Needlewheel to Meshwheel skimmer mod

[Delphinus]

It took me a full on month after getting the enkamat to work up the courage to start cutting the impeller. Even after reading thread after thread, page after page of it on RC and other boards, I was still hesitant (because I find I always tend to be the one exception where things don't work as well as they do for others). I even ended up pulling the sump and reworking the baffles in an effort to procrastinate on the impeller mod. I finally convinced myself by making sure I could order a new impeller.

Marc, no I didn't grind out the volute. I totally envision myself screwing that part up .. I'll have to do some reading and see some pictures of it being done before I'll get the nerve to try that. I can sort of see it being helpful, but I totally see me just finding out in the end that I just wrecked the pump.

Wait .. is the volute the cap that goes over the impeller or is it the part where the impeller sits in the pump itself? It occurs to me that I'm not even sure what a volute is.

And I didn't realize that people were pushing air into the skimmers. So is that a more common thing then? You were the first person I ever heard of who was directly pushing air in, but I thought it was because the skimmer and the pumps you're using are .. um .. well .. somewhat larger than average?

Would any old airpump do? I suppose I could try experimenting with different pumps I've got lying around. I spent the money on the flow meter might as well try to get some use out of it. If I find anything out about how much air I can push, I will post some results in here.

[kwirky]

i remember when reading about building air driven skimmers you have to use non-diaphram air pumps. dunno if it'd be the same case for a force air venturi skimmer

[Delphinus]

The problem there is that the backpressure of pushing air through the wooden airstones is hard on the diaphrams and they stretch out and lose their effectiveness after a while. In this case you'd be pushing air into suction anyhow so it should be OK. Having said that though, I don't know what a typical air pump pushes in terms of litres per minute. It could be that you still need a spendy-ish air pump just to get the requisite volume of air moving into the skimmer. I don't know, but I can assure you I'm wasting my time here at work looking into this very thing as we speak

[Joe Reefer]

Tony if you dont mind me asking, How much did the airflow meter cost?

[Jaws]

I'm getting pretty close to doing this mod too so I'm just tagging along to hear everyone's experieces.

Can you use a dremel to cut the needles off or do you think a knife or blade is better?

Where's the best place to order a Sedra 5000 impeller just in case?

[christyf5]

Heh, I was just gonna use a pair of "wire clipping" pliers

OceanAquatics has replacement impellers in stock. I checked before Tony did his mod

[crystalz]

this is looking like a pretty catchy mod... heres a little twist to it. I have a CSS 65 and the ASM obviously has a much superior needle wheel. I'm just wondering if it may be possible to improve on this model by using the same mod?

[Delphinus]

I'm so convinced of this mod, I think *any* needlewheel based skimmer would benefit from the mod.

I even think that this could breathe new life into older venturi model skimmers with a few extra mods. For example, those skimmers usually had the venturi between the pump and the skimmer (and just had a regular old impeller in the pump). Change it around so that the venturi is on the pump intake instead of the output, mod the impeller, and see what happens. In fact I regret unloading all my old venturi skimmers now because I really want to see what kind of difference it could make.

In fact, I'm now so convinced of this mod, that I'm considering unloading my two beckett skimmers. And I *love* my PM Bullet-1 skimmer, it has been an absolute workhorse for the last 5 years for me, it's been an incredible skimmer so to say I'm ready to consider selling it and going to all meshwheels should say how much I believe in this mod now. I feel silly for waiting so long to try it.

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by crystalz

this is looking like a pretty catchy mod... heres a little twist to it. I have a CSS 65 and the ASM obviously has a much superior needle wheel. I'm just wondering if it may be possible to improve on this model by using the same mod?

People have been doing this mod on every skimmer going I think I'm sure there is a thread on RC for the CSS. Darned search function is screwy though.

Here is what I found:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1006566