advice?
 

So i found the site with a diy skimmer and i'm just looking for some feed back.
I'm new to saltwater and looking to make set-up has cheap as possible.
so if you can take a look at this site and let me know if you think this will work and be useful to me that would be great.

http://www.reefworkshop.com/DIY_proteinskimmer1.htm


Hope someone can help me out... If you have anything for sale please let me know what you have and how much you want for it thanks.

will it work?....yes
will the sleepless nights worrying if its working be worth it?...no
will a quality skimmer last longer?..yes
lol i had a cheap skimmer for a while and it was not worth the headaches!!
Everybody goes cheap the first time then ends up spending more on quality equiptment down the road once you can appreciate its value!!

thx
 

thx for the help

ya i figured that, and would love to buy a new one but cant really afford to buy a brand new one for 500 bucks. and i cant seem to find anything used either so ya. but thanks for the insight...

I understand your choice to try and save as much money as possible but this hobby is pricey and there is no getting around it. If I were you I would save the time and effort of trying to build your own (Not saying you can't do it) but wait for a good deal to come up and buy a used one. The hours that you will spend ripping your hair out trying to follow those instructions are just not worth it...
Levi

I made a DIY skimmer, well, more modded an old Berlin to a Recirc style. It works, but is SOOO tempermental and touchy. a little height variation or just touch the outlet tube means the difference of No skimmate and flooding the floor.

There are a lot of cheap good skimmers out there. Quality doesn't always reflect the price, in most cases it does but there are a few out there which are good. Look into bubble magus. Seems like everyone is raving about it.

What size tank system do you have & what kind of bioload are you planning to deal with?

Becket skimmers usually are external skimmers with big, powerful, expensive pumps (at least for big tanks).

Anthony

you can buy a vertex at J&L for way less and it will be way better than that home made one. I have built about 10 skimmers now and I wouldn't even waist my time on something like that one on that page.

you can get a vertex 100 for about 200, and a 180 for around 300. there were some used ones floating around you could probably get even cheeper. keep your eyes open and see what kinda deals show up.

Steve