chipmaker
Active Member
Its of double tube design, and it works as you can readily see the junk in the collection cup. The outer tube is just shy of 1 1/4" in diameter, and the overall length of skimmer form bases bottom to top of cup is 11 inches. The collection cup is made from a plastic container that fancy tooth picks come packed in, and I use them for all my skimmer cups. They can be had at the dollar tree for 3 packs for $1.00 so thats 3 collection cups for a buck.......of ocurse they are modified somewhat with an inner sleeve to fit over the stem portion of the funnel and seals with an Oring. Never had a leak yet.
The way it works and is built is, water is drawn in the series of holes at the very bottom of the columns base. There are 6, 1/4" diameter holes spaced around the circumference of the tube, and enter into the inner most tubes area. The inner tube is typical 3/4" diam tube. Along with the six water entry holes there is a center hole into which a piece of hard ridgid airline is glued. The bottom of the air line enters a cross drilled hole that has the external piece of ridgid air line attached and glued in place. So the base sort of forms an air passage way by way of a driled passage to supply air to the airstone. The air stone is a ultra fine bubble ceramic type and it makes some super fine bubbles, equal to what a limestone one creates, or pretty close.....The water is drawn in those 6 inlet holes and goes up the inner tube, to the top where it foams and bubbles. Junk is puished up into the funnel area and then further into the stem and then the collection cup, typcial skimmer style....
Water that has traveled upwards is pushed down somewhat by bubbles and pressure in the column so it flows down between the inner tubes outerwall and the outer tube itself, and exits from a series of 6 holes spaced around the outer tubes circumference, about 1" or so above the water inlet holes. I can adjust the skimmer to wet skim or dry skim, by adjusting air flow and water entry. Water entry is controlled by rotating the outer tube while holding the base, and this closes off the water entry holes. Air is adjusted with valve on air line....
I can get good skim and performance in all my picos up to about a 2.5 gal tank with this skimmer design. Its tuneable by setting on the bottom or raising it up to about 2" or so above the bottom if need be, so it has a range of about 2.5" to play with in a tank as to depth of skimmer. Some of my other skimmers are a bit taller and some are shorter, as they are tuned for each tank by varying the columns height. I used old water from a water change and dyed it blue with food coloring so I could actually see water current flow into and out of the skimmer. The junk in the cup is about a 24 hours worth of skim......Skimmer is made with all scrounge materials I accumulated over the years except for the 1" tube which is sold in most LFS for fiters etc.
The way it works and is built is, water is drawn in the series of holes at the very bottom of the columns base. There are 6, 1/4" diameter holes spaced around the circumference of the tube, and enter into the inner most tubes area. The inner tube is typical 3/4" diam tube. Along with the six water entry holes there is a center hole into which a piece of hard ridgid airline is glued. The bottom of the air line enters a cross drilled hole that has the external piece of ridgid air line attached and glued in place. So the base sort of forms an air passage way by way of a driled passage to supply air to the airstone. The air stone is a ultra fine bubble ceramic type and it makes some super fine bubbles, equal to what a limestone one creates, or pretty close.....The water is drawn in those 6 inlet holes and goes up the inner tube, to the top where it foams and bubbles. Junk is puished up into the funnel area and then further into the stem and then the collection cup, typcial skimmer style....
Water that has traveled upwards is pushed down somewhat by bubbles and pressure in the column so it flows down between the inner tubes outerwall and the outer tube itself, and exits from a series of 6 holes spaced around the outer tubes circumference, about 1" or so above the water inlet holes. I can adjust the skimmer to wet skim or dry skim, by adjusting air flow and water entry. Water entry is controlled by rotating the outer tube while holding the base, and this closes off the water entry holes. Air is adjusted with valve on air line....
I can get good skim and performance in all my picos up to about a 2.5 gal tank with this skimmer design. Its tuneable by setting on the bottom or raising it up to about 2" or so above the bottom if need be, so it has a range of about 2.5" to play with in a tank as to depth of skimmer. Some of my other skimmers are a bit taller and some are shorter, as they are tuned for each tank by varying the columns height. I used old water from a water change and dyed it blue with food coloring so I could actually see water current flow into and out of the skimmer. The junk in the cup is about a 24 hours worth of skim......Skimmer is made with all scrounge materials I accumulated over the years except for the 1" tube which is sold in most LFS for fiters etc.
