My redneck skimmer mod

[MMAX]

Originally Posted by spit.fire

In tempted to butcher a coralife skimmer for the needlewheel although I'm not 100% sure how well they work as the skimmers are poo

Yeah they are crappy skimmers but the pump should work fine.

[sobe]

Yea I have one of these "quiet one" as my return pump on my sump,(I reused most of my old equipment from my previous tank).. Im Seriously thinking of purchasing another internal pump to replace it can't stand the "humming" noise now

[tentacles]

I recently made a modded impeller for a MJ1200 to go on my seaclone.. It went from the noisiest clatter monster to roughly the same level as the eheim compact 1000 return pump.. It also makes the skimmer perform like never before! Bubbles are smaller and there are no longer large bubbles coming through.

What I did was cut the blades off the impeller and slipped a PVC "sleeve" over the shaft, then glued on bits of notched PVC from some pipe. The sleeve is a fairly tight fit, it actually makes the impeller's flip-flop action a little stiff. I believe this is what helps quiet things down; with an air-water mix doesn't provide as much or as consistent resistance so the impeller just bounces back and forth.

Anyways, the pictures are of version 1; version 2 was made with a slightly thicker wall on the PVC sleeve area, .040" instead of .028". The first one was too tight and split.

I had an idea to make these more easily by making the pvc sleeve have a wider flat area and glueing on 1/8" or 1/16" PVC rod as pins to make an actual needle wheel.