ASM G3 Recirculation Modification

[Delphinus]

If you want to try the Enkamat, try this guy, I think he's in the lower mainland like you: http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=45509

Otherwise maybe try Ocean Aquatics? Maybe Wendell has some? .. I know you can mail order smallish pieces from premiumaquatics.com and maybe some other US based vendors. I see it sometimes pop up on ebay as well so that might be worth a quick check.

I don't know why my recirc mod didn't work but I definitely didn't get any increase in skimmate production or darkness of skimmate. Maybe my situation was a one-off. I find that a lot of sump based skimmers nowadays don't have recirc, even the top dollar models seem to be single-pass. You can easily make the skimmer a psuedo recirculation by having the effluent of the skimmer upstream of the intake, so the recirculation still happens but it happens in concert (so to speak) with your sump. Although if you're comfortable drilling holes in the skimmer then go for it. I ended up not liking how I had it the first time I patched the holes and tried again, so I ended up with a real fugly Frankenstein of a skimmer with diminished resale value (not that these things hold onto much of their retail value anyhow though, so I guess that doesn't really play into things..)

If it was me, I say do the meshmod first because if you don't like it (I would be VERY surprised if you didn't like it, but you never know ), all you need is a new impeller to undo the mod. Those Sedra impellers don't last forever anyhow, so it's a given that sooner or later you'll need a replacement impeller regardless.

[mark]

I did the re-cir, can't say how much improvement but was basically just drilling a hole and finding a uni-seal.

As for the mesh mod, I'm a little more reluctant to try. Anyone come across a dealer who carries the Sedra impellers already mod'd.

[Delphinus]

What? You are having trouble coming to terms with wrecking a perfectly good impeller based on the say-so of some random folks on the internet? What's wrong with you!! The internet doesn't lie!!!

... I don't really know how to help with that. I wrestled with the issue for a long time myself, in the end I took a leap of faith and for once I actually didn't regret it. I'm not normally one to embrace fads and I find that usually when I do, the results don't match the hype and I end up disappointed. For what it's worth, it's just an impeller and you can replace the impeller fairly easily. That's what helped push me over the edge. Cutting holes is worse, in my opinion, than cutting pins off an impeller because you can't undrill a hole (you can patch it, but it's not the same) but you can put a new impeller in and be no worse off than where you were before you did it.

I dunno, guess like anything, YMMV. Good luck with whatever you guys end up deciding.

[xtreme]

Originally Posted by mark

Anyone come across a dealer who carries the Sedra impellers already mod'd.

I came across a site on the weekend, and apparently Euro-reef has a alloy mesh wheel in the works.

http://www.reefbuilders.com/2009/04/...eel-euro-reef/