My First Aquarium and DIY Skimmer

My lights will be here MONDAY....I can't wait!!!!
I'll post before and after pictures of the tank here for reference later or by others.

hows you skimmer workin now that it's been up and running for a bit? I'm still on the fence about building one myself. Would you be able to post a couple pics of it and the stuff it's pulling out. I assume your water clarity is still pretty good and clear from watching the videos you posted. Also, how often do you have to replace the airstone? Your tank looks awesome by the way! Glad the problems were fixed!

Palimow said:

hows you skimmer workin now that it's been up and running for a bit? I'm still on the fence about building one myself. Would you be able to post a couple pics of it and the stuff it's pulling out. I assume your water clarity is still pretty good and clear from watching the videos you posted. Also, how often do you have to replace the airstone? Your tank looks awesome by the way! Glad the problems were fixed!

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Sorry for the delay on posting. I have been under the weather for the last two days. Let me get to your comments:
The skimmer is total awesome! In just two weeks, it pulled 1/2 gallon of stuff with the color of motor oil from the water. It's working nicley! I can't get anything to pick up on my API testing kit..lol:bounce: All I am using in it a single, 1" x 2" basswood DIY air stone I made with HOT glue powered by a Tetra 150 Deep Water pump. I have had my new air stones up for about two weeks and they are running strong. I'll try to get some pictures tonight.
The water very clear now! The skimmer is cleaning a lot of stuff out of the water and I have regimented my feeding amounts. I also just completed my dad's DIY skimmer and overflows. We put two overflows on his tank because it's a 125 gallon. When I designed his on paper I had hind sight from mine, so his is a lot nicer!

I'll say this about building your own: It's cheaper but it requires a lot of patience. Study the CONCEPT of a skimmer and any design will work. The SCIENCE behind a skimmer is the same no matter what type you use. Mine is about four foot tall and uses a really good air stone. I dropped the air stone down the top of the skimmer after running it through a 1/2 pvc pipe in order to sink it. It floated at first so I added a cap to the air stone side of the pipe and it sunk like a rock:)

Also, I got my lights in!! They are awesome! I love the moon lighting at night! I'll get some picks tonight also! By the way, a 42" light fixture does not fit a 42 inch tank:frustrat:

Ok, I finally got some pics! Here we go! Theres a couple new entries also:)

So, anyone have a good idea for the timing sequence I should put on the light timer? I'm thinking the following:

• 11 hours all lights
• 1 hour on each end of the 11 hour block with only half
• the rest will be be the LED moon lights

Great job on that skimmer! My boyfriend also built us one and it works great. Ours is about standard skimmer size and made a window on the side so we can see the bubbles/flow.. just a tip! ;)

THANK YOU!! Ah yes, I saw that in a thing online. Looked pretty sweet but I had enough leaks with it as it is...lol and with this one, I built it on a budget! :compute: I studied about 30 skimmers it seemed. Water is clear and the test kit readings are ideal so I must have done something right!:h5:

My clown has doubled in size size I bought him as a mere pup...or , well what do you call a baby fish??..lol

:passedoutI am so excited to have a fish tank!!!!!! Man, I think the 106 degree tempature here in Arkansas is getting to me..lol

11 hours is really long for lights to be on, it might cause some massive algae issues, i would keep the lights on 8-9 hours a day


And baby fish are fry :)

Ok, i'll do 1 hour half lights, 9 hours full lights, 1 hour half lights and then 13 hours moon lights:)
That should be a 24 hour day.

That sounds good!

I can see it now, my wife will be in my office on the laptop about 1minute before the lights come on and then she'll have a heart attack when they flick on by themselves...lol:)

How long does a frogspawn take to grow? The one at the LFS was about the size of a grapefruit I guess. Don't know how old though.

That depends on so many things that vary from coral to coral and tank to tank, but LFS are usually in the slow growth. New heads can form pretty fast, but it can take a while for the new skeleton to grow in.

ok, sounds good. I just curious. I always ask the people the fish store how long they take to grow and how big and they never seem to have a answer. This stuff is useful for planning purposes. What do you think of the one I got? The picture is after it was in the water for 1 day. It seems to be doing fine. I left a 6 inch perimeter around it for growth in the future. Think I should target feed it or will it grab stuff from the water?

I dont know and I will never be able to tell you how fast that coral will grow because i know know what water conditions you have, what water conditions that particular coral likes best etc.

Spot feeding will make the fleshy part grow faster, but not the hard skeletal part I have found. Also I have never been able to target feed my frogspawn like that, it has never put its feeder tenticles out

little_fish said:

I dont know and I will never be able to tell you how fast that coral will grow because i know know what water conditions you have, what water conditions that particular coral likes best etc.

Spot feeding will make the fleshy part grow faster, but not the hard skeletal part I have found. Also I have never been able to target feed my frogspawn like that, it has never put its feeder tenticles out

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Sorry, I meant what do you think of mine as far as the healthiness, not the growth. I should have been more clear:frustrat::frustrat: Do think I selected a good one?:mrgreen:

looks very nice and healthy :)

:scratchchThis may sound like a stupid questions but I want to know. can I skim the water TOO clean? I am cleaning out some serious stuff from the water.