Reefing on a budget can be frustrating yet with some thoughtful planning and a little courage taking on a daunting DIY project can be fun. I needed a protein skimmer but didn’t have the budget to get a nice one and the one’s in my price range would need so many mods, it would add up quick. My solution…a DIY recirculating skimmer.

I had a lot of inspiration from other DIYers out there including Randy Stacy E, Andy at Elder Reef, and William Burnett at BeanAnimal to name a few. Thanks gents for chronicling your adventures!

Well I have NEVER owned a skimmer and being a budget reefer I realized I can make some pretty handy things saving money while giving my idle hands something to do all the time. It really makes me feel more a part of the hobby and the troubleshooting and construction is fun and challenging. I think I have ready every post and visited every DIY skimmer site I could find and came up with a few great ideas.

I’d like to note that I NEVER have owned a skimmer, nor have friends in the hobby, so this is all from studying and observation. I figured the concept was relatively simple and could not afford a $500 skimmer or getting a cheapo and spending $100’s getting it close to being functional. I mean you get air and water in a violent collision and with their battle royale, you end up with some nasty nog! I looked at every skimmer I saw in any LFS I go to for inspiration and decided, why not mimic the best! Seemed to me the Deltec models had great ratings and simplicity so I am looking to mimic a Deltec AP600 as much as possible.

So a few months back I went to a local plastic shop and bought a bunch of scrap acrylic sheets, 5” diameter extruded acrylic tubing and some 3” tube. Initial plan was to have a 16” tall reaction chamber and a 6” tall collection cup with a 6” tall riser tube and get it around 24” tall. Well I got the collection cup assembly built and discovered it was going to be just a tad over 8” tall and now was faced with taking a look under the tank and see exactly what I had for space. I figured I had 24” and could MAYBE push it to 25” tall with some creative positioning. So in final construction two inches were cut making it a 14″ reaction chamber.

My original plan was to have the output enter my 18G tall sump via a bulkhead. It would mean having to drill the side of the glass sump and risk cracking and having to buy a hole saw. But after taking a look again under the tank. I have my overflow and return plumbing right over the area I was going to plant him! I was staring right up at 1” PVC and two bulky unions and cursing up a storm! I figured I could put it on the other end of the stand where I was planning to put my DIY fuge (another post entirely….I promise!) and that could give me the space but make juggling the valuable and ever shrinking real estate I have under the tank a mighty task! So I am planning for a tight, in-sump fit for now.

I was able to route a nice disc for the bottom of the collection cup and damn near screwed the whole lot up when I drilled in the 3” hole for the riser tube. I was able to get the hole close enough to accept the tube and some nice fat gaps that Weld-on 16 took care of:) I then made a nice little lid with an two acrylic discs glued together with the bottom one having a 5″ hole to fit over the top of the collection cup.

The next task was figuring out how I was going to attach the skimmer cup to the reaction chamber. I thought about some DIY twist locks, buying a 3″ union (WAY too expensive!), making a twist-lock keyhole flange (now we have to figure out o-rings and gaskets….Yikes!) and finally stumbled on this product at Wallyworld in the RV section:

Made by Camco RV called the Dual Flush, it is made from polycarbonate so its easy to cut and glue to acrylic, PLUS it has matching male and female quick connect ends AND a gasket in the female end to make a nice seal! A few cuts later I had my own twist lock!

I also toyed with the idea of a reducer cone and even attempted to heat up and make one out of acrylic which didn’t work well at all. I then thought about 86ing the idea all together and just go with a simple flat top. Well I finally decided to go with a 4×3″ ABS reducer.

Granted I have power tools but no radial arm saw, electric miter saw or table saw, so I have to rig jigs and get creative to achieve anything close to nice looking. I decided Mr. ABS Reducer needed a few trims so I first cut off the 3″ end and was able to glue the female end of the Dual Flush to it and had the male end of the Dual Flush glued to the riser tube. Sweet! Now I had an easy to remove collection cup making my job at cleaning this puppy easier! Next up was trimming off as much of the 4″ end as I could and ended up with the 8″ collection cup assembly.

Next up is finalizing the reaction chamber. Was planning on using Uniseals but have heard mixed reviews with the thinner walled acrylic tubing and getting leaks. I ended up cutting small squares of acrylic and heating and molding to the profile of the tube. This more than doubled the glueable area for the plumbing.

I am using a Rio 2100 as my pump (go ahead and flame me guys…lol) I already own the thing (remember budget here!) and it’s the new model so it should be fine until I can land me a nicer pump down the road. I plan on mesh modding it but will probably just go without at first and see what it produces before risking killing the impeller.

I have completed securing the neck to the reaction chamber and made a nice tapered acrylic piece to secure the cup and hold the return plumbing.

I made the venturi from a barbed hose fitting and inserted a piece of rigid airline tubing to feed air to the beast and completed completed modifying union fittings and attaching to pump. I then secured the feed intake, with a hose attached via a barbed hose fitting, will have a ball valve right off the side of the HOB overflow to adjust flow. The return portion is 1″ PVC and secured a gate valve in the mix to control the flow. i then cut the base from 1/2″ acrylic and added acyclic ring to give more surface area to secure reaction chamber

I haven’t secured the plumbing to the reaction chamber yet. I think I want to fire it up first since once its glued, its glued. I have the plumbing as close to the chamber as possible since I am going to be putting this in my 18g tall sump which has the same footprint as a 10g. Its going to be tight, but I’m running out of room!!!