Wow Tony, you finally took the plunge! Thank God it worked eh?
One thing I noticed after doing the mod myself (without cutting the needles off the needlewheel cuz I'm a big chicken) was that if you don't have the enkamat trimmed back pretty well on the needlewheel the pump won't start up right away. Even after some generous trimming I find it takes a few seconds for the needlewheel to kick in. The bubbles are definitely finer and the skimmer produces more skimmate than before
This has given me more courage to cut the needles off but I'll still procrastinate some more till I do it
