Whether it is the $1 Mame Nano skimmer, or the traffic cone skimmer we’re big fans of cheap, DIY protein skimmers. Rather than the ghetto fabulous skimmers we covered previously however, the skimmer built in this tutorial is totally legit. The tutorial is mostly in Mandarin, but contains enough pictures to be comprehensible even without Google Translate. Using a modified Maxijet 1200, cone shaped body, and a bubble plate diffuser this skimmer would likely keep up with most other nano skimmers on the market. Using only a heating element, a drill and a cutting tools to cut the acrylic (which you could probably have cut to size by your acrylic source if you don’t own cutting tools) this skimmer should be relatively easy to make if you are a more advanced DIYer as well.
First off the Maxijet is modifed for maximum air chopping performance. This is achieved by cutting a groove in the rotor blade of the maxijet, creating two stacked blades. Gutter guard is then wrapped around the impeller resulting in a mesh wheel impeller. The impeller is put back into the pump, a venturi is added and the pump is finished. To create the cone skimmer body, a paper “mold” is first created by wrapping the paper around a large glass and cutting it to seize (a 8-12” glass is used in this case but you could probably use any size depending on your skimming needs). The acrylic used for the skimmer body is then cut to size based on the paper blue print, after it which it is bend around the glass using a heat gun. The rest of the skimmer is then created by gluing the assorted pieces shown in the tutorial. The pictures in the tutorial are probably a lot more clear than we could ever be, so be sure to check out the full instructions on the Hong Kong Reef Forum.
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