DIY Skimmer

I guess the basic idea of this skimmer works something like this... our sump is in the basement. The water has to fall a long way from the tank upstairs and when it comes down it carries a lot of bubbles with it. By running these through a long tube (where the water enters the tube about midway, water leaves through the buttom and the bubbles rise to the top) I get to do a bit of free protein skimming. This could be catagorized as a donwdraft counter-current type skimmer (I think).

This design is based upon Guy's Patented Bubble Remover (special attention to skimmer_design.jpg) with a couple of modifications (mainly the extra pipe running a smaller bit of water over to the refuge part of my sump to create a positive water flow from the 'fuge toward the sump). In the first 24 hours of use it made about 1.5 cups of very foamy and very disgusting skimmate. I expect less as time goes by and the water quality improves. Of course I read snailman's 'Skimmer Design 101' just to understand some of the concepts behind skimming :)

Cost of Parts: Less than $50.
Time to Build: About 2 hours (measuring, cutting, gluing, tuning)