What material use for mesh mod skimmer ?

[Tom R]

How do you secure the mesh to the impeller?
How many layers of mesh do you use?
Does anyone have any pictures of a completed impeller?

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Tom R

How do you secure the mesh to the impeller?
How many layers of mesh do you use?
Does anyone have any pictures of a completed impeller?

The mesh is secured with the really small zapstraps, theyr'e pretty thin maybe 1/4" or so and very short. I think there are either 2 or 4 holes in the impeller to work with.

I used either 3 or 4 layers of mesh. Its very important to trim the mesh so that it is just slightly smaller than the diameter of the impeller so it doesn't move against the impeller housing, this will cause problems when restarting the pump.

I think Tony has pics somewhere on here, he did a very thorough instructional post on how to do the mesh mod. I'll see if I can find it Here it is: http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...highlight=mesh

Oh and I didn't cut the pins off my needlewheel, I was too chicken I just slapped the enkamat on overtop of them, it actually worked quite nicely.

[Delphinus]

Here, not the best pictures but should give you an idea.
http://canreef.com/vbulletin/showthr...&highlight=pf4

I used two layers in my Sedra 5000, which was all that would fit. Had there been more room I would have tried for 3. I tried fishing line to attach at first but my fingers weren't nimble enough for little tiny knots so I just used two zapstraps instead. Hope this helps.

[Tom R]

Say Tony

Did you also mod your ASM G3 to be a recirculating skimmer.

Tom R

[robert J]

Tony when you said the word from "so so" to "wow" that makes me feel I can not wait any longer to do the mesh mod .... but unfortunately the guy at work who is saying he has PF4 was giving me a wrong kind of material. Can you tell me what you are using in your skimmer so at least I can do it right now instead of waiting to find PF4 in Canada. Every store I called today they do not carry it, only in US ... can't believe it !

[robert J]

I see ... thanks Christyf5. I know I am going to have a hard time to mess around with pvc pipe, no skill at all

[christyf5]

No no its not hard at all. Hang on I'll take some pics of mine and show you.

[christyf5]

Ok here we go,

list of supplies (I think it was about $50-60 altogether, with the gate valve being the bulk of the cost).

1-1/2" gate valve
1-1/2" tee
1-1/2" elbow
a length of 1-1/2" PVC pipe
two 1-1/2" thread x slip connectors (if you've purchased a threaded gate valve)

Ok so basically for me it was trial and error for the first length coming out of the bottom of the skimmer (there is a ER supplied elbow there). I think it ended up being about 3-4" total. I wanted the gate valve to be out of the water but it ended up being sort of half in the water due to the height of the whole aparatus.

I didn't PVC glue any of these parts, mostly because I hate gluing anything permanently (what if I could harvest some of these parts for later? ) and quite frankly, its all in the sump so who cares if something leaks? Anyway, I ended up using really short pieces of PVC to join the slipxslip pieces and then the last length of pipe that releases water into the sump can be any length as long as it is under the water. This does two things: 1. less noise and splash 2. less bubbles created in the sump

This photo should help:

[robert J]

Thank you SSSOOOOOO MUCH ... Your picture is so helpful to me, it is more than a thousand words. This is the best Christmas gift for my wife from you. Thanks Christyf5

[christyf5]

You're totally welcome, I'm glad I could help. I'm also glad you asked about this because I was totally wrong

Turns out I only put 2 layers of mesh on and apparently I worked up the courage to cut the pins off. Quite frankly though, that was only after Tony did his and I don't think it made any difference. Plus its a huge pain in the arse to get the impeller out of the pump now as there is nothing to grab onto to haul it out (the shaft comes out on its own ) Anyway, if you are going to cut the pins off leave a couple on there to grab with pliers. In hindsight I think I probably would have just left them all on but either way I guess.

here are some more pics:





Like I said before, this mod has been going strong for a good couple of years now (or darned close to it). The mesh as of today is showing no signs of degradation or "injury". There was quite a bit of gack (detritus) in the pump so again, glad you asked about this as it gives me a kick in the arse to keep up on my maintenance