Ghetto FABULOUS Nano Deltec

[AndyL]

Well most of y'all know me as cheap as hell (ok, maybe poor is the correct word ). Needed a more gooder skimmer for the frag tank, as my attempts at acros were browning out miserably. So I was strolling through walmart... And I spied my new skimmer in the housewares section...





Yep, that once was a $4.67 Rubbermaid 2L Juice pitcher. Was only a few hours of work to turn it into a skimmer.

As you can see, the cap was dremeled out to accept the top of the 2L (I cut right where the flange above the coke label), The 2L is about 3/16" narrower than the Pitcher's cap, which actually is a good thing. Once the 2L top was sitting as nicely as possible in the Pitcher's cap, I used a syringe (with mixer) of 5min epoxy, filled the whole area between the cap and the 2L. An hour or so later, I dremeled the epoxy/2L down to create a smooth(ish) transition. A quick smudge of Marine goop on the outside "just in case" followed. Then I set it aside to work on the body (ok I admit it - didn't figure the two plastics would seal/join worth a damn).

All the holes through the skimmer body are identical, 1 1/4" pieces of 1/2" pvc put through a 15/32" hole, with a dab of Marine goop on the inside, PVC fittings to either side as a mechanical backup to ensure a good seal. The 2 powerheads both feed through a 1/2" block off cap, that were dremeled to accomodate the outlets.

Recirc'ing powerhead is an AC302, chosen largely because it's intake fits perfect inside Home despots 1/2" PVC (rona is thicker walled, doesn't fit) and it's vertically very compact. Feed powerhead is a Penguin 550, as it creates better bubbles than the 302 it replaced. Both powerheads use the factory Venturi for air injection.

The feed and return both are drilled centered on the 1L mark, with 45's directing the flow in a counterclockwise slightly downward direction. Inlet to the recirc is a straight slip/slip connector. Skimmer outlet is fed by a 90 located roughly 1/2" off the bottom of the pitcher.

The riser tube and collection cup actually were stolen off my old DIY Countercurrent skimmer. Basically a 3" section of 1" pvc, into a 3/4" - 1 1/2" adapter, into a 4" - 1 1/2" adapter, into a 4" connector. Glued a piece of 1" pvc on the inside of the 1 1/2" to 4" adapter to finish the riser off, an old hunk of acrylic acts as as cover / diverter.

It's definitely not the most efficient skimmer out there, Definitely not the prettiest. But the Cup of nasty brown horrid smelling skimmate it pulls from the 20g frag tank every day, tells me it works most gooderly

Happy DIY'ing!