hacking the tunze in-tank collection cup

[esacjack]

I love the intank stuff. The only thing I dont like, is the collection cup for the tunze skimmer. It's plagued me for years how terribly these two meshed up, even though they were designed for each other. The cup is always wobbly, and always lets air escape. This week I've been helping a friend build a new tank. One of the items we acquired was a tunze skimmer with the intank collection cup. Ugh! The death wobble irritated me instantly. Well, fear not! If you've dipped your corals like a good boy or girl, you have the fix in your home!

Things you'll need :

Lugols Plastic Container (The clear bottle the lugols comes in)

Scissors/Razor Blade

Sharpie

In-Tank Collection Cup

Tunze 9001

Take the labels off the lugols bottle

If you look through the top of your skimmer with the cup out, you'll see a hole, almost cone shaped/funnel shaped pointing up at you. Squeeze the lugols bottle through the top of the skimmers top plate, till it pushes down on that 'cone'. The lugols bottle will not go gently into this hole, its a squeeze, and work-it, type of fit..(this is a good thing) Before moving onto the next step, ensure its seating properly, and not causing the lid to pop off once pressed down.

Next, using a sharpie, follow the edge of your skimmers neck, around the lugols container.

Once you've traced the outline, remove the lugols tube from the skimmer plate, and trim it according to your tracing. A little light sanding, and it should be flush with the top of your skimmer, but allowing a 1/8" gap between your set screw.

Now place your collection cup back into the lugols tube. It should rest inside of the tube. ( Dont forget to hook your air tubing back up!)

Now it sits perfectly still, and has an air-tight seal. Note: You may need to re-tune your skimmer after this.

Before:

After:

Total Cost : Nada!

p.s. apologies about how dirty the skimmer is, I havent cleaned it up yet

[victoly]

Applause.gif!

[FarmerTy]

This just in, I have a lugols solution plastic container for sale... asking $30. Just kidding.

[bige]

Nice job. Did you move your magnet too?

[esacjack]

we bought the skimmer used, and it was already relocated to the side. If I were to ever move the magnet, I would definitely use the larger tunze magnets, vs the 1". We found the magnet didn't hold well, so we swapped it for one of the 2" version I had laying around.