This is a little plastic clip I found. I heat treated it over a candle, and bent it so it wouldn't mess with the collection cup. You could use any little clip, or maybe a few suction cups. I attached it with zip ties, so I can ajust the hight. I used zip ties for a lot of things on this skimmer. They're cheap (100 for a dollar!!!), and really strong too.

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shao-lin nano

Couple last question; where is the water level relative to the skimmer, below the collection cup (blue cap of the siphon cap)? And is there an air pump connected to the air stone and what kind?

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  • 2 weeks later...
Originally posted by shao-lin nano

Couple last question; where is the water level relative to the skimmer, below the collection cup (blue cap of the siphon cap)?  And is there an air pump connected to the air stone and what kind?

 

The water level is a little more than an inch below the blue cap. You need some sort of overflow/skimmer mod, so that the water level in the display always stays at that level. The water level only drops in the pump compartment, because on the second baffle, there is a slit that the water will flow over. That doesn't really sound clear... so I'll draw a picture...

 

The air pump is an elite 801, but I'm sure anything would work. Maybe you could get a more powerful one, for more power! I have a little plastic gange valve to regulate the airflow. You can ajust 3 things on this skimmer: hight, air flow, and the flow of the pump.

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BillyBlanko

hi david.....i made that about a yr ago ...hahahah.....thought every 1 had forgoten about it LOL....thanx for keeping my name with it :) ...i`ve just posted in another thread with a picture of my very basic original skimmer ....then i just noticed this :)..yours looks like a deffinate improvement on my original LOL....thanks dude !

 

scott

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Hey look! It's BillyBlanco himself! Yeah dude. I think I was actually the one who pointed out that skimmer in your thread...Freaking ironic...

 

Anyways, it's about as far from your design as you can get by now... The only remaining aspect from your design would have to the tube...I tried UTR's advice again w/the asperating idea, so now I don't have an airstone. And I found that if you use a check valve, it makes the sucking noise go away. The airstone was making way to much wet foam, no matter how high I raised it, or ajusted it to ridiculusly lame levels... These bubbles are way smaller too. Now I get dry foam, and more dark, syrupy skimmate. TO THE EXTREME!

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Killer job on this thing I really want to build my own. About how much did it cost in total?

 

The water level is a little more than an inch below the blue cap. You need some sort of overflow/skimmer mod, so that the water level in the display always stays at that level. The water level only drops in the pump compartment, because on the second baffle, there is a slit that the water will flow over. That doesn't really sound clear... so I'll draw a picture...

 

Could we get that diagram?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finally got around to building mine yesterday, hopefully it works. Not sure if i set it up at the right level, but seems to be doing something. To early to tell. Great idea for the back of the cube, hopefully it kicks a$$

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