a tale of two skimmers

[hobogato]

well, i am building (at least attempting to) a hang on back beckett skimmer for someone, and decided to try a new design to keep all microbubbles from dumping out the drain into the display. a few of the times i have posted finished projects, people have asked if i chronicled them, and i never had - so i decided to do that this time. i didnt want the HOB to be untested, so i decided to build one for myself (in sump) using the new design to make sure it would work correctly. as you can see - i could use a new skimmer anyway:

my skimmer - dont laugh, it works great, it is just really ugly because it was one of my first acrylic projects - before i even knew how to use weldon. it is held together (and has for almost two years) with nothing but silicone and a plastic frame on the outside of the box.


so i started with a couple of pics of the materials - $100 worth of acrylic and $140 worth of PVC.


it took me about 45 minutes to cut all the tube pieces for both new skimmers


and about an hour to rough cut all of the flat pieces for both skimmers


it took me 45 minutes to sand all of the ends of the tube smooth by hand


it took me about 15 minutes to run all the flat pieces through the jointer to make the edges perfect. on my last wookworking project, the violin, i found out that even though you have the jointer set to take 1/32" off of a piece of wood, it takes alot more off of a finger if you mess up - but that is all healed up now.
(notice how i still keep that pinky curled under, away from my other fingers tho now )


look how nice those edges look ;)


it took me another hour to do the finish cutting on the flat pieces with the router.

it took another 4 hours or so (with some beer, er i mean wait time scattered throughout - notice i saved the beer time until after finishing with the jointer) to finish putting it together and plumbing it.
heres one step close to the end


and here is my new skimmer.


i will hook it up tomorrow and see how it does. once i see it in action, i will make any adjustments needed to the design before finishing the HOB one. ill post ther rest of the process after i finish the second skimmer.

[caferacermike]

Would you look at that? WOW. Very nice. When I get myself together enough to do my refugium and sump for my 29g you'll be the first one I call.

[hobogato]

thanks mike.

hahaha - you know - theres nothing like a spray of saltwater to the face to really wake you up in the morning. hooked up the skimmer this morning and figured out that it wouldnt work very well with the becket in upside down :lol also figured out that the air valve will shoot a pretty good stream of water when the beckett is upside down

after correcting, it runs great - this is after about an hour

[hobogato]

took me about 8 hours to finish the second skimmer - here are some pics

bending the back


tapping threads for levellig screws


glueing



redneck clamp


finished skimmer - drain is cut long right now, will cut to fit on installation

[JimD]

YOWZA!!!! That there looks purdy dang shweeet!

[hobogato]

betcha wish it was for you huh? :P :lol

[BIGBIRD123]

Man what a Monster!

[hobogato]

jim - i think you are gonna have to run this thing ever third day or something - it may fall into that "overskimming" category if you dont.

[cpreefguy]

What are the dims of the HOB?

[hobogato]

huge - 30" tall - only 10 above the top of the tank, 8 inches wide and 15 inches long with the shelf on the bottom for the pump. i think i could make much smaller of the same design tho - run with a mag 7 or mag 9.5.