Removing the Pinwheel from Sicce Pump

Not really, the white one with the mesh i think would give you the same results, the PPW is probably a gimick i dont know.

PPW is thicker, stiffer and is higher quality Pinwheel. The factory one is a lil flimsy.

There is a larger PPW thats available at Reefspecialty.com and that would make a difference for your size skimmer. I got the small one because the guy said that the large one would make too many bubbles and is too much for my skimmer.

Mine is the Octopus Extreme 160.
 
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I want to clarify something here ...

ai-reefer meshed the pinwheel. Most reefers DO NOT mesh the pinwheel. They mesh the yellow impellers that come with the skimmer.

Hummermaniac ... You skimmer pumps should have the pinwheels installed inside or them. There should be 1 yellow impeller for each pump inside the box. These are actually the regular sicce impellers that are used for pumping water. The Sicce pumps were not originally designed as skimmer pumps but as water pumps. The yellow impellers are the ones that would be used on the Sicce pump where the pump to be used as a water pump.
It is these yellow impellers than reefers cut the flutes off of and then attach the mesh.

You should see these in the box and should have one for each pump.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14806474#post14806474 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DarG
I want to clarify something here ...

ai-reefer meshed the pinwheel. Most reefers DO NOT mesh the pinwheel. They mesh the yellow impellers that come with the skimmer.

Hummermaniac ... You skimmer pumps should have the pinwheels installed inside or them. There should be 1 yellow impeller for each pump inside the box. These are actually the regular sicce impellers that are used for pumping water. The Sicce pumps were not originally designed as skimmer pumps but as water pumps. The yellow impellers are the ones that would be used on the Sicce pump where the pump to be used as a water pump.
It is these yellow impellers than reefers cut the flutes off of and then attach the mesh.

You should see these in the box and should have one for each pump.
Click to expand...

Weird, I only found one set of mesh and one yellow impeller, I'll go look again. So do you think its a good idea to mesh the White Pin Wheel? Or is it one of those things that its ideal if its done but not necessary? I just opened my pump and yes they are installed the white ones.
 
Should be one yellow per pump.

I wouldnt mesh a pinwheel. I can get more air from meshing the yellow disc because I can get more mesh on the disc than on a pinwheel. And if I did get as much on the pinwheel, I doubt the pins on the wheel would be doing anything to help anyway.

If you only got one yellow impeller, contact the dealer.

There is never enough mesh included. Meshing is a bit of "art" . Takes some trial and error to maximize the results and they dont give you enough mesh to do that. So, go to ebay or one of the online sites and order some more PF4 flatback mesh.

Also, if you go to the Reef Specialty sponsor forum on this site there is a post at the top about how to do the mesh mod with pictures. Its an excellent guide.
 
So, how are your results with the meshed pinwheel? I also doubt the pins with the mesh would do much to increase air but maybe they'll hold the mesh together to affect reliability. Interesting idea.

It would have made things easier if I had this thread when i got my skimmer. Getting that thing open the first time was a *****.
 
The meshed pinwheel is awesome ! Just gota make sure that you only put one layer of mesh on top of the pinwheel and dont push it down all they way.

That will give you the best results.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14808493#post14808493 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by THE ROOK
Did you secure the mesh?
Click to expand...

yea i used extra strength abrasion resistant fishing line..you can get this at walmart for real cheap.

Instead of using several pieces of the fishing line, i just used one very long piece and looped it several times in different directions untill i secured it. I tied several knots and superglued the knots.

If you use more than one piece of mesh on the pinwheel, the pump gets very loud and the skimmer doesnt perform as well.

The pins do agreat job, and the mesh gives it the extra boost. The pictures i have in the previous page have two pieces of mesh in them, thats why it looks so thick. It performs much better with a single piece. I will post pictures of this mod.
 
You dont know, without a meter, what kind of air you are pulling with the different wheels. And without experimenting with the different pinwheels and different mesh jobs on the yellow disc you cant know what actually works "the best". But not everyone is a tweaker. I experimented with mesh added to the pinwheel on an extreme 200. The meshed yellow disc pulled more air.
The purple wheel would be easier to mesh because of the way the pins are configured but I would be focusing my efforts on maximizing the mesh on the yellow wheel if you are looking to maximize air.

But whatever works for you is all that matters.
 
I have tried using mesh on a pinwheel, DNW200 and found in the long run It won't hold up IMO. Plus the amount of Improvement over stock was minimal. The best results was Mesh Mod on a needlewheel that was first modified by cutting all but 4 prongs off and then adding mesh. I would think that If you wanted to do the purple pinwheel ( cut all pins off ) Then add mesh you might get better results!!! But you have to destroy the pinwheel in the process, So It's a costly experiment and no guarentee's It will be better. JMOT
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14810028#post14810028 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by poolkeeper1
I have tried using mesh on a pinwheel, DNW200 and found in the long run It won't hold up IMO. Plus the amount of Improvement over stock was minimal. The best results was Mesh Mod on a needlewheel that was first modified by cutting all but 4 prongs off and then adding mesh. I would think that If you wanted to do the purple pinwheel ( cut all pins off ) Then add mesh you might get better results!!! But you have to destroy the pinwheel in the process, So It's a costly experiment and no guarentee's It will be better. JMOT
Click to expand...

These skimmers come with the stock, fluted impeller that is used for moving water in addition to a pinwheel impeller. The pinwheels dont need to be destroyed for mesh modding with these skimmers. One cuts the fins off the regular impeller that is included and then meshes that. So they have both a mesh and pinwheel impeller to use. The MS and SWC versions of the extreme skimmers come with the yellow water moving impeller already prepped and mesh modded by the dealer. I dont think that the Coralvue branded skimmers come with the yellow impeller already prepped and mesh modded. But they do come with the impeller. The buyer needs to prep it themselves and mesh mod it.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14809897#post14809897 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DarG
You dont know, without a meter, what kind of air you are pulling with the different wheels. And without experimenting with the different pinwheels and different mesh jobs on the yellow disc you cant know what actually works "the best".
Click to expand...

I tried with original factory Pinwheel which looks the same as the purple pinwheel. Then i added 2 layers of mesh to the PPW, then i tried 1 layer of mesh inserted just below the surface of the pinheads, and that made most bubbles + i didn't want to destroy the expensive pinwheel for non scientific experiments.

Its been less that 24 hours and its already pulling some skimmate so i think i will go with my gut instincts on this one.
 
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After 7 hours of operation

octo22.jpg




After 13 hours of operation

mmmmm tasty :D

octo23.jpg


octo24.jpg


:dance: :dance: :dance:
 
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Regarding the purple pin wheel being the same as the octopus pinwheel. I have had both the Coralvue octopus, the MSX/SWC and the ATB PPW (large). The stock coralvue pinwheel provided the least performance of all of them. Now its possible that the small ATB PPW does not perform any better but the large PPW is a signifigantly better performer than all of them, especially the Coralvue version.

As long as you are happy with your skimmers performance, then you are good to go.

For anyone really interested in mesh mods, there are threads better dedicated to that so I wont go any further into it here other than to say that it really is about a good deal more trial and error.
 
I wanted to get the larger PPW, but i went with the guys advice at Reefspecialty and i'm very happy with it's performance so far.

The price is the same for both Pinwheels.

This thing is amazingly quiet. Much more than the Aqua C Urchin and smaller too lol
 
I would have gone with the larger PPW. There are some members using them on the 160 and very happy with increase in performance. The smaller wheel was reported as only providing a small increase over the stock wheel (by Jeremy himself, I think he posted the numbers) but Im not sure if anyone measured it.


Anyway, looking good so far ;)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14811042#post14811042 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ai-reefer
It could also be a placebo effect, you see an improvement because you wanna see it lol
Click to expand...

Not when it's measured by a meter and you see it as well ;)
 
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