Needlewheel to Meshwheel skimmer mod

[cprowler]

I used gutter guard and reaming out the Venturi with a drill bit. I don't have a air flow metre to test the intake but I can see that it's working better producing skimmate immediately. I also used zap straps and it's been holding and starting fine.

[Jaws]

Since I've done the mod, it worked great for a week or two and now it's overflowing again. I'm not sure what else to do.

[Delphinus]

I think I'd be looking at modifying the pumps so that the intakes draw water from the skimmer, then use a separate pump or powerhead to feed the skimmer. The recommendation for recirc pumps seems to be 1.5 times the tank volume per hour. It has the benefit of increasing dwell time, for whatever that's worth, but it also gives you the benefit of controlling your level independent of your foam production.

If you're running this insump, see if you can find some uniseals, then all you'd have to do is jam some pipe through the uniseals, hook them up the pump intake, and then you're done. If you're running the skimmer externally, you'll need to do something like using a bushing for the next size up down to the size of your pump intake, use weldon to attach the bushing to the skimmer body, and then pump into that.

It should be pretty do-able. The downside is you'll need to take your skimmer offline for about a day to do it.

[fkshiu]

Did it this weekend (thanks to Delphinus for the Enkamat).

Works like a charm. There are definitely more and smaller bubbles and almost 2x the amount of skimmate that I normally have after 4 days. Not bad for a half hour's work involving a few pieces of mesh and a couple zip ties.

I was also fortunate enough not to have the skimmer overflow as others have experienced.

Note also that adding the mesh was all I did. I did not do anything to the venturi or even ream out the intake (my drill is currently down for the count). And I simply have a ER 6-2 w/a Sedra 5000 sitting in my sump. The only previous mod was adding a gate valve (i.e. no recirc, gravity feed, etc).

[christyf5]

I also did this mod on the weekend. I used 3 layers of enkamat and zap strapped it onto the impeller sans needles. I had some troubles restarting the pump after that and had to trim some of the enkamat down on the sides and top. Eventually it cranked up and I got even more bubbles than the previous mod I had done (which consisted of me putting a different type of enkamat on over the needles). Foam was nice and milky white but even with the gate valve fully open the foam was too high into the riser tube for my liking. I chopped about an inch and a half off of the gate valve pipe to lower it and the level in the riser was perfect. The skimmer was performing well when I left it but I'm not sure how much more skimmate it has made compared to before.

[fishface]

well, my experiment with this provided to be unfruitful and about a waste of at least an hour of my precious time. i tried a combination of christy's and bill's attempts, by that i mean i used gutterguard cause i didn't have the enkamat and i just put the layers over top of the needles cause i was paranoid and didn't want to potentially kill an impeller.

end result was that the skimmer worked fine this way but there was in no way any improvement in performance or bubble production. just one persons experience here...i guess sometimes ya just have to go for it huh?

[Delphinus]

Yeah, I think you really need to do the dirty deed of cutting off the impellers.

If it helps, I resisted this for a long time too, finally decided to go for it, and .. I don't regret it one bit. It's by far the best thing you can do to your skimmer to "make it better."

I can send you some Enkamat if you want .. I have a roll of the friggin' stuff and I've sent pieces in the mail several times now. PM me if you want to go that route..