My new 6x2x2.5 'FOWLR + Fake coral' tank

[lkoivoon]

The 3 holes are then covered with masking tape to prevent water enters through them into the electrical socket.....

[lkoivoon]

All switches can be reached without removing the cover.......

[Patrick]

Hi Lew, you are a real DIY King! Learnt alot of stuff from you blog. It your ideas coming. Where do you usually get the perspex how much $$ and what cutter do you use? Care to show some pics? I want to give it a try at DIY also. Thanks!

[lkoivoon]

Hi Lew, you are a real DIY King! Learnt alot of stuff from you blog. It your ideas coming. Where do you usually get the perspex how much $$ and what cutter do you use? Care to show some pics? I want to give it a try at DIY also. Thanks!

Hi Patrick, you can get the perspex from Dama at Ubi Road 3 (www.dama.com.sg). If my memory does not fail me, a full piece of perspex of size 4ft by 8 ft is about $30 - $40. You can buy the whole piece and ask them to cut into smaller pieces for you. Or you can just buy any sizes you want. Check with them, it is not very expensive.

This a is perspex cutter which you can get from most hardware shop. It should cost less than $10.

[lkoivoon]

This is how you use the cutter. You should only cut about half way (or a little bit more but not fully) into the perspex (ie, cut into a depth of about half the thickness of the perpsex).

[lkoivoon]

After cutting (about half the depth into the perspex), place the perspex A on a table and align the line that was cut on perspec A with the side/egde of the table. Then place another perspex B (or anything that is straight and solid) on top perspex A and again ensure that the side/edge of perspex B is also align with the line that was cut on perspex A. Then use one hand to press hard on perspex B (as near to the side/edge of the table as possible) and use another hand to give a sudden jerk on perspex A.

[lkoivoon]

This way you will get a nice and straight piece of perspex.........

[Patrick]

Thanks Lew. Will start DIY during my long yr end leave.

[southpaw23]

Hi southpaw23, can enlighten me how the waste collector stops the skimmer from skimming when full?

Hi lkoivoon,

Sorry for the late reply....well, basically, most skimmers are built air tight (just realised that this applies to mainly becketts but with the exception of a few) but as a result, when connected to a waste collector, all the air travels to the waste collector cup. If u noticed, most WC have a ping pong ball at the top of the cup and the reason for this is that when the waste has filled the entire cup, it will raise the ping pong ball to the top and this covering the airhole. When air is restricted from escaping the WC, it indirectly restricts the flow of air entering the skimmer as well, thus stopping the bubbling effect within the skimmer and consequently stops skimming actitivites.

This would also apply in the case of non air tight skimmers, as the WC fills up and the air passage for the WC is blocked, preventing anymore skimate from flowing down to the WC thus forcing the skimate to end up flowing back into the skimmer neck itself and chamber instead.

hope i make some sense...

ps. Great handy work by the way....

[lkoivoon]

Hi lkoivoon,

Sorry for the late reply....well, basically, most skimmers are built air tight (just realised that this applies to mainly becketts but with the exception of a few) but as a result, when connected to a waste collector, all the air travels to the waste collector cup. If u noticed, most WC have a ping pong ball at the top of the cup and the reason for this is that when the waste has filled the entire cup, it will raise the ping pong ball to the top and this covering the airhole. When air is restricted from escaping the WC, it indirectly restricts the flow of air entering the skimmer as well, thus stopping the bubbling effect within the skimmer and consequently stops skimming actitivites.

This would also apply in the case of non air tight skimmers, as the WC fills up and the air passage for the WC is blocked, preventing anymore skimate from flowing down to the WC thus forcing the skimate to end up flowing back into the skimmer neck itself and chamber instead.

hope i make some sense...

ps. Great handy work by the way....

Thanks sounthpaw23 , now I think I understand how it works.

But I still don't get how it can work for non air tight skimmer. In this case, after the WC is filled, although the ping pong ball might be able to stop the skimmate to continue flowing into the WC but the skimmer will continue to produce skimmate and eventually the cup will be filled and overflown with skimmate - did I miss out anything or maybe I did not fully understand how a WC works?

Anyway, many thanks for the explanation . I will take a good look at skimmers with WC next time to understand how WC can prevent both air tight and non air tight skimmers from overflowing from its collection cup.

Thanks

[southpaw23]

The rational behind the non air tight skimmers is that the skimate produced in the collection cup of the skimmer is liquid, while the neck of the skimmer is mainly foam. When the skimate reaches the point where it overflows into the neck of the skimmer, it will merely fall back into the body of the skimmer...and i believe when this happens, it reduces the height of the foam on the neck and possibly reduces skimming capabilities to a certain degree. With skimate not being allowed to effectively flow up the neck of the skimmer, it reduces skimming and doesnt pose any danger for the skimmer to overflow.

Please don't take my words for gold....this intepretation is based on something i've read earlier as well as some common logic. Hope that helps you out some....

cheers.

[lkoivoon]

Hi southpaw23. This is quite funny, because if that is the case then all skimmers will never overflow but maybe you are right as I am still new to skimmers. Anyway, thanks for further explanations.

[lkoivoon]

I DIY this for ozone.

I do not want to inject ozone directly into the skimmer as skimmer is too costly and heard about many problems like valves and o-rings being 'eaten' up by the ozone.

[lkoivoon]

Here is the ORP meter and its probe..

[lkoivoon]

Here is the ORP meter, air pump for the ozone and the ozone. Might add/diy air drier later..

[lkoivoon]

Again, I am using the overflow for the ozone injection.

I removed one of the overflow pipes and replaced it with the diy item for the ozone. An wooden air stone driven by the air-pump through the ozoniser is placed inside the diy item. In this manner, the diy item acts like a counter-current skimmer where air/ozone travels upwards in the diy item and the overflow water travels downwards.

Like to check with you guys do you think this will work? Currently set the ozoniser at 25 mg and run for 2 hours per day - just to see whether it works.

[lkoivoon]

Zoom in.....

[lkoivoon]

This is how I place the carbon in the sump. The bag has the same width as the sump. Almost all water from the compartment where injection of ozone takes place will pass through the carbon before return back up to the tank.

[lkoivoon]

Another cover for the second electrical power sockets.

[lkoivoon]

Third and the last cover for the meters etc...

[lkoivoon]

I have more or less completed the setup. This is the right side of cabinet.

[lkoivoon]

Left side of cabinet......

[lkoivoon]

Full view.

[lkoivoon]

Strongly recommend to those who like to do diy to buy this tool for cutting the PVC pipe. It is very easy to use (as compared to saw) and it gives a very nice cut on the pipe. It only costs less than $15. I got me at $12.90.

Cheers...

[shootsimon]

Nice and neat sump!

Where did you get such a big filter bag? And where did you bought the pipe cutter ffrom?