Hacking up my $310.00 Eheim N/W pump

[A sea K]

I posted a thread on this in the DIY and have received little input.
If you have the time please jump over and lend a hand.
I could use some advice before proceeding.
Thanks, Chris

 

[skwirl]

what are you planning to do with it?

 

[A sea K]

Extricate enhanced performance. Where have you been?

Maybe I should add the thread title:
Opinions and advice on modding ER SPE5

 

[sjm817]

I'd leave it alone. Has anyone gotten better performance with a mesh mod on this pump? IMO, and IME, the mesh is not always better. Its a good way to soup up an under performing pump, but not necessarily on a good pump. I never tried it with an Eheim, but did so on an ER SP5. I got a little more air (20 Vs 18 LPM), A LOT more noise and power usage and decreased skimming. The stock ER PW worked better.

 

[A sea K]

smj817,
Your pm is full.
Your questions are what I would like to know before going ahead with this. I ve seen bits and pieces of info on modding this pump but no real info. Like you my first few mesh mods on my sedra 9000 were less than ideal, the last however seemed very good but I wont know for certain till later in the week when the meters arrive.
I would hate to damage the pump and hence the thread. Did you read it?

 

[sjm817]

I'll clean out my PMs. No, I didn't see that thread. Link? The Sedra pumps are not great performers out of the box, and are generally good candidates for a mesh mod. The ER PW pumps work very well stock, which is why you dont see people modding them.

 

[A sea K]

How do I link? serious.

 

[sjm817]

Just go to your thread, copy the URL from the browser address bar and paste it in a post.

 

[A sea K]

Would you be kind enough to do this for me? Its in the DIY forum,still on the first page. This request comes from a severly challenged PC user. Thanks

 

[sjm817]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1124396

I looked at the thread. I still think you should leave it alone. That pump as is draws the proper amount of air for that body size. You basically now have an RC250 which is a great skimmer. Feed it with 1.5x system volume H2O, not a NW pump and it should work fine. You can have too much air, not enough water throughput which will not work well.

 

[A sea K]

Thanks for posting that.
Your concerns as far as too much air and water are valid. I had made an earlier post to obtain that info. I still dont know the answer but will hopefully find out. I'm fairly certain the body can handle my target range of 1200-1400 lph. I dont feel that to be a unrealistic goal given this pumps potential.

 

[sjm817]

The thing is, dont forget about H2O. You need the right ratio of O2 and H2O. My RS250 with the stock SP5 (nonrecirc) was ~ 1200 LPH, 325 GPH.

 

[A sea K]

The sp5 is the GenX 6100 correct?
The figures you posted are very interesting. I dont recall the H2O rating on the Eheim, the air was 900lph and low in comparison to the Genx, but I need to find out. I read an article pertaining to feed rate H2O through skimmers, if I did the chart right my system needed 170gph. now I have to figure out the relationship of H2O/airmixture through singlepass and recirc skimmers alike to see where I stand and what I need to aim for.