cpr bak pak questions????????????

[laughlin]

do you really need the bubble trap box and/or the pre skimmer

 

[ochriso]

No it will work should work just fine with out it our has for years just a few micro bubbles to see.

 

[bobintrees]

Quick hijack here, how does this skimmer perform? My bro is looking at picking one up.

 

[Fish Ace]

Quick hijack here, how does this skimmer perform? My bro is looking at picking one up.

Tell your bro keep looking. I like the design but to many air bubbles from the return to the DT.

 

[dread240]

I use the bubble plate on mine (the one that goes inside the body with the 45 degree plates), and that's it. No pre-skimmer box, no outlet bubble trap, and get 0 bubbles in my tank from it.

I also get very good performance with the maxi-jet 1200 on it with my 29g tank, but I have heard that there are definitely betters out there as well too

 

[jdargonaut]

I've had one for 2 years and I like it better than my Aqua C Urchin. Works fine for a cheap skimmer but I might get the surface skimming box, without it you get a lot of nasty buildup on the surface of the water that looks like pond scum, without the box the skimmer won't touch that stuff. No microbubble problems here.

 

[skimmy]

mesh mod that maxijet, and make a new venturi, and you can double the performance of that skimmer;

 

[dread240]

I'm a little confused... my maxi-jet cpr isn't set up anything like that

 

[skimmy]

no it's not...
I modified the venturi with parts left over from the maxi-jet that were still in the box, and then dremeled the fins down on the impeller and attached a layer of enkamat on the smaller fins with fishing line.
like I said, it probably doubles the power.

 

[dread240]

I have the venturi intake on mine... nothing else done... but I've heard that hooking an air pump to it is amazing, ever tried that?

 

[ochriso]

Added an airstone about six months ago and it did increase production. There is a good write up somewhere on the internet just don't remember where

 

[travis32]

I was told that you can run air line into the Air intake tube, and hook the airline to an air pump to increase the performance. I have everything necessary to do it I think, but, I haven't tried it yet. I like the skimmer, I just replaced the airline on the pump and cleaned all the connectors out and I'm getting a half of the skimmate cup filled per day with it at the lowest level. Trying to get the most out to give my fisht he best quality water in case my fish is actually sick.

 

[dread240]

I actually just tried that yesterday with a tetra whisper pump... it made no bubbles in the skimmer at all and just put them right at the tank. If anybody has a full write up on how to do that I'd appreciate it. I have mine w/o a pump pullin a half a cup of skimmate a day, but it's very wet too

 

[ochriso]

I fished the air line thru the second chamber and into the bottom of the bubble chamber and it seems to have helped the skimmer perform more consistent. still haven't found the info i used.

 

[ochriso]

http://www.athiel.com/lib10/bakpak.htm this is the link to the airstone info that i used. maybe it will help

 

[dread240]

cool, I may give the airstone a try. I'm kinda bummed that I just returned that whisper pump today considering it didn't work like I thought it would.. might be going back to buy it again tomorrow

 

[ochriso]

it seems to even out skimate production as the water level varies and if the intake gets any build up on it.