Skimmer Question

You need to go with 9" if that it what it says. I have two octopus skimmers and have experimented with them in various configurations. They work best in about 9" of water....true. In your case I would just build a little table out of pvc and eggcrate to sit between the bottom of your sump and your skimmer. That way you can easily adjust the length of your pvc legs so that your skimmer sits in exactly 9" of water. Make sense?

 

Just build a platform for it to sit on.  If you put it deeper, it could make regulating the skimmer a little more difficult as the water pressure in the skimmer would be different than it was designed to be (you might not be able to get it to skim as dry as you want it to).  You could get a milk crate and chop it down, or make a PVC frame and attach an acrylic sheet to the top or just about anything.
--AJ

 

deeper would not work as well with it. best thing to do would either find a way to raise up the skimmer by sitting it on a tupperware container or using some eggcrate to build a platform. putting it on the return pump will end up creating micro bubbles in your display i bet

 

For a larger skimmer I would just get one of those sterelite "boxes" that are made of plastic and filled with holes... I am really not sure what the heck they are called, but I think the description makes sense. You can cut that down to the size you need, but depending on how deep your water is you could probably get away with not even gutting it down. Making your own, of course, works too. If you don;t already have the materials though, the tote idea works well if you can find one for a couple bucks on walmart clearance.

 

+1 build a platform of some sort.