SWC 250 S2 Skimmer mods
 

I picked up a used SWC 250 S2 Extreme from a canreef member for my new 7 foot / fishroom build. The dual Sicce PSK2500 pumps work ok, but have startup issues as usual. Not too worried about that, but I will do a single Askoll pump mod eventually (whenever I find an extra $300 to spend on one).

But I want to do a gate valve mod on the water return pipe, as I have heard that the wedge pipe design makes it very finicky to adjust. I can't find any threads anywhere about modding this model (or similar models).

Does anyone know where I would put the gate valve in order to do a proper mod on it?

This is the skimmer.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psd7db2ae1.jpg

Here is where I would assume that it goes, and just cut off the bottom of the wedge pipe flat.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...psc38e2cc1.jpg


Any suggestions? Tips or tricks?

Wow that thing cleaned up really nice following along great question.

LOL ! I wish! Thats a pic off the web unfortunately. It was just the best pic I could find that showed the proper angle of the water outlet pipes.

However, after a good vinegar soak it did clean up pretty well, just some hard to reach coraline on the inside of the body left.

Hopefully someone can tell me the best location for the gate valve, that would definitly make it easier for water level adjustments.

Im sure you will find something hopefully Skimmer King will chime in.

I would imagine anywhere on the outlet is fine. I'd do it as you have demonstrated. The operation of the gate valve in that location would do exactly the same thing as twisting to pipe (letting more or less water out).

Just leave your pipe in the fully open position and let the valve do the restricting. No need to even glue the valve in place so you can try this now.

Yeah thats what I thought. I suppose it's just plumbing, so if it dosn't work, I can always make it stock again.

I will forget about cutting the wedge pipe flat and just keep it in the open position as you said, so that I can use it again if I mess this up lol.

I also replaced the pump air intake (to the silencer) tubes. They were super flimsy and were one of the major startup and failure issues of these sicce pumps. They kinked (as you can even see in the top picture, tube on the left is kinked) and caused a whole bunch of issues. So I replaced them with thicker vinyl tubing to prevent that kinking.