thoughts on using this as a skimmer body?

[ebola]

Hi all,

 

I've been looking at people's handsome MAME skimmers, and I thought i'd try my hand at DIYing one. Do you see any obvious problems with using one of these for the body?

 

http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=274&

 

My concern is mainly chemical, that it'll leach something into the water or otherwise degrade.

[evilc66]

I'd be more concerned with trying to bond other plastic parts to it. That material may not play nice with acrylic solvents and the like.

[jbfrompa]

It is a PPE plastic. PPE is not to bad to deal with. It can be plastic welded but you may have issues like Evil said with getting something that will bond to acrylic and the PPE. That is what sucks with plastics.

[glazer]

My concern is mainly chemical, that it'll leach something into the water or otherwise degrade.

 

 

PETG is FDA compliant, it's used in medical and food applications.... ever drink bottled water or a soda? It's perfectly fine. It doesn't hold up well to UV unless you get it with inhibitors added to the mix. Your tank lighting may discolor it or cause it to become brittle over time, a long period of time so probably not even an issue. It scratches relatively easy as well... easier than acrylic even! So if you need to clean it much you'll have to pay attention to the material used if you want it to not get all dulled out looking.

Stuff is easy to glue or solvent weld and you can pretty much stick it to anything else if you use the right glue/solvent... nice reference chart I keep handy.

http://www.petersenplastics.com/Weldon%20R...ion%20chart.htm

 

As far as the skimmer body goes you really won't have to glue that much to it. I made up some "mame" style skimmers and just had to cap the tube and put a drain outlet on it.

 

 

Steve

[Deleted User 6]

Nice. I'd like to see it in action.

[ebola]

Thanks for the replies, guys. It looks like I might coming into a free couple square feet of plexi, so at this point I'm considering doing a (wait-for-it) octagonal-bodied Venturi using an already dinged-up Quietone pump I have kicking around. I've been playing with it in the bathtub, using a Venturi like this and just sticking some airline near the impeller itself. I can't notice any real difference, so I'd love any suggestions here. Oh, and I do plan on trying to mesh it, so if anyone has any pointers, I'd certainly love to hear them.

 

Thanks!