Now THIS is How All Skimmers Should be Built!

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by medhatreefguy

I see Ocean Aquatics is still selling them, very nice skimmer. People tend to jump on the new "designer" skimmers and are quick to abandon the older models but there are still lots of older skimmers that can kick the crap out of the new stuff.

Ha, ha, the bandwagon, exactamundo! I'm blown away by the price on some of these things. I realize acrylic tubiing is costly, but come on... acrylic, some plumbing, pump, design costs, all of a sudden you're looking at close to $1,000 for the latest, greatest premium design. I guess it boils down to the fact that in order to make a profit on such low volume sale items, the price has to be up there.

I still use a DIY counter current wooden air diffuser driven job. Tweaked it with a few mods of my own and it does just fine, very low power consumption, ultra quiet. I could care less if it doesn't kick the crap out of anything, it pulls sufficient crap out of my system to keep the inhabitants healthy. I've started making my own 'monster' wooden air diffusers out of basswood (and Gorilla glue), since the LFS around here are having trouble stocking the wimpy little 2 & 3 inch things available. When I first got it, I used to clean it thoroughly every few months, but after a couple of times I thought, Why? Now I only clean out the top regularly, which requires no removal, draining or disassembly. The coralline build up in the main tube I scrape with a mag float that I glued a metal scraper on to every few months.

Here's an older photo, I've since got my hands on a much larger air pump to drive the monster air diffuser. Foam is fairly white since I had just cleaned it.



This photo shows the darker skimmate it produces when I haven't cleaned the cup in a while, not too shabby even with the smaller air pump and store bought air diffusers. I run it fairly dry.