Easy DIY Protien Skimmer For Nano Tank.

Ok guys, I'm really not a big believer in skimmers on small tanks but I saw this "Mame" skimmer on the net and decided to build my own version and I gotta tell you it works awesome to be so simple. Below is a list of materials it took to build this thing.

1. Small Walmart air pump
2. 24 oz. Aqua Fina water bottle
3. Wood air stone
4. Air line  6'
5. 7/16 clear tube 6'
6. Connector for drain line to bottle cap, I had this laying around.
7. Container for skimmate to drain in.
8. 1" pvc "T"
9. Couple of zip ties
10. Some five minute epoxy
Everything pictured here except air pump, airline, Zip ties, epoxy, container for skimmate.



Completed skimmer



Closeup of air stone in skimmer base



Closeup of cap with drain connection installed



Pic of skimmer running i9n display so you can see how it works



Skimmer inserted into compartment on my JBJ 28 led



Skimmate from skimmer after only a few hours



Now for the details, This skimmer fits tight in my JBJ compartment so I can raise or lower it easy and it stays in place. If you are mounting it in a display or somewhere that its not tight you will need to figure a way to hold it in place, in the JBJ its not a problem. as a though two of the two little fishes nano magnet cleaners could be used, just superglue the in tank part inside the skimmer, one top one bottom and use the outside magnet parts to attach skimmer to glass, just a thought!

First off I used a drimmel tool and cut a hole in the bottom of the water bottle to allow the 1'"T" to slip inside the bottle, I used a little five minute expoxy to glue this in place. I then cut a hole in the bottle cap to accept the fitting for the drain hose. I also used the epoxy to glue the adapter in the cap. I ordered my wooden air stones from ebay, three 3" ones for like $9.00 I then took a razor knife and cut one in half making it 1 1/2" long, when you do this it leaves a hole in the end of the air stone so use a little left over epoxy to close off this hole, just a little to stop air from going out the big hole, this way you get two air stones out of one.

Attach the air stone to the airline ans use a zip tie to strap the airline to the skimmer body. put the skimmer where you want it and adjust it for height. You want it to produce good foam, if your container is getting clear liquid you need to raise the skimmer if no liquid lower it. It took me no time to get mine producing really nasty skimmate.

Drill some holes low down on the water bottle for return water from the skimmer, no air gets back to the tank, inflow is through the 1"T", check out the pic of it running in my display and closeup of air stone for location of these holes.

"WARNING" if you are placing this unit in the rear chamber of an AIO nano like my JBJ and you turn your main pumps off for any reason the skimmers air pump needs to be on the same power bar as the pumps, when the pumps are shut off on these tanks the water rises about 1 1'2" in the rear chamber and this will cause the skimmer to push out really wet foam. My tank is on a reef keeper controller and when I hit standby to feed it shuts of the main pumps so I plugged the air pump into the same bar as main pumps so the air pump shuts off also.

If you build one of these guys post your results on here!

Wow thats nifty! Good job!