DIY Protein Skimmer

Big John · Post by **Big John** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 10:19 pm

Another job to add to my loooooong list of things to do then.

GERRY5 · Post by **GERRY5** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 10:24 pm

it never ends john it never ends

Big John · Post by **Big John** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 10:44 pm

Mine's barely begun

Need to throw together a pergola to give the pond some needed shade (esp. for the chagoi - she's still doing lots of sunbathing

) and keep leaves out from neighbour's trees.
Want to muck out the shed so I can feed the filter pipe to a t/tower in there (stop OH complaining about how unsightly it looks)
Wouldn't mind building this protiene skimmer.
Still endless jobs around the house to do.

mekoi · Post by **mekoi** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 5:12 am

GERRY5 wrote:it never ends john it never ends

Couldn't agree more

The things we do for our beloved jewels

Big John · Post by **Big John** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 9:36 am

mekoi wrote:
The things we do for our beloved jewels

macaws fly · Post by **macaws fly** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 1:18 pm

right heres a queery.
is the 90 degree downward bend really neccessary on the water return?
if so why?
if not why is it there?

Big John · Post by **Big John** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 1:45 pm

pardon my iggrance but why do you need a water return pipe at all?
I thought the idea of this contraption was simply to catch the bubbles as they come off the top of the water?

vippymini · Post by **vippymini** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 3:43 pm

the flow of bubbles up the pipe also carries a flow of water. so to keep the water continuously changing in the pipe we need a return pipe to the pond.
the more bubbles the greater the flow of water.

mekoi · Post by **mekoi** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 4:42 am

macaws fly wrote:right heres a queery.
is the 90 degree downward bend really neccessary on the water return?
if so why?
if not why is it there?

I just added the elbow coz I've noticed bubbles were coming out of the return, so this elbow actually prevented that and now all bubbles goes to exit pipe

You don't need this if you can have the return in a 45deg angle against the 4" pipe.

RemJon11 · Post by **RemJon11** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 2:10 am

oh really?

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emmaandaj · Post by **emmaandaj** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 11:29 am

Hi,
Has anyone got some dimensions of the height of these that they have made to give me an idea of where to start? Also how much air do they require to work?
Cheers Andy

mekoi · Post by **mekoi** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 3:47 pm

Andy,

Mine is about 1.2m tall including the exit pipe. So the 100mm pipe is about 80cm. But you have to consider where you want to install the unit. I can't tell how much air I'm using coz I just "T" it off from my BD air pump(60Lpm) with control valve using 2 ceramic 40mm air stones

If you get water coming out from the exit pipe then its either too much air or the unit is too low.

Hope this helps

kimr · Post by **kimr** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 5:06 pm

Hi Andy
I have not long made one thanks to this post and I have got it imy pond and it is working a treat, over a period of time you dont get as much coming out so you dont have to empty the bucket that often, but they are briliant. I made the 4" pipe 4ft long then added the first T-Boss added the funnel thing then the other T-Boss and I used a lid off of a food jar as the lid with 2 holes drilled in it to put the airstones down the pipe. It litterally hangs over the pond wall and so far no acidents to the Koi, they do say you can put them in the vortex. My camera broke which is why there are not photos, but I have made one and they do work

As to air, I have 2 air stones one is on full and the other about half on does that help, sorry I dont know the right terms.

James Pond · Post by **James Pond** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 7:04 pm

Made my own one of these this week, I had to start all over again with filtration etc after I removed the liner and glassed the pond earlier this year, so to all intents and purposes it's a new pond. I have been suffering badly with DOC, with huge amounts of foam, probably made worse by the 3000GPH through the shower that returns into the pond. The water is clear of fines, thanks to the home made Easys, but it had a real brown tinge to it.

You can see the colour of the water in the bucket, thats only from today, there was another 2 buckets like that yesterday and overnight. The foam on the pond surface has reduced considerably in just 2 days.

The parts only cost Ã‚Â£11 from B&Q, I already had the 4" pipe, all I bought was 2 boss T pieces and a 4" rubber bung which has cutaway bits for different pipe diameters. I inserted this between the 2 boss T's and cut a hole in it just big enough to insert a short section of 1.5" pipe for the bubbles to spill over. Job done and some money saved!

Incidentally the rubber bung isnt immersed in the pond water so i'm not worried about anything leaching out of it. I did put it in some very hot water for a while first though just to make sure.

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Giggleswick · Post by **Giggleswick** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 7:00 pm

Hi All,
Please can anyone tell me rather I can use smaller pipe (say 40mm) for the uplift instead of 100mm. Also, what size air pump should required, is it the bigger the better? The reason is that I try to put it inside the multi-bay, has anyone tried?

Thanks in advance.

Giggleswick