DIY skimmers that work?

[glarior]

I have been looking at skimmer options for my 300g+240g setup and they are ~$800+. I thought about looking into DIY skimmer and found a few post on here and other sites on how to build one. However, I see all these plans but no one ever really confirming if it was worth doing or if they should have payed for a brand name skimmer.

What do you think? Are there some good plans out there that are confirmed working? It does not seem to complicated to do.

[Big_Pun]

they probally do not work, or more people would have them. now if you have access to CNC machines and are good with acrylic you could prob do it. otherwise you will have to but the bullet and buy them. I've found in this hobby DIY isn't always worth it, not worth the headaches.

[ramsey]

I think it'd work but I'm not sure it'd be worth the work and it might not work as well as a quality skimmer. A skimmer's a pretty simple device for the most part.

[wiildmanzeke]

Like Ramsey said, It's a pretty simple device. If you are good with acrylic then you are set. That and you have to have a good pump which to me, makes the skimmer. If a pump doesn't give out a high small bubble to water ratio then the skimmer is not going to perform. Lucky for you, you're doing a large tank (large skimmer) which means the acrylic will be easier to work with and you have more room for error. More room for error than if you were trying to build a Tunze 9002.

While I was in korea my reef equipment was limited but I found a company there that makes really simple yet effective acrylic skimmers.(Their prices were outrageous) Here is the link to one of the skimmers. It's easier to read if you have google chrome with the option to translate the page. Look through some of their stuff. Really neat!

http://www.sumpkorea.com/Project/content.asp?PRJIDX=17&npage=1&condition=&destkind=&keyword=

[allan]

I built a becket skimmer when I first got into the hobby. It pulled out some ranky skimmate.... but in the end I kept worrying whether I was pulling enough.

Then you talk to one or two of our members that run no skimmer and have beautiful tanks, and wonder exactly how much do you need to remove? If you're SPS bound you probably do want a good skimmer.

Wild is correct, IMO, with the right pump your creation will pull excellent mess out of the tank. The skimmer itself is relatively simple to design and build, I would definitely recommend getting a big collection cup what ever your end result is.

I went with a coralife 120, then to a dual recirculating octo skimmer, then to my current skimmer... not sure what it is, a euroreef skimmer? Either way, I've not noticed anything more impressive over the last in all four skimmers.

[Ms_Big_Pun]

I personally don't think it would be worth building one, esp. for a set up that big. You're just going to have to come to terms that with a bigger tank, you are going to have bigger expenses. I wouldn't even consider a home built skimmer on any tank...even on my 20 gallon. If they were that successful then you would be seeing lots of posts about them....and the fact that you can't find much information should be the first red flag that it's not worth it. Don't rush your tank and just invest in a quality skimmer that is rated for more than what you have... Mine and Chris's skimmer is rated for 300 gallons...and that sucker pulls out a lot

[allan]

Emily is correct, you will always have doubts and in the end probably end up getting one new or used in the end. But then again, the science is amazingly simple, and IMO much easier to build than these DIY LEDs setups that folks are building.

The other factor is that most of your cost in building one will be the pump, which brings your expense up close to what you would be paying for a new skimmer... or at least within a few hundred dollars.

[Bill S]

I have a beckett skimmer that ace built. They are tricky to get working right, but when they do, they work well.

[350gt]

When going that big, why skimp out??


Imo the skimmer is one of the major parts of a system... For good reason.

[350gt]

There was a couple of nac 9 skimmers going around here not to long ago. I know Leroy (king) had one for sale...


Not the best but for the price.... I wouldn't go cheap.