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Making a TEENY TINY recirc skimmer :) .........


The Propagator

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The Propagator

Pics on the way.

This one will only cost me a new Danner 250gph mag drive supreme pump because I used a bunch of scrap laying around to make it :D

 

I haven't made the cup yet but every thing else is about ready to rock when I figure out what I will make the cup out of. I used a heat gun and stretched a cone out of 1/4" acrylic. The rest is all 1/4" as well. I flanged the bottom and used a 1 1/2" union on top so it will be able to be fully disassembled with no tricky spots just like my large 6" x 30" recirc I made a year or two ago.

This one has a deflector with a bunch of 1/4 holes in it though just above the return and where the intake for the recirc pump will go. This way the current will be deflected back up along with most of the bubbles over and over again giving it greater reaction time in the chamber. Hence the need for a 1 1/2" diameter neck on a 4" diameter body LOL!

From base to the top of the union its only about 15 1/4" so far. I am making it for the ball and chains 38 long. She has been nagging me to make her one since I mad mine so I figure why not put an end to it ! :P

For my venturi I am going to use some mighty putty. YUP the same stuff you see on TV with that Billy dude pushing it down your throat all the time. It hardens rock hard, its machinable, and it will not dilute in water once hardened. I can fill a 1/2" section of PVC with it and then drill it out to shape my venturi ! :D GENIUS ! I know ! :haha: ( NOT! )

I will also be tearing apart the pump when I get it and doing either a mesh mod or a bioball mod on the impeller. The deflector disc will have 3 legs glue to the removable section of the flange so it will come out as one piece and be all nice and easy to clean. I am not having any plumbing stick through the chamber at all.

This way it leaves more room for reaction time via greater volume of water with nothing in the way to slow down turbulence. All I am doing is cutting the PVC down crescent shaped with my dremel and using weld-on # 16 ( same stuff used through out ) to stick it in place. WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING UNI SEALS MANE !!

Uploading a pic of the "little monster" now.. ( that's what I will name it when I start selling them. ( yeah right ! Like any one would buy this crap ! :haha: although I guarantee you this will skim a stocked 50g system...I have made them this small before with lesser components and they have skimmed like the wind. This one should produce wicked black thick skimmate due to the design. The tank is lightly stocked any ways and will always be lightly stocked so its all good ! :D ))

 

babyrecircskimmer.jpg

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The Propagator

Oh LOL !

I didn't form the tube just the cone. The tube was an old skimmer body that came with mt wet dry years ago.

I had been using it for a skimmate over flow container on my large skimmer but I got tired of it sitting in my way all the damn time.

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ohhh very sexy... how are you going to do the feed line? gravity? second pump? cant wait to see it with the pump attached... your skimmers are alway inspiring... thank god im busy right now or i would be temped to DIY a third skimmer even though i still only have one tank with a skimmer on it now...

 

 

any details how you formed the neck?

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The Propagator

I'll just use a scrap piece and form a new one snapping photos of how I did it for you and post it.

Its super easy. I told a half truth about that BTW. The skimmer body and all but the cone are 1/4" acrylic. The cone is 1/8th acrylic but its cell cast not extruded like the body. I used 1/8th because forming 1/4" IS A REAL BEECH !! when its stretches out you have to really push hard or it will bounce right back like a sluggish spring. Ten there is the whole cutting it out issue. When you go over a radius you are essentially cutting twice the thickness. SO every time I would cut it with the dremel it would melt and turn out fugly.

The feed line will be gravity fed and gate valve controlled from the over flow I am making for her tank as well.

 

More pics to come later tonight....

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1/4"-1/8" = half truth....I get it :P

 

Hey D how about some pics of the overflow when you make that too you DIY foo you!

 

Good stuff Prop. B)

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Thats awesome Prop. So how hard do you think it would be for someone to make that who has a shop at their disposal with all the tools, but not much plastic working background?

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The Propagator

SUPER EASY !

If you can fab soft metals you can fab plastics bro. Just practice on a scrap piece or two 1st.

You'll find the speed you need easier with out melting the real deal :D

 

 

 

This is all the further I got tonight. Had to much on my plate.

All I did was cut down a 1" elbow to fit, and mount the cut off union.

Tomorrow is a new day though ! Its game on then ! I will have it all together but the cup and pump by tomorrow evening more then likely.

 

skimmer2.jpg

( see all those scratches ! I told you I used scrap ! :haha: I think most of the light ones will buff right out though. )

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The Propagator

1str test. No recirc, no impeller mod. Just as shown ( I used a crappy seaclone cup because I haven't made mine yet ). This is just with an MJ 1200 and STOCK venturi with no recirc.

 

WOW ! IT LIVES !!!!!

 

skimmertestMJ1200norecircorimpmodas.jpg

 

skimmertestMJ1200norecircorimpmod2.jpg

 

The foam being produce from just this gay little MJ 1200 is literally blowing the cap off of the seaclone cup LOL!! That seaclone cup is literally just sitting on the union as well. The flange hasn't been siliconed, there are leaks all over the place ( including at the pump because its a crappy old old pump.) When its all sealed up and I have the 1 1/2" neck going through my 5 x 3" cup it will rock with just the MJ 1200 but I want to put either a mag 250 or a mag 3 on it ! :D

 

skimmertestMJ1200norecircorimpmod.jpg

 

You should see it with a Mag 7 hooked up LOL !!

( YUP you heard right ! I hoked a mag 7 to it to see what would happen. Looked like Niagara falls with skimmate coming out both ends :HAHA )

 

I had planned on using a deflector disc but then I looked over at the monster I built last year and thought why mess with a good plan ? So I built this one identical only smaller. ( save for there is no recirc YET on this one that is. )

 

So far I have about $20.00 in it :haha:

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The Propagator

Bout 3 hours in to testing now and .........

 

skimmertestMJ1200norecircorimpmod3.jpg

 

skimmertestMJ1200norecircorimpmod4.jpg

 

skimmertestMJ1200norecircorimpmod5.jpg

 

skimmertestMJ1200norecircorimpmod7.jpg

 

Never mind all the crap on the floor. My basement is my man cave. Its an unholy mess at all times with reef crap laying every where :lol:

 

skimmertestMJ1200norecircorimpmod6.jpg

 

Tunze who ? Bubble what ?

 

Yeah baby ! Another Franken skimmer is born !

:P

 

After about the 1st 40 minutes it stopped skimming and I was like " OH NO'S ! "

Not to panic though all that happened was it had completely skimmed the 5.5g tank its sitting in for testing.

SOOooooo I added two turkey basters full of black mud type crap out of the collection cup of my big skimmer ! :D Hence the unholy mess that's coming out of it now LOL!

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The Propagator

The time it takes to make them by hand from acrylic would bankrupt me. Plus the cost of the pumps.

I have been toying with the idea of making Economy skimmers sold with no pump and made form PVC.

They would look identical, and perform the same they just wouldn't be see through and you would have to supply your own pump. If I did it that way and it took off I could sell a monster skimmer for $100 maybe a little more, and down from there.

 

Here are the current results.

skimmertestMJ1200norecircorimpmod8.jpg

 

As before ( if any of you remember my test on the monster ? I left a tub of nasty skimmate filled tank water out in the sun in June for 4 days then ran the skimmer in the tub. ) tank full of old tank water and a LOT of skimmate. The water started out so green it was black.

 

skimmertestMJ1200norecircorimpmod7.jpg

 

Now after 2-3 hours later and 3-4 cups worth emptied out, it is starting to get a light green and almost completely transparent. By midnight it will have skimmed out about a quart of NASTY, FOUL, BLACK skimmate I poured in from my monster skimmer LOL!

 

skimmertestMJ1200norecircorimpmod9.jpg

 

With just an MJ 122 and stock venturi that came with it LOL!

ANd I STILL haven't fixed all the leaks, and about 1/8th of the bubble are escaping back into the water before they hit the skimmer body because of the crappy volute on the old MJ.

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The Propagator

So ... Here is how you form your cone.

Take the tube you are using for your body and lay the piece you will be using for your cone over top of it.

Dab some super glue gel in little dots around the rim ( not to much so you will be able to pop it off when your done. ) this will hold it in place while you apply pressure after you have heated it with your heat gun.

 

So any way.. then take what ever you will be using for your skimmer neck and center it in the skimmer body on top of the piece you will be using for the cone. use a dry erase marker and make a few hash marks around it. Then use your heat gun and go to town until you see the center of the piece start to look glossy and bow a little. Stick your tube for your skimmer neck in the guidelines you drew and press down evenly and hard until you reach your desired depth. Its easiest to use 1/8th acrylic for this. You can use what ever size you want of course but it will be a real beech to bend !!

 

The end results will look something like this ( after you cut out the hole for your skimmer neck that is. Which btw will be perfectly shaped for cut out because the piece you used was the same stock and indents its shape in the soft acrylic nicely ! )

This is a 1/4" piece I could not get quite right because it is just so damn thick to try and heat. The stuff cools down very fast and the thicker it is the faster it seems to cool for some reason and bounces back like a piece of rubber while it cools. Its works against you as you hold down and makes it come out all funky unless you jig it up or some thing. NO TIME FOR JIGS !! :P I am impatient so I used 1/8th inch and poured warm water over it while I held the bend.

USE WARM WATER !!! If you use cold water you will likely cause stress fractures from the rapid compressing after the heat expanded it so much.

 

Cone1.jpg

 

Cone2.jpg

 

The heat gun I used I picked up at Harbor Freight for $9.99. It has two settings. Low and High.

Low is like 800 deg F and high I think is 1200 ? I'll have to look it up again for you.

But its a hell of a buy and works GREAT for all kinds of stuff. Striping paint, bending plastics, torturing the cat my neighbor left behind when he moved that refuses to leave from under neath by back deck and keeps randomly attacking my like a freaking stealthy little ninja freak..... ( one of them dies last winter thank God ! one down one to go ! )

 

Now.... as for the specifics on hole location and all that on the skimmer body.

It doesn't matter at all save for the out put being to close to the return to the tank.

The reason it doesn't matter is because you can adjust to fit any size pump by simply replumbing with PVC and elbows as well as fine tune it the same way on the inside.

Just be sure to keep your intake for the recirc pump as close to the bottom near the return to the tank as possible when making a recirc skimmer. When your making a standard skimmer keep your pump feed low as well but use a 90 deg elbow on it so you can swivel it any direction you need to to fine tune and even add a T late rif you need to or what ever.

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The Propagator

Who left the door open ?

 

:P

 

 

Where in the heck have you been boy ?

Long time no see ! Been in my neck of the woods lately?

Its gett'n nucking futz. I IZ MOVING THE 1ST CHANCE I GET.

City hall is giving me grief about my little basement biz. MONKEYBUTTS !!

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did you do any mods to the MJ impeller?...i have 1 feeding a chopped up seaclone that i turned into an insump...but it doesnt produce foam like how your is...

 

cool build BTW

 

few pics

DSC_0256.jpg

 

this pic is with a mesh modded impeller with 2 layers of enkemat on the mj1200...but makes a anoyying rattle ..

IMG_1540.jpg

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The Propagator

No mods. All stock. Stock form is capable of a LOT more then what the seaclone or Back Pack lets it produce.

They are seriously design flawed. Very little reaction time and not enough volume, or space for the foam to build before it exits. I don't plan on using the MJ permanently though. Its was just a test mule to see ho well the over all design was and it so happens that the MJ turned out doing good. But I am not after good. I am after wicked ! That's hwy I am going to be using a pressure rated pump like the Danner mag 250 or 300. It wont bog down nearly as much when air hits the impeller because it is pressure rated and the air hitting it will be just like a few 90's and a length of PVC would do .

I am also testing a few venturis I made with some mighty putty. I packed a few 1/2" PVC cut offs with it and let it harden. I am playing around with different pumps right now to see what will suit my needs. The best mixture they say is 2:1. 1 part air to 2 parts water for the best efficiency and as fine a bubble as you can produce. I am going to try and hit that with my DIY venturi. If I get the venturi just so on the Danner mag 250 then even though it is a small pump it will froth it up good !

 

That's a really neat and clean looking set up ! :D

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The Propagator

Whats your point ?

Weather its a sump plumbed into a system or its a dirty water tank it will skim what ever is there to skim.

So no matter what it is tested in it will either skim or it wont. A test is a test is a test...

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not_sponsored

This is like taking a spaghetti strainer through a puddle of mud, seeing rocks in the strainer and calling the puddle of mud pure water and the strainer a water purifier.

 

Take that same spaghetti strainer and run 400 ppm water through it and you'll get 400 ppm out of it.

 

/Exaggerated for point making.

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This is like taking a spaghetti strainer through a puddle of mud, seeing rocks in the strainer and calling the puddle of mud pure water and the strainer a water purifier.

 

Take that same spaghetti strainer and run 400 ppm water through it and you'll get 400 ppm out of it.

 

/Exaggerated for point making.

....So should he test this on a "clean" reef tank with little proteins in the water column?

 

You will say his skimmer does not skim and his design is poor?

 

Why wouldn't you want to test a skimmer in a tank you know is full of funk and remove this variable?

 

Its either going to skim whats there, or its not methinks.

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