My first CSS 65 that I bought used to leak around the outflow knob, and it was very touchy in regards to tank water level etc....A call to Coralife and talked to Roland had me a new skimmer body on the way.......The new body arrived and there is definately a change on the outflow control.......anyway I hook it up and the darn water inlet tube to skimmer body leaks like a sieve.....call Roland back, and he ships me another body, but this itme its the old style body which leaks like the oriignal skimmer did.....call him back and explain to him and yet again get another skimmer body sent, no charge........which was supposed to be of the newer style but alas, it is yet another old style.
I liked the new style, as it was leak proof at the know no matter how high yu ran the water level, so I am content with it dripping water back into the tank at the leaky water inlet tube connection until I do get a newer body for this skimmer.
Anyhow, now I am setting on these new old styole skimmer bodies.....so I decide to dissect the original body, mainly the adjustment knob section. I cut the upflow tube about 3" below the valve portion, which gave me a suiutbale length to chuck up in a lathe. I then used a parting tool to cut through the upper end by the red knob......Got that separated, and started ot look it over. Its no wonder those things leak like they do......There is perhaps 3/16" worth of material the stem for the knob goes through and its a relatively loose fit......The new models have a O ring seal on the valves stem....So I set out to modify this old valve and fit a O ring to it. I cut a plug of PVC ,mateiral that is 1/2" thick so it fit inside the end cap under the valve, and bored it to match the hole in the valves cap. Getting the red knob off without busting it or the stem was the tricky part. I solved that problem and got the red knob off though.
Machined a grove in the PVC plug, and also cut a chamfer on the end that will fit against the inside of the valves upper cap portion. Installed two orings in the grove and chamfer, and glued it all together with Weldon #16. Worked fine. The plastic the skimmer is made from is ABS. I can also fish out those orings and install new orings if necessary with a little bit of fiddling around so if they wear in the future it shold not be a problem to replace the seals.....
Now all I had to do was reattach the cut upflow tube and the valves upper cap portion back on the skimmer body. I used a grey PVC fitting and bored it to make a thin walled coupling which slips over the cut pieces snug, and secured them in place with #16 weldon. Allowed 24 hours for cure time, and installed it to see what happens. It works fine, no matter how far up I run my water level there is no longer any leaks around the valve......The next thing I am going to do is cut off the new style valve and attach it to one of the other older style skimmer bodies, as I do not want to gob on gue etc to stop that leak on the inlet tube as a stop gap, so cutting in the new valve would look a lot better since its in plain sight and viewable in the living room as its a hob setup.....Other than the slight bulge from the home brew coupling splice you can not tell skimmer wa ever taken apart.
This entire mod of the valve could be done without a lathe if your carefull. To remove red knob without busting it, simply drill a hole through the top, only through the red knob itself, and not into the stem. Support the red knob and use a drift punch and hammer to knock it off the stem. Its glued on the stem, but the drift punch will break the glues bond from the stem. I plan on just setting the knob back on the stem and not use any glue to attach it, as its a pretty good friction fit anyhow. So now what do I do with those extra skimmer bodies.........I ofered to send them back to Roland, but he said he did not want them back........any ideas what to do with them?
I liked the new style, as it was leak proof at the know no matter how high yu ran the water level, so I am content with it dripping water back into the tank at the leaky water inlet tube connection until I do get a newer body for this skimmer.
Anyhow, now I am setting on these new old styole skimmer bodies.....so I decide to dissect the original body, mainly the adjustment knob section. I cut the upflow tube about 3" below the valve portion, which gave me a suiutbale length to chuck up in a lathe. I then used a parting tool to cut through the upper end by the red knob......Got that separated, and started ot look it over. Its no wonder those things leak like they do......There is perhaps 3/16" worth of material the stem for the knob goes through and its a relatively loose fit......The new models have a O ring seal on the valves stem....So I set out to modify this old valve and fit a O ring to it. I cut a plug of PVC ,mateiral that is 1/2" thick so it fit inside the end cap under the valve, and bored it to match the hole in the valves cap. Getting the red knob off without busting it or the stem was the tricky part. I solved that problem and got the red knob off though.
Machined a grove in the PVC plug, and also cut a chamfer on the end that will fit against the inside of the valves upper cap portion. Installed two orings in the grove and chamfer, and glued it all together with Weldon #16. Worked fine. The plastic the skimmer is made from is ABS. I can also fish out those orings and install new orings if necessary with a little bit of fiddling around so if they wear in the future it shold not be a problem to replace the seals.....
Now all I had to do was reattach the cut upflow tube and the valves upper cap portion back on the skimmer body. I used a grey PVC fitting and bored it to make a thin walled coupling which slips over the cut pieces snug, and secured them in place with #16 weldon. Allowed 24 hours for cure time, and installed it to see what happens. It works fine, no matter how far up I run my water level there is no longer any leaks around the valve......The next thing I am going to do is cut off the new style valve and attach it to one of the other older style skimmer bodies, as I do not want to gob on gue etc to stop that leak on the inlet tube as a stop gap, so cutting in the new valve would look a lot better since its in plain sight and viewable in the living room as its a hob setup.....Other than the slight bulge from the home brew coupling splice you can not tell skimmer wa ever taken apart.
This entire mod of the valve could be done without a lathe if your carefull. To remove red knob without busting it, simply drill a hole through the top, only through the red knob itself, and not into the stem. Support the red knob and use a drift punch and hammer to knock it off the stem. Its glued on the stem, but the drift punch will break the glues bond from the stem. I plan on just setting the knob back on the stem and not use any glue to attach it, as its a pretty good friction fit anyhow. So now what do I do with those extra skimmer bodies.........I ofered to send them back to Roland, but he said he did not want them back........any ideas what to do with them?
