DIY venturi

[loganj]

The first attempt at this did not turn out well...it worked, but not well enough to suit me. This one rocks! I think it'll go head to head with the Kent any day.
Parts:
1- 1" PVC coupling
1- 3/4" PVC coupling
2- 3/4" PVC male adapters
About 6" of 3/4" PVC pipe
Water drill from Lowes
About 1 1/2" of 3/16" thinwall acrylic pipe (air line for undergravel filter)

Water drill from Lowes??? Go to the sprinkler section and there is a water drill that attaches to your garden hose. It consists of a cone shaped piece and a water hose adapter. You'll need the cone shaped piece. Grind/sand the flange off the small end of the cone and insert it into the 1" coupling so that the end of the cone sticks out the other end of the coupling. Glue it in with PVC glue. Slide the 3/4 coupling into the open end of the 1" coupling so that it covers the cone and glue it (use lots of glue here...it's not a tight fit). Insert a 1 1/2" piece of 3/4" pipe into the 3/4" coupling and glue. Drill a 3/16 hole in the pipe about 1/8" to 1/4" behind the end of the cone. Glue the 3/16 tube in the hole with gel type super glue. Glue 1 1/2" of 3/4" pipe into the other end of the venturi (into the open end of the cone shaped piece). Glue a 3/4" male adapter to each end and you're ready to start skimming. See pics and this might make some sense :? .
Logan J

 

[loganj]

More pics

More pics.

 

[loganj]

And more pics

And more pics.

 

[loganj]

I put this venturi on the big home made skimmer today with a Mag 12 pump. It had a 8" head of foam within 10 minutes and continued to do that all day. It worked even better than I thought it would and costs about $5.00 to build. The only tools needed are a grinder (file would work though), PVC cutters, and a drill with a 3/16" bit.
Logan J

 

[rthoman]

Do you have a link about the home made skimmer??

 

[loganj]

No, the skimmer came with a 110 gal tank that I bought a long time ago. It is very simple construction though and wouldn't be hard to build with a few basic tools and some knowledge of working with PVC. Have you checked the ozreef.org DIY pages? There are several plans for skimmers on there. The only thing I don't like about mine is it's almost all PVC. I would build with acrylic as much as possible so I could see what was going on in there. Let me know what you find in the way of plans and I'll compare them to this skimmer.
Logan J

 

[reefrunner69]

Your homemade venturi looks like a close cousin to a becket modification. You might consider doing one of them.

 

[loganj]

OK...I did some quick research on the Beckett injectors. I'm not really sure I understand exactly how they work...have to do some more looking. I would like to attempt to build an HSA skimmer as I have read that they are more efficient. I have found a source for acrylic pipe close by here so I may attempt it. I thought the DIY venturi might be an alternative to shucking out the $$ for a factory made one for those of us who are on a tight budget. Got any links on the design on the Beckett injector? I looked on Google, but don't have time right now to look further.
Logan J