wood air stone skimmers

[josie]

I wanted to know other canreef members who have old technologies wood air stone skimmer.

Yesterday we installed a 4' Marine Technical Concepts skimmer on our 150g SPS tank.



less then 12hours later it started to produce a little skim

Please post about yours

a friend of mine uses one and he loves it works realy well also. His works better than some skimmers I have seen.
He is on her mike31154.

Bill

[mike31154]

Mmmmm, wooden air stone, yesss. Thanks for the referral Bill.

I have what I think is a DIY air driven skimmer that came with the used system I purchased when I got into the hobby. After a lot of research and a few of my own mods, I have the thing working very nicely and I love how quiet it is with a small AquaClear 301 powerhead pushing water and a larger air pump (thanks to Bill) making the bubbles through DIY wooden air diffuser. It's not as tall as yours Josie, at just around 2.5 ft.

I tried a Remora C Pro HOB with a mag 3 pump for a few months but all it did is make a lot of noise and very mild tea, nothing like the thick sludge I scrape out of the collection cup on the old air driven job. Thankfully I ended up cracking the thing while trying to lift it off for cleaning one day. This forced me to put the old school technolgy back into service and I haven't looked back.

What's really improved the performance of mine aside from the larger air pump is the DIY air diffuser. I purchased a plank of basswood from a local lumber supplier and started making my own using Gorilla Glue. In fact I'm in the process of building one today. The problem with the store bought wooden air diffusers is the circular hole drilled into a square/rectangular piece of wood. This shortens the life since there's only a small area for the bubbles to push through the wood (at the narrowest part). This area wears/clogs quickly and that's the end of it. My DIY diffuser is a box with flat panels, allowing a much larger surface area to produce bubbles. I have yet to see any other technology (read new) produce bubbles as fine as a newly installed wooden air diffuser. If not mistaken there are several suppliers out there supplying similar 'box' type wooden air diffusers, I even saw a patent out on one. No longer have the links though and they weren't cheap either. Another reason I started making my own is that none of my LFS here were regularly stocking wooden diffusers.

A future build with basement sump will definitely use a larger version of what I have now. A few pics follow.

This pic is a year or so old and features the much smaller air pump & two store bought diffusers on a manifold. It had just been cleaned too, so not much gunk in the top. With the new pump and DIY diffuser there's no way you can see thru the tube as in this photo, it's fully saturated with fine bubbles. It's HOB since I don't have a sump, but I actually have it sitting on its own little stand attached to the display stand. Didn't like having the thing hanging on the rim.


This is the AquaClear pump in the pre skimmer box with the return pipe in behind.


A closer shot of the collection cup (still the old air pump) showing a little more 'stuff'. I skim dry so the 2L pop bottle that collects liquid skimmate takes months to fill, but I regularly scrape some very thick sludge off the collection cup & upper reaction tube sides.


I might try to make a bubble diffuser plate too, but not quite sure how I'm going to fit that in with the rigid air tube going down and all. Could be a maintenance nightmare when it comes time to change the air diffuser and not sure of the benefit to effort ratio at this point. Another thing I'd like to try is use John Guest type fittings like we have on our RO systems to replace the current air tubing. They're watertight so they should be airtight and would make assembly/disassembly a lot easier.

[mike31154]

Here's a link to a site with info on DIY wooden air diffuser. It's what gave me the idea to try making my own. The procedure is a little different (more complex than mine) since it uses super glue to hold things together and once wet, you can't let the wood dry out. I just use hand tools (miter box) and Gorilla Glue which actually needs some water to set properly. I assembled my first one dry, except for wetting the area to be glued in accordance with Gorilla Glue instructions. It hasn't failed at any of the seams and is still in service, forget how many months. As mentioned in my previous post, I'm in the process of making another one now. I'll take some photos this time.

http://www.hawkfish.org/snailman/kwairstone.htm

[josie]

Thanks mike!!
yes we are planning to do our own wood air stone trying to check out where to get basswood around here... and see the price of it too...

I made a video today of our equipment set-up and you can see the new skimmer..it's less then 24hours skimming but we see it's working

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3MPU...layer_embedded

[Mrfish55]

I have a 6 foot air driven skimmer on the 750, works flawless, dead silent and produces about 2 litres of the nastiest skimmate you will encounter every 24 hours. Couple pics of when I first installed it, will try and get some updated pics later.


about 12 hours worth when first installed, much darker, stank smelling now.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by josie

Thanks mike!!
yes we are planning to do our own wood air stone trying to check out where to get basswood around here... and see the price of it too...

I made a video today of our equipment set-up and you can see the new skimmer..it's less then 24hours skimming but we see it's working

Wow, nice bubble column already, assuming with conventional air diffusers? A DIY air diffuser is going to make that thing explode! What kind/size air pump are you using to drive that puppy?

I don't know if you have a Lee Valley Tools outlet in Montreal, but I used to live in Ottawa and that's their headquarters. They do a lot of business online and mail order as well. I'm pretty sure they have basswood pieces. Limewood works as well of course, not sure, might even be the same wood just different names.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by Mrfish55

I have a 6 foot air driven skimmer on the 750, works flawless, dead silent and produces about 2 litres of the nastiest skimmate you will encounter every 24 hours. Couple pics of when I first installed it, will try and get some updated pics later.

about 12 hours worth when first installed, much darker, stank smelling now.

That's a beaut MrFish, I'll be hitting you up for some pointers when I get my basement sump build off the ground. The sky's the limit in the basement, but I guess a 6 footer should be fine for the 120 I'm planning. Is it a DIY skimmer or commercially manufactured? Looking forward to additional photos and perhaps some details on air pump, water pump etc.

[Mrfish55]

Originally Posted by mike31154

That's a beaut MrFish, I'll be hitting you up for some pointers when I get my basement sump build off the ground. The sky's the limit in the basement, but I guess a 6 footer should be fine for the 120 I'm planning. Is it a DIY skimmer or commercially manufactured? Looking forward to additional photos and perhaps some details on air pump, water pump etc.

The skimmer was a custom order from Precision Marine, I bought it used with the 750gal tank, I am using a PS4 for the feed pump and a Hiblow air pump powers 4 1x6" airstones I make similar in design to what you do, I have never seen another skimmer produce such thick foam, usually have to empty the collector about 2 hours after feeding, pretty efficient and the water is crystal clear.

[josie]

the air pump is a O2 Max Air Pump, 65 Liters per minute (885 Gallons per Hour), 3.9 PSI...
bougt on ebay

it suplies air to the skimmer, the koi pound and makes bubbles in the fresh and saltwater reserve...