my own mesh wheel impeller mod...

[flipteg]

inspired by this thread (thanks Joshua1023), i looked into it and found out that this mod is not all that hard to do... so i ran to Lowes to look for the Enkamat, but i didn't have any luck finding it... i went to Wal-Mart and found a paint scrapper in the paint section... it say on the box it is an alternative to steel mesh... i bought that and i also bought the thinest fishing line i found which is 0.009"...

total cost is $4.51...

this is the skimmer i have in my 30 gallons... although i'm fairly happy with the skimmer over all, it doesn't allow the cup height to be adjusted... the only adjustment it has is how much air gets into the venturi... needless to say, i've never gotten the frothy looking skimmate like everyone posts... the bubbles that hang at the top of the skimmer is very sparse and i can easily see through it...

the skimmer came with an OceanRunner 2000 pump with a needle wheel impeller... it looks like this...

this is what the impeller looks like after i tied the 3M brillo pad onto it... i didn't have to cut off any of the impeller from stock because the impeller has so much room when it is sitting inside the pump... i just had to shave the pad to about a quarter of an inch so that it will fit...

the pump is not making any noticeable change in noise after the mod... it has been 30 minutes since i turned the skimmer back on and white frothy skimmate is already collecting at the output of the skimmer...

 

[curtisk]

How's the skimmate looking now flipteg? I'm waiting patiently for my enkamat to come in for my octopus RPS-1000 so I can do my mods on it. Have you noticed any changes in the size and amount of bubbles you're getting inside that skimmer?

 

[flipteg]

with the added mesh, the bubble production is noticeably much more efficient... the way my skimmer is, the only thing it allows to be adjusted is how much air gets sucked in... obviously, the pump puts out more water preassure if it is not sucking as much air... since the mod makes what air it sucks in more efficient at producing bubbles, i can turn down how much air it takes in... with the mod, when i completely take out the air valve, the skimmer goes crazy... the only time i've ever seen this before is when i put cyano bacteria medication a few months back...

also, the bubbles are now hanging in the middle of the output spout... that never happened before with this skimmer... bubbles usually settle in at the very bottom of the cup... when they get "sticky" enough, they will shoot out of the spout... but it never stayed in the middle...

 

[Joshua1023]

Good deal. It's funny, once you start you just can't stop. I started modding my CSS220, then it was on to my Prizm Pro, and now I'm trying to find some good mods on my dads SeaClone and my Skilter. By the way the mesh mod on the MJ1200 kicks out a buncha teensy bubbles. I believe it makes it quiter than stock also.

 

[Henry Bowman]

I am going to do the same thing to a Euroreef CS 80. I'll post when I get it up and running.