If you missed out on Black Friday deals yesterday or feel that there wasn’t really much for you, here’s a nice deal on a DIY nano protein skimmer you can build at home. This clone of the svelte and diminutive hand made Japanese glass Mame Nano Skimmer is just as effective yet easy enough to put together with the parts you can buy with the spare change found in the average couch.
The construction of the $1 Mame Nano Skimmer clone should be easy to accomplish with parts found in the typical reefer’s fishroom and a water bottle. Like the Mame Nano Skmmer the bottom of the skimmer body is simply open to the aquarium water with a wooden airstone positioned as low down as possible. The tubing was found while rummaging in one of our own aquarium parts bins, the water bottle was pulled form the fridge, the elbow in the cap of the water bottle is from a Rio pump, the air pump is a trustworthy Luft pump and the whole assembly is held to the tank wall with a Two Little Fishies nano magnet.
All these parts alone obviously cost more than one dollar but the main equipment has been used for years and will continue to serve aquarium functions for a long time to come – the wooden airstone is the only part which is actually ‘used up’ in the construction and operation of this Mame Nano Protein skimmer clone. The DIY nano skimmer is not super great to look at inside the tank, but it will soon reside out of view in the first compartment of this EcoMini 28 gallon like the Mame Nano Skimmer did before it.
This story was originally published in November 2011 and we hope you’ll agree it’s worth a revisit
