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DIY 15 Gallon AIO, DIY WetWorx Skimmer, and Foam/Rock Wall *NEW PICS 02/14

hcsceo

By hcsceo,
in DIY Projects

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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I strongly suggest against a DSB. I have never really seen it done successfully in a nano. The problem is that the edges of the tank are too abundant and prevent the anoxic areas from functioning properly. Their long term success is questionable in larger tanks as well. Usually, they work great for a little bit and then the tank slowly starts doing worse and worse. Since you are basing your sand bed on Calfo, I'd like to say that Calfo also says that a sand bed of around 1/2" is generally the most successful for reef aquariums. Hope this helps.

 

Hey Travi I decided against the DSB a while back for the reasons you mentioned. There was just no way to make it work. I'm looking at my sandbed being no more than 1".

 

TYTY thanks for looking. Your tank is coming along nice also.

 

Steve

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Atlantis Reef

Atlantis Reef

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VERY NICE Looks awesome!!! My next build after I get my frag tank done and cycled is a nano and you gave me so many ideas =)

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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VERY NICE Looks awesome!!! My next build after I get my frag tank done and cycled is a nano and you gave me so many ideas =)

 

Glad you like it Atlantis.

 

OK guys a little treat for you. I had some time to work on my skimmer tonight. I've been having a problem with the original design of the UTR skimmer I've been building. Originally I was going to build a recirc skimmer but after some thought I decided to build an asperating type skimmer. The recirc skimmer would cost me two pumps and the heat associated with them so I decided trying the asperating method might be a better solution as I could always go back and make a recirc. I encountered a couple of issues during the build of my first prototype.

 

1. mj400 really moves a lot of water and was overflowing the skimmer. The asperating type skimmer was designed for a 80 gph pump and the mj400 is 106. I made the skimmer body 1/2 wider as called for but it still backed up with water. No adjustment I made to the 1/2 return pipe made a difference. I could have reduced the flow of the mj400 but I wanted the skimmer to work "with" the pump. Finally I did away with the 1/2" pipe in favor for a 3/4" return. Problem solved.

 

2. I couldn't get air to suck into the pump. Everything worked fine in FW but as soon as it hit the saltwater no air would suck in. In the end I reduced the pump input to about 1/4 opening and that fixed the issue. I believe the venturi needed the reduction in pressure to suck the air down to that depth.

 

Now that both of those issues are resolved I adjusted the return pipe to give me a good water level in the skimmer and everything looks great. In fact you can't even see through the skimmer body. There is a crazy froth all the way through swirling around like mad... I'm very pleased. This was my first revision of this skimmer. I have plans to do away with the return pipe in favor of a an integrated return, and finally an adjustable/removable tray to be able to clean and tweek water height when in service. Stay tuned.

 

Steve

 

photo-1.jpg

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Deleted User 6

Deleted User 6

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Thanks for such an awesome thread, Steve. I'll be doing a foam rock wall in mine as well. How do you plan to cover the black foam with sand?

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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Thanks Evil. I plan on posting the final design and cut list on that skimmer ASAP when I get it done.

 

Thanks for such an awesome thread, Steve. I'll be doing a foam rock wall in mine as well. How do you plan to cover the black foam with sand?

 

Dhaut, I'm planning on using a product we use on our Aquatic Playground Systems at my office. It is a rubberized coating that has no VOC's and is completely safe. In fact we choose this product because a kid can eat it and it wouldn't hurt a thing. It's impervious to most chemicals and won't leach back to the system. It is also a 65 on the hardness scale so it is a little flexible which should keep it from cracking or chiping. It is much like epoxy as it is a two part mix. It is the same viscosity of epoxy with the advantage of a longer working time (about 1hr.) My plan is to brush this on and cover the entire panel in either sand or crushed fiji rubble and let it set. Then air it all off. At this point I'm leaning to sand as it will get in the cracks and crevices a little better and once coraline algae takes hold you won't be able to tell the difference between it and the crushed rock rubble. I'll also be covering the back of the panel for protection. I'll get the name of the product today but I think it is only available in 1 gallon sizes and the cost is considerably more than epoxy. If I didn't have free access to this I would use the Zpoxy epoxy resin product that many have used before me. Hope this helps.

 

Steve

 

 

 

nice tank man =]

 

Woot. Glad you like it.

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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OK I built the new and improved skimmer today. I just need to add the removable top. Here is a pic of the new one and a pic of the first design with the new one.

 

photo-1.jpg

 

photo-2.jpg

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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OK guys I built that new unit last night and didn't have time to test it. As I'm driving to work this morning I came up with an idea to help get rid of the microbubbles I was struggling with. Basically I've taken a standard bubble trap you would find in a sump and integrated it into the Skimmer. I'm planning to build this tonight and test it. Here is a mockup from sketchup lemme know what you think.

 

Steve

 

NanoSkimmer.jpg

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jm82792

jm82792

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Thats a good idea :)

It looks great and seems easy to build.

I need to build this,my puffer although literally grape sized,craps alot and makes my nitrates 20-30 PPM :eek!:

I'd love the plans since it's made for a MJ 400,unlike the original design that requires a more exotic smaller pump.

Keep up the good work!

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andresmirt

andresmirt

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OK guys I built that new unit last night and didn't have time to test it. As I'm driving to work this morning I came up with an idea to help get rid of the microbubbles I was struggling with. Basically I've taken a standard bubble trap you would find in a sump and integrated it into the Skimmer. I'm planning to build this tonight and test it. Here is a mockup from sketchup lemme know what you think.

 

Steve

 

NanoSkimmer.jpg

 

 

 

dude, you should build and sell those on the forum, i'd buy one for sure.

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evilc66

evilc66

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Looking forward to seeing how this works out. If it works, I'll build one for my Biocube. I've got all I can get out of that Biocube skimmer with the amount of mods I've done to it, and it still sucks.

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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OK guys from design to final build this evening. Took about 2 hours total to build this bad boy. I haven't put it in the water yet. I'm waiting on a bucket of salt to dissolve then I'll get it in. Here's a pic of the final product. Man it sure is pretty. I'll be able to adjust the water level with the removable cup, and the air intake with a maxijet valve. We will see how it works. I'll post an update later.

 

photo-2.jpg

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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OK the test went well. There are still micro bubbles escaping but I think I can resolve that and it is not nearly as much. I made the skimmer reaction chamber1/2" less wide on this model and I think I need to keep it the same width 3 1/2". Also the depth of the skimmer is 1". I think I might increase that to 1.5" By doing this I should be able to get the bubble trap plates closer together and keep the overall width at about 4". Finally the middle plate in the bubble trap needs to be about 1" shorter as the water line is a little high. Other than those mods it is working OK. I'll know more tomorrow as I watch the head build on the foam.

 

Steve

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Boomboy

Boomboy

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wow man this is awesome, looks great, taking your time really pays off in the end, you end up with something you really love and are proud of. cant wait to see it all together.

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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Thats a good idea :)

It looks great and seems easy to build.

I need to build this,my puffer although literally grape sized,craps alot and makes my nitrates 20-30 PPM :eek!:

I'd love the plans since it's made for a MJ 400,unlike the original design that requires a more exotic smaller pump.

Keep up the good work!

 

Thanks JM. Yes I'm all about making it as easy as possible to build and using readily available off the shelf components. This thing can be made in about 3 hours and for about $25 which includes the mj400. Once I get the plan tweeked and can duplicate the results I'll post the final dimensions for everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dude, you should build and sell those on the forum, i'd buy one for sure.

 

HAHA. who knows I guess anything is possible. It really is too simple to build to pay me to do it tho.

 

 

Looking forward to seeing how this works out. If it works, I'll build one for my Biocube. I've got all I can get out of that Biocube skimmer with the amount of mods I've done to it, and it still sucks.

 

Yea would be cool to see one in a biocube.

 

 

wow man this is awesome, looks great, taking your time really pays off in the end, you end up with something you really love and are proud of. cant wait to see it all together.

 

Yes definately. Once I get this all done then there is more waiting during cycle, etc. I know lots of people love the animals and the beauty of the tanks, but I really get into the DIY aspect. I love the animals don't get me wrong, but this allows me to be creative and use my engineering skills. Plus when it is sitting on my desk I'll have a 1 of a kind deal to look at daily. The best part is that I have an excuse to buy more tools.

 

Steve

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mcarroll

mcarroll

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[...]I was getting worried about extra heat[...]. I've upgraded the return pump to a MJ1200[...].

 

Steve

 

Steve,

 

Of the pumps in its flow range (290 gph), the MaxiJet 1200 is a power hog at 20 watts. Almost as much as an Eheim 1250!

 

If heat turns out to be an issue once the system is up and running, downgrading to any other MJ or upgrading to a Penguin 1140 (300 gph, only 11 watts) should help. Likewise if you simply want to minimize the system's power usage.

 

Based on non-sale prices at DrsFoster the Penguin is a tad cheaper than the MJ as well, lowering your system cost a little to boot.

 

Honestly, doing this change now might "free up" enough watts for you to do your recirculating skimmer as well.

 

Good luck!

 

-Matt

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hcsceo

hcsceo

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Steve,

 

Of the pumps in its flow range (290 gph), the MaxiJet 1200 is a power hog at 20 watts. Almost as much as an Eheim 1250!

 

If heat turns out to be an issue once the system is up and running, downgrading to any other MJ or upgrading to a Penguin 1140 (300 gph, only 11 watts) should help. Likewise if you simply want to minimize the system's power usage.

 

Based on non-sale prices at DrsFoster the Penguin is a tad cheaper than the MJ as well, lowering your system cost a little to boot.

 

Honestly, doing this change now might "free up" enough watts for you to do your recirculating skimmer as well.

 

Good luck!

 

-Matt

 

Matt thanks for the info. I'm going to look real hard at those pumps. As it turned out my initial test shows the pump wattage isn't going to affect the heat at all. With that said I haven't put a top on it yet and not sure if I will or not. Seems my tanks do better with no tops anyway. I'm also still debating the recirc skimmer effectiveness. Effectively the water and bubbles move back through the recirc pump and get chopped up again and again. My theory is that this process might dislodge the proteins from the bubbles over and over again. I think the only way to test for this is to build two identical units with and without the recirc and put them in the same tank and see which performs better. I suspect that if the recirc performs better it is just negligable at best. 11watts for 300gph is really good.

 

Steve

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