How to make a water bottle skimmer

[Agu]

I've searched the web high and low looking for the infamous water bottle skimmer and found this site,

http://nucalf.physics.fsu.edu/pfohl/Fish/Diy/SKIMMER.BMP

Seemed like a lot of work with some drawbacks .

I've also checked out the design of the infamous but largely unavailable picollo skimmer . A pic is on this page,

http://www.thefishworld.co.uk/id32.htm

So I decided to build my own water bottle skimmer,

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/2DSCN0812.jpg

Details to follow,

Agu

[Agu]

Here's the exploded view,

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/2DSCN0814.jpg

From left to right,

8 oz water bottle with a piece of the bottom cut out to vent and pour out skimmate.

1/2 " pvc about 3" long, with the right water bottle it's almost a perfect fit. There's an O ring with some teflon tape just above it to seal the collection cup.

1 liter water bottle with the bottom cut off. Cable ties were used for two reasons, It keeps the airstone horizontal, and it prevents the bottle from collapsing.

Mounting bracket is a heater bracket rubberbanded to the water bottle.

Hole was drilled below the cable ties so the airstone inlet protrudes out of the water bottle, which is where the airline connects.

The airline does have a air control valve.

The air pump, which I had laying around, is a Whisper with dual outlets that T'd together.

Agu

[Agu]

Top down view,

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/2DSCN0813.jpg

In the sump,

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/2DSCN0816.jpg

And skimming,

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/2DSCN0817.jpg

Agu

[bkztrini465]

Does it work good? If i made one could i use it in my main tank cause i have about 9 inches of my tank that is not viewable. I would love to make one and use it in my main tank. LMK. Thanks

Kris

[Agu]

The skimmate at best is like a weak green tea color. Think of it as a water change mechanism where you only remove dirty water.

This skimmer works best submerged in between 3 and 4 inches of water. I used old water change water in a 5 gallon bucket to calibrate optimum depth. It depends on your pump and airstone how well it'll work for you.

I see this as the beginning not the end. There are a lot of smart people here who can improve on this design.

Finally, a moment of silence for the innocent water bottles I've abused and mutilated the last month testing out various designs.















Long enough, let's see the improvements :smokin: ,

Agu

[bkztrini465]

Good enough i guess. I'm gonna try it out this weekend. Have nothing else to do so why not try my luck. My tank is fishless so this may be ok for a while until i decide to get fish, if i ever do.

[AJP]

Hey AGU, What if you used a small powerhead, like a mini-jet and put a venturi on it? If you need more reaction time, get a bigger bottle. If I had a small powerhead laying around I would try it. But I don't.

[Agu]

Originally posted by AJP
Hey AGU, What if you used a small powerhead, like a mini-jet and put a venturi on it? If you need more reaction time, get a bigger bottle. If I had a small powerhead laying around I would try it. But I don't.

So go out and buy a venturi powerhead. I've polluted my body with enough "natural spring water". Take one for the team ;) ,

Agu

[AJP]

Originally posted by Agu
So go out and buy a venturi powerhead. I've polluted my body with enough "natural spring water". Take one for the team ;) ,

Agu

Truth is I have a Aqua C Urchin on my tank, so I don't really need this. I was trying to shoot you some advice. I figured you might have a small powerhead laying around. Also if you don't want to pollute your body, you could try a soda bottle. They make them up to 2 liters :lol:

[AJP]

Disregard my stupidity, mod away.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Very cool Agu!

[Kaos]

If you want to use a ph, I suggest using some kind of MJ w/ the air intake stuck into the ph's water intake. This will suck the air and chop it into very fine bubbles. I did this mod on my Excalibur HOB skimmer when the Rio crapped out (imagine that). When I hooked the airline up the normal air intake for the MJ it did nothing. Once I hooked it into the water intake it created a very thick cloud of very fine bubbles.
Nice design Agu. This is a great skimmer for someone looking to set up a reef on a tight budget. This will come in handy since I am trying to design a very low cost system for people who always ask me how to set up a reef tank but are dicouraged when I start talking about initial equipment cost. I figure if they can start out cheap (without any comprimise to water conditions and the life in the system of course) they could upgrade their equipment over time.

[clown fanatic]

just a couple of questions

how reliable are those picollo skimmers?

could you post a picture of how much skimmate you get from that water bottle skimmer per week or something.

im still kinda confused about the ph mod...how would you hook the air intake to the intake of the ph. wouldnt the intake of the ph be too big to fit the air intake on. srry i just learn better when i see stuff instead of reading it. maybe you oculd post pics of the mod you did with a ph.

[Kaos]

clown fanatic: I don't have any exp. w/ the piccolo skimmers so all I can say is they are hard to get and I have heard alot of people rave about them over the years (especially in the nano communities.......they're like the Euroreef of the nano world). On the MJ ph intake there is a a bracket up inside the intake tube that helps hold the impellar straight. All I did was pinch some air tubing and and slide it into one of the slots to the side of the impellar shaft. Don't insert the tubing too far or it will hit the impellar. This method works great, it draws in lots of air and the impellar chops it into very fine and thick bubbles (kinda like a needle wheel........which is where I got the idea).

[Agu]

Never considered a powerhead mod because I was trying to build a countercurrent skimmer not a venturi skimmer. To use a venturi you'd need a way to mount the powerhead and an outlet with a way to control water height in the skimmer. That would add substantially to the size of the skimmer, I was looking for a compact solution. Even if it can be done the water bottle lacks the structural strength to make it worthwhile imo.

CF , Picollos are good little skimmers if you can find them.

After running the DIY in actual tank conditions it works better than the prior tests in the bucket. I suspect it's because my test water was so dirty it exaggerated the action of the skimmer. I'm now getting more stable foam and darker skimmate :D . I've also discovered it stops producing foam for a couple of hours after feeding the tank :( .

It's only been running a couple of days in the tank and I'm pleased with the skimmate output.

fwiw,

Agu

[Carl_in_Florida]

Agu,

Great to see you leading the way here in the nano forum where you belong. I tried to make a counter current recently. I will post the results in a thread tonight.

Before you started skimming, did you already have good water? (O nitrates, etc.)

Glenn,
I was an AE on the 65's. Got out after a "hard landing." I saw in another thread you are in E city, I feel for you.

Carl

[Agu]

Tank is set up as an experimental nano where I've tried a few things.

The water quality is OK but not what I'd call pristine.

Agu

[Carl_in_Florida]

Agu,
Do you keep a skimmer on your 10 and 10?

And if so what kind?

Carl

[clown fanatic]

hey agu i was checkin out your gallory, so your a floridian too :) . what part of florida do you live in maybe your close to me

[Kaos]

Originally posted by Carl_in_Florida

Glenn,
I was an AE on the 65's. Got out after a "hard landing." I saw in another thread you are in E city, I feel for you.

Carl

:D
Was it you responsible for the tail section I had to completely reconstruct? j/k. Yeah, AR&SC @ EC is a political jungle. I'm currently walking the tight rope trying to get a civil service position instead of contractor. Don't get me wrong my company does good since they mirror their system after civil........but it's not civil (and we all know they get away w/ anything :lol:). I'm not good on the lingo what's AE (once you say it I'll remeber I've heard it a hundred times).

[Carl_in_Florida]

Aviation Electrician. Also a flight mechanic.

[phenom5]

okay, so i figured i'd give it a shot since i've got everything i need to make a little water bottle skimmer.

for those of you who have one setup, what kind of break-in time do you see before your skimmer started producing any or good skimmate? i'm still playing with it, trying to get it adjusted. we'll see how it goes, and i'll let everyone know.

[Carl_in_Florida]

Keep us posted Phenom. I am gonna wind up doing one of these.

[phenom5]

Keep us posted Phenom. I am gonna wind up doing one of these.



i will, too early to tell right now...we'll see how its doing tomorrow.

[phenom5]

okay, here's a shot of it in action, day 1. might redesign it, i think it needs to be taller.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/31947DIY-PS.jpg

[KING OF THE REEF]

nice hey i live in florida too. i live in palm beach county i want to do one of these. just need to find the time

[Carl_in_Florida]

Here is the before mentioned link of the opposite of this skimmer.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=538638

Carl

[clown fanatic]

hey cool i love in pinellas county. imareefer maybe you could frag some stuff and send it to me:cool:

[Agu]

I'm in Venice, not convenient to most of you Floridians.

Carl, I tried that approach with my 10/10 setup. Bubbles weren't consistant enough.

Phenom,

jmo but water's too high in the bottom bottle. You're probably getting a really wet skimmate. Don't know the break in time because I've had one version or another running in the garage for a couple of months. Best guess would be a couple of days.

Agu

[phenom5]

Phenom,

jmo but water's too high in the bottom bottle. You're probably getting a really wet skimmate.

yeah, i shut it down before i left for work, needs to be refined. i'm going to make version 2.0 tomorrow before i go to class...

[Agu]

How about just raising the bottle ? I've found setting up the bottle so the bubbles break just before the neck is pretty close to optimum .

Agu

[phenom5]

i'm going to make version 2.0 right now. so far i'm at $0.89 for another airstone.:thumbsup: be back with 2.0 in 5 mins.:D

[phenom5]

the saga continues...
here's 2.0, got it running right now, update you in a couple of days.

version 2.0
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/31947DIY-PS2_0.jpg

[Carl_in_Florida]

So you don't have to use wooden airstones?

[phenom5]

i don't know...whats the difference? i thought an airstone was an airstone...

[AJP]

Wood ones make finer bubbles.

[Carl_in_Florida]

The wooden ones give you the micro bubbles. but i'm not saying the other won't work.

Carl

[phenom5]

hmmm...easy changed out.

[clsund]

LOL.

Love it Agu. Great idea.

[Agu]

Phenom,

That open top of the collection cup could get messy.

Agu

[phenom5]

That open top of the collection cup could get messy.


i made a top for te collection cup, just not shown in the picture...might make a larger collection cup...

[doody]

Originally posted by phenom5


i made a top for te collection cup, just not shown in the picture...might make a larger collection cup...

Well take some pics my friend.
What exactly are the mods in v.2?
I can't tell but is the bottom of the 1st bottle cut off?

[phenom5]

What exactly are the mods in v.2?


its taller, and i added a 2nd airstone.

I can't tell but is the bottom of the 1st bottle cut off?

yes

[filishy]

Agu,

You're a genius.

Maria.

[burrito]

updates?

[phenom5]

well, i shut mine down...for now. it was becoming too much $$$ and effort. the skimmer itself wasn't expensive, but the rearranging of my setup would have been a PITA...so i'm back to where i started...skimmerless w/ a fuge, lots of flow and LR.

[Agu]

Here's 6 days of skimmate (took two days to get it working right),

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=92908&papass=&sort=1&thecat=


This is from a four gallon tank and three gallon sump ..

Agu

[Jovreefer]

That is the same color skimmate I get from my water bottle skimmer thats not quite as tall. One sugestion add a second airstone and lay them at an angle on the sides of the bottle.

I'm going to make a slightly taller skimmer myself. Also I'm going to try to glue some plastic at an agle over the airstones, I'm hoping it will add some twisting to the bubbles, therefore more air/water contact and hopefully darker skimmate!!! :D

[Jovreefer]

phenom5- yes it does make a difference if you use wood or stone air stones. Dont give up, you have the parts and you got one working...its just tweeking them now. :)

[scarletknight06]

cool project guys. I made a CC skimmer out of a gravel vacuum this past summer and it worked well on my 10g. I saw a thread at nano-reef on how to do it. Basically just find a way to mount the gravel vac in the tank/sump put a couple of holes in it, an airstone at the bottom, and turn it on.

And for those of you wondering-the Lee's skimmers are just as good as the piccolo skimmers and they are easier to find (i know www.thatfishplace.com has them)

[dingofarmer]

Just got mine up and running. I was going to just run it once every two weeks. I'm getting some good foam, but tweeking it to get the right amount of bubbles is hard. I just kept the valve on the same spot, but would raise or lower the bottle to get it right. I'll upload some pics tommmorow. The wooden airstone is pretty nice. I need a better valve though.

[banditfl]

Any updates in all those water bottle skimmers out there..

[KING OF THE REEF]

Originally posted by clown fanatic
hey cool i love in pinellas county. imareefer maybe you could frag some stuff and send it to me:cool:


FAT CHANCE I DONT SEND FOR FREE LOL NO I tried it and it failed horribly. The skimmate was awsome for me but in my back compartment of my nano it just wouldnt work for some reason hmm will have to redisgn it someday when school isnt a factor

[Agu]

Mine worked great but it was UGLY !! As long as I had a sump to hold it I was fine. The skimmate was on the wet side which I didn't mind, but it caused fluctuation in the sump water height which affected the skimming efficiency. Ideally it needs a dedicated chamber where water height doesn't fluctuate too much to work right. I took down that tank due to other issues and currently don't have a tank that needs a diy skimmer.

A friend of mine who raises clownfish fry is going to try modified version in his grow out tanks. He figures it'll create circulation, remove uneaten food, and be cheap enough for multiple tanks.

[melev]

Agu, doesn't your bottle need an opening near the top (water surface area) to create flow within the bottle to constantly create fresh water to skim?

[Agu]

The bottom bottle didn't appear to need any type of vent or additional circulation. I suspect with the entire bottom being open it created it's own circulation.

The top however needs to be vented or the foam can't overcome the back pressure and rise up the neck.

[melev]

Correct. However, I was thinking how using riser tubes creates circulation in a tank, so there might be a benefit to creating something along those lines to bring in fresh water needing skimming. Maybe I'm over-thinking this.

[Agu]

Mark,

I suspect you're thinking of airlifts

using riser tubes creates circulation in a tank

I don't think you could maintain long enough dwell time with an outlet near the top of the body. Build one and tell me, your DIY puts me to shame ;) .

[MadTownMax]

Melev - are you thinking of an internal tube where the bubbles could rise, "processed" water would then go to the top, and then down outside the internal tube, while still inside the bottle? - this would function as a bubble-trap too..

wow - that was confusing to describe

[melev]

Yeah, it would need to be something like a CPR bakpak or Remora, with internal baffling.

[MadTownMax]

I was thinking more like the red sea berlin airlift-type (the one's with the open bottoms

[vanmo92]

good idea. maby i'll try it someday.

[DivaMan]

Heres something thAT may not have been suggested, Try to find one of those tallolive oil bottles, like nthe really tall ones, 1-1.5 feet tall, user that it wilkl double your skimmate color, because it is thin, compressing everything, and its tall.

[Mavvy]

I ALMOST purchased a Piccolo skimmer...but the shipping was more than the unit cost. Holy jeez!

[YoitsArson]

cool. ty

[jadeguppy]

I made one last night and put it in the hob today. The only airstone I had was the plastic white ones or a blue stone, so I put in the stone. The bottle is a narrow, tall water bottle that fits great into the hob resiviour when the carbon filter is removed. Since the tank is a 5g, it also helps keep it out of the actual tank. However, I am getting very little rise in bubbles. It swirls, but the bubble don't rise up the bottle. Any suggestions? I really want this to work. I hope to be able to add a firefish to the tank, but I don't want to add a fish until I am sure of the water quality. Right now there are a few cleaners, live rock, and coral.

[Agu]

The amount and quality of skimmate is adjusted by moving the skimmer up or down in the water.

You really want a wooden airstone. The dwell time is pretty short so you want the finest bubbles possible.

Like most skimmers, there is a run in time for it to work efficiently.

[NYCREEF69]

GREAT IDEA

[jadeguppy]

Where do you guys get wooden airstones? I don't think I have ever seen one.

[melev]

Check your LFS. They are usually called "Lee's Airstones"
http://www.fishsupply.com/sasla-w2555.html

[saltyshoe_nano]

wow this thing looks interesting.....is there anyone out there that has made a diy skimmer with a powerhead? or do you need the bubble stone...I have a really cool skeleton of a skimmer lol but donno what to run it, its on a 21.5 gal. custom with 10 gal sump....I wanted to try it out bc I have extra airpumps, powerheads pvc, and containers to make one before I go and buy one from work...??

[mluna785]

Pretty cool.

[nemowithnoeyes]

thank you agu! i made one the other day for my 10g tank. works great cant wait till i get it fully functioning within 1 hour it was kickin and singin the blues.

[cutegecko3]

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj32/cutegecko3/001-5.jpg

[cutegecko3]

Here is a cheap tower protein skimmer i bought off ebay.When i took it out of the box i just laughed and threw it in the storage building.I thought i would test it out though and i was suprised it actually worked.I had to cut 2 inches off of the total length to fit it in the HOB fuge.And also no fish food is ever added to my tank and no other supplemental feedings are done.

[tholton33]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11727903#post11727903 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by saltyshoe_nano
wow this thing looks interesting.....is there anyone out there that has made a diy skimmer with a powerhead? or do you need the bubble stone...I have a really cool skeleton of a skimmer lol but donno what to run it, its on a 21.5 gal. custom with 10 gal sump....I wanted to try it out bc I have extra airpumps, powerheads pvc, and containers to make one before I go and buy one from work...??

I just made one from a venturi powerhead, its going through the break in period as we speak. I tried to use a 2l bottle but the plastic was too flimsy. the only thing i had was a Vodka bottle haha. its big and bulk but its pulling some decent skim. i might change the container. its pretty easy to make. just think ahead about where you are going to put the output of the PH before you finalize the plans.

[affordableocean]

wish this thread had more pictures...

[Cracky]

yea I wish it had more pics also. I would like to make one of these for my 10 gallon just to try it out.

[David Jr.]

Do airstones clog easily? I have a BioCube 29 and needed a protein skimmer, and my LFS said that the BioCube skimmer ($40) would need its airstone replaced every month. So she ordered me a CPR skimmer ($160) with a venturi. Would the Biocube skimmer have been just as good?

[melev]

Wooden airstones last a month or so, but they are pretty cheap too. The nice thing about these is that they provide fine bubbles for a longer time than their 'stone' counterparts.