Cheap 24G Nano Cube Skimmer Solution

[EricG]

Doriftu,

 

I gotta say that this invention of yours is great. Put it on the other day and all surface scum was gone in a couple of hours. Good thing that I'm an old guy and had a few cassettes laying around the house from pre-cd times.

[Doriftu]

ericg, thanks. Like i've said before, glad one of my stupid ideas while wondering around the house looking for something that would work, has benefited others.

[Auryn]

Well I am a newbie to salt water- w/ a 12gl regular

and I read this 2 days ago- dug my box of tapes out (found a black one btw ) and it works like a charm

less than 10 min later all the stuff on the surface was gone

 

only problem is that the water level in the 2nd compartment in the back of the tank dropped a lot so I took the cassete box off

I plan on putting it in whenver theres surface buildup

 

thanks for the great idea- finally a mod I wont have to spend big bucks on

[Auryn]

im a dork

accidentaly hit post twice

[ezramore]

this is the way i set mine up.

[Nickeleye]

After building my own skimmer box then trying the cassette mod, I've not decided to stick with my custom build mod. I posted on it here:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...5519#post475519

[sNEIRBO]

This is how great this forum and in particular this mod is . . . I have had 24G Nano Cube DX setup, and filled less than 4 hours. I noticed various particulate floating around the surface of the water. I jumped on the forum, searched "surface skimmers nano cube" and found this thread. Within minutes I was rummaging around my basement looking for old cassette tapes. To my delight, I found 3 unused cassettes among several boxes of old CDs I don't listen to anymore. I grabbed the part I needed, trimmed down the tabs with an xacto kinfe and had it in place and working. That easy! Within about 30 minutes I've already noticed an improvement. I was even lucky enough to have the Maxell cassette covers with the tubes instead of the crosses - I'll be at Home Depot tomorrow morning looking for the little plastic screws to hold it in place next. AWESOME MOD! Thanks!!

[Doriftu]

sweeet glad people are still using it. and modifying it to there own usage as well

[Sparkling_Surfer]

This is a great post. Thanks for the wonderful idea! I put mine in yesterday but I need to do some tweaking on it tonight. I don't have the whole 'waterfall' effect yet. But I will and I'll let you know if I notice any difference!

 

btw, what kind of maintenance is involved with this skimmer? Should it be cleaned ever?

[NanoBob]

sparkling surfer:

There really isn't that much maintenance involved. If you turn your PH's off then you need to remove it or it will fall and when I had a clear one on it would get a slight algae build up on it. Now that I have my black nylon mod on you can't see the algae and it's screwed in place so you don't have to worry about it falling off.

Bob

P.S.

Thanks again Doriftu for the idea:) 1 vote for the MOD of the year!!!

Bob

[dga]

these cassette cases wont fall off if you hot glue a couple of 4-40 plastic screws onto the inside of the case so that they press fit into the slots of the intake. i am modifing another "skimmer" on saturday, will take a couple of digitals and post here for reference

[mikey77]

tried this mod today on my 12 gallon non-dx and it seemed like the cassette case was actually a bit too short and it didn't cover up enough of the grill. Does that make any sense? In other words it wasn't creating enough of the skimmer effect because I couldn't raise it up far enough. Anyway I found one of my hi-8 cassette cases and it worked much better and you don't even need to cut down those two arms to make it fit correctly. The only problem is that it's clear. I'd like to find a hi-8 case that has the black on it but at the store they are all wrapped up so you can't tell what color the cases are. Does anyone know of a type or brand that has a black case? Btw I modded my cube with a 370 gph return pump on mine so there is a lot of flow which may be why the original case didn't work.

[forr44]

I have 65 blk. covers from 1988. I tried mod with clear cover, and it shows up in pictures like a headlight. No flash, blacked out room, and stock lighting(72watt)only. I tried the blk, it doesn't show (it's not there)!!! Does a great job. Any GOOD used bookstore (trade 2 for 1) should have them.

[asiankidd2]

just a question for those with a cassette mod, how high is the water in your main tank? can you see the top of the water line from the outside of the tank? cus when i use the cassette mod, the water overflows right before the water line reaches the top of the rim, so i can still kinda see the surface of the water from the front of the tank and there isnt room on the cassette to move it up to raise the water level, and when you do , the skimming isnt as agressive

[gabrito]

Does anyone have the original pictures of how to to make the cassette skimmer?? The links are all broken...

 

TIA

[Insalubrious]

Does anyone have the original pictures of how to to make the cassette skimmer?? The links are all broken...

 

TIA

 

Seconding this request! Someone please help!

[undermind]

Seconding this request! Someone please help!

Yeah, as simple as this may be, I don't really get how it's done since all the pictures are gone.

 

Can someone post a pic of the original cassette mod?

 

Anybody do this on a 24g aquapod?

[HammyDavisJr]

Yeah, as simple as this may be, I don't really get how it's done since all the pictures are gone.

 

Can someone post a pic of the original cassette mod?

 

Anybody do this on a 24g aquapod?

 

 

Pics on page three of this thread should give you a good idea.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...50900&st=40

[dga]

i'll repost ... i make these in all black now.. if anyone has the nanocube, hotgluing a 4-40 plastic screw onto the back of the cassette will fit in the slots of the intake securly allowing adjustability and wont fall off when shutting down the pump...

 

 

 

 

in black