drain line on ss65

[sign guy]

has anyone crafted the cup of there ss65 with a drin line and where would I find a fitting?

 

[hot883]

Drill a hole in the bottom of the collection cup slightly larger than an airline hose. Using aquarium sealant stick the airline tubing up from the bottom just barely sticking through the inside of the collection cup and silicon it in place.

 

[earlybird]

A great idea hot883. It the tube large enough to drain it thouroughly. I have mine but it's not setup b/c I'm still accumulating equipment. I thought it would be a pia to have to unscrew the collection cup to drain it.

 

[fbm]

I dry skim mostly, or at least give it an honest attempt and when I need to empty my bowl, it is usually time form me to clean the riser anyways....

 

[chipmaker]

IMHO a drain line needs to be much larger diameter wise than air line tube, as its easy to clog it up with junk that gets pulledout. I had thught long an dhard about adding an external line to drain my 65's and have yet to hook em up on the 125 and 220 models. I am here all the time anyhow and it only takes a minute to undo the cup and clean it. Besides the cup gets pretty darn nasty and the nastier that cup is the less it collects in skim, although it will collect water just fine. Pull the cup clean it an reinstall takes less than 3 or 4 minutes.
Just my take on it.

 

[sign guy]

Originally Posted by chipmaker
IMHO a drain line needs to be much larger diameter wise than air line tube, as its easy to clog it up with junk that gets pulledout. I had thught long an dhard about adding an external line to drain my 65's and have yet to hook em up on the 125 and 220 models. I am here all the time anyhow and it only takes a minute to undo the cup and clean it. Besides the cup gets pretty darn nasty and the nastier that cup is the less it collects in skim, although it will collect water just fine. Pull the cup clean it an reinstall takes less than 3 or 4 minutes.
Just my take on it.
you know thats not a bad idea guess I just wanted to be lazy

 

[hot883]

I usually dry skim too, but the drain line helps in an emergency skimmer malfunction. I have it draining into a 1 gallon milk jug. About every week I clean out the collection cup by turning the skimmer off, unscrewing the cup and washing it out.

 

[sign guy]

I did not think about the emergency factor, you have a ss220 right? what size is you drain line?

 

[chipmaker]

With some of the crud yu see n a collection cup, air line is oging to be very quick to clog up a drain line. Best bet is if your dead set on adding a drain line is to go to a big box store and get a fitting that is called a hose barb to male adapter. It will be on a rack in little plastic bags in Home Depot or in the rack of drawers in Lowes. I would look for at least a 1/4 male pipe x 1/4 hose barb. Then pickup a length of the precut 1/4" clear vinyl hose. 1/4" is about the smallest diam I would fool with and feel comfortable with. Drill the cup or dremel out a hole to fit adapter male pipe threads, let it extend into the cup, and use Marine Goop (not silicone) to seal and adhere it in place. In about 12 hours it will be dry enough to put back into service as long as yu do not put any stress on the adpater thats glued in place, so its a good idea to plut tubeiing on adapter before sealing it to cup and set aside to dry. Marine Goop sticks pretty darn good to the materials normally found in use with aquarium equipment etc. All parts canbe obtained at most any big box builder supply. I would look for a nylon or PP or PE adapter. MOre than likely they will be white in color. YOU can also find 1/4" double ended hose barbs which have a flange midway on the fitting that will also work just fine for adapting a tube to the cup. You can always cut off one end of the fittings hose barb portion to reduce length of fitting inside of cup if needed.