Skimmer question
 

I'm in the process of building my own skimmer, I had one last question...

I'm trying to mimic a euro reef style skimmer and on the outlet of their pumps is a elbow. What does the elbow do?

Some pictures it's pointing up
[IMG]http://www.prolineaquatics.com/_images/product/10rest.jpg[/IMG]

Some it's pointing down
[IMG]http://www.prolineaquatics.com/_images/product/14500.jpg[/IMG]

or almost horizontal
[IMG]http://www.euro-reef.com/images/RC250/RC250-REV-2.0-500x752.jpg[/IMG]

And I've seen ones that don't have one at all.

Here's my skimmer so far
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0161.jpg[/IMG]

As you can see I have a 90 degree elbow on it, gonna look for a 135 tomorrow. I just want to make sure everything is gonna be ok down there because once I glue the base one it will be very hard to reach.

looks good what did you use for the cone. I belive the elbow is just to kind of swirl the output

I second the swirl. I'd get the 135 bend, the 90 will cause the water flow to hit the tube too soon, causing more turbulance, the 135 should give a gentler swirl.

You may have some issues with back pressure because the pump is so low. I would plug the bottom hole and use the other one for the intake...Then point the outlet down with a 45 or 135...

wow looks great btw!!!

Looks good, the eheim should be fine backpressure wise. The neck is a nice size. What are the dimensions? Looks like 6" diameter, 4" dia neck x 30" tall? I'm guessing you did the meshwheel on the eheim. The only thing i see you may want to change after you fire it up is the output. The water output may be to high after the gate valve and you definately want to take off the pvc cap if its sealed. But nice work!

Thanks for the info guys, pretty close luke, it's a 7" tube 30" tall 4" neck.

Yep meshwheel on the eheim. What do you mean by the output being too high? I was almost worried that it was too low, it's about a foot below where the cone starts.

The pvc cap is not glued on and it has a hole drilled in it, I may or may not use it when I start tuning.

with the outlet T that high, you won't be able to adjust the water in the skimmer any further down than that. you want it lower and be able to use the gate valve to adjust it up. You want to be able to adjust the thing as much as possible... as far as how far down, I don't know that answer, sorry.

Hmm ok, well if it ends up being a problem it's only a couple bucks of pvc that I can easily chop off and replace.

I posted the full build in a local forum, I'll try and copy it over here.

how did you make the cone?

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11520255#post11520255 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dzeadow [/i]
[B]with the outlet T that high, you won't be able to adjust the water in the skimmer any further down than that. you want it lower and be able to use the gate valve to adjust it up. You want to be able to adjust the thing as much as possible... as far as how far down, I don't know that answer, sorry. [/B][/QUOTE]

Exactly. You may be ok depending on how much air your pulling from the eheim. If its to much and the water is to high, like you said its not a big deal to chop down the pvc. Good build man, and i like how you spray painted the pvc first ; ) looks much nicer that way.

Well here's the jig I made to heat form the cone, had a hard time cutting out the circle with my dremel as you can tell...
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0093.jpg[/IMG]

Here's the reducer on top of the body after heat forming (2nd attempt)
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0091.jpg[/IMG]

Here's the reducer with the top cut off and sanded a bit, still need to do some finishing sanding and cut out.
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0095.jpg[/IMG]

The cone form is basically 3 layers of plywood with a 7 inch circle cut out of the first two layers. The acrylic sheet is then placed between these two layers and a round object underneath (I used an old salsa bottle)

After heating in the oven at around 310 degrees for 10 minutes I used wing nuts to tighten down the top two boards to the bottom and did one turn on each in a crisscross pattern so it would come out evenly. Had to reheat a couple times because turning the wing nuts took a while but it came out ok in the end.

Here's the final cut out and sanded cone, this is by far the hardest part about building a skimmer.
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0106.jpg[/IMG]

Gluing the cone to the neck+coupling. I'm just using a PVC coupling cause it was like $30 cheaper than a 4" union.
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0107.jpg[/IMG]

Gluing on the skimmer body.
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0108.jpg[/IMG]

Looking at it now it's probably going to be overkill for my 75 gallon, but that just means I can always upgrade in the future! :D

Cup base cut out and gluing on the riser
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0109.jpg[/IMG]

Gluing on the cup
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0112.jpg[/IMG]

Gluing on the neck
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0115.jpg[/IMG]

Cup on the skimmer body
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0118.jpg[/IMG]

Uniseals coming in on the 31st arg I hate waiting.

Ok, got some stuff done today, this part was pretty tough...

Had to form a hoop for the lid of the cup out of a strip of acrylic. Then glued the hoop to the edge of the cup lid.
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0122.jpg[/IMG]

Formed a second hoop, for the bubble blocker thing. As you can see the plastic was kinda warped from the heating, did it too fast... gotta sand tomorrow.
Glued on to the lid.
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0127.jpg[/IMG]

Skimmer cup with lid on. Pretty pleased with how it came out, the lid fits snugly and I water tested the cup which performed well.
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0130.jpg[/IMG]

Next up is the venturi
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0138.jpg[/IMG]

Pretty simple design, it's a 1x1/2 tee with 1/2" fittings on each side and a barb coming out the top. Then there's some rigid hose stuck in the barb and sliced at an angle. Tested it and it sucks air, but I won't know how well it works until it's all hooked up.
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0131.jpg[/IMG]

Got the standpipe all cut out and dry fit.
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0135.jpg[/IMG]

Next up is modding the impeller... really hesitant to do this because I can't easily get a replacment... we'll save that for later.
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0141.jpg[/IMG]

Here's the pump setup-
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0144.jpg[/IMG]

And one of my curious dog
(what is that idiot doing? she thinks)
[IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/not_sponsored/100_0156.jpg[/IMG]

I didn't take pictures of the painting or uniseal installs because it was pretty simple... and that brings me to the first post of the thread where I'm at now.

Last critter? found in slump? :)

I am in the process of making the same skimmer. 8" column wiht 4 " riser tube and just like you will use a coupling instead of a union. I am a little worried about the cup not sealing properly without any o-ring. How is the fit of your cup in coupling? Did you use any o-ring? Looking at the picture of your cup it looks like you sanded the bottom part of the tube, am I right?
Thanks
Noel

Yep, had to sand it down a bit because the diameter was a little off, happens with extruded pipe. The rest of the skimmer is cast and cast slides really easily in and out of the union, I went with the extruded because it was a lot more snug. I'll let you know if an o-ring is needed once i water test it.