Aquarium Bar build

[dcook]

It runs the existing 3 Koralia 2's that I have in the tank. What a noise they make when turning on after being idle. I couldn't stand it for even a day, and it got the gears in my head turning. (turn off your smoke detectors) This is what I came up with. A simple by as it turns out, very effectiveway to shut them up. Anyone who owns Koralia's knows that the impeller flaps around when they're turned on, until it grabs. A small piece of rigid watr filter tubing did the trick, and should also extend the life of the impeller.please give more details ie how tooooooooooooo?

[danny zubot]

Thanks everyone. I still have plans for a few more bar items, like one of those hanging glass holder things.

As for the Koralia mod; It's pretty simple. Normally there's about an inch gap between the impeller and the end of the berring shaft. So if your Koralia is facing down the impeller could slip out a bit, causing it to bounch around upon activation right. Well, just cut a piece of rigid water filter line 1" long and place it in there. As shown in the pic with the yellow piece of tubing.

[dcook]

Thanks danny zubot
I have 1 on a timer, it starts at 8am its so loud its my alarm clock lol
not anymore.....

[danny zubot]

So last night while re-arranging the tank again I made a discovery about my Koralia mod. It doesn't work, or should I say it doesn't work all of the time. I guess when the impeller is bouncing around upon activation it's looking for the correct polarity. By inhibiting this action by the impeller I've managed to make it run backwards, pulling water into the pump instead of pushing it out. Wierd hey? It only does this about half the time, and is completely random it seems. So I might leave the sleaves in because it doesn't seems to hurt the impeller. What it does do, is create some strange flow around the tank when one or more are running in reverse. Sorry to all who have used my mod already, please check your Koralia's to make sure they are pumping correctly.

[chris121277]

Fascinating..........that's one side effect that I never would have guessed.....so when they fire up in reverse does it cause water to splash up and over the glass at all?

[danny zubot]

No, the back of the pump inhibits that. The reverse flow isn't all that great either, it's not like it's going to suck in a fish or something. What a bummer! For a day I thought I was like some kind of briliant modifier guy, but it turns out that I suck.

[chris121277]

LOL......how about if you shortened the air line a bit, then added some kind of rubber washer or something on the other side of the impeller to cushion the clacking on start up?

[vic622]

Originally Posted by danny zubot

Thanks everyone. I still have plans for a few more bar items, like one of those hanging glass holder things.

As for the Koralia mod; It's pretty simple. Normally there's about an inch gap between the impeller and the end of the berring shaft. So if your Koralia is facing down the impeller could slip out a bit, causing it to bounch around upon activation right. Well, just cut a piece of rigid water filter line 1" long and place it in there. As shown in the pic with the yellow piece of tubing.

Hey Danny,
Here's the links to two pages that talk about modding a MaxiJet and how to keep it from starting up backwards.
On reefchili - simplebuild there is a questions page
Common Questions that has this description of the stopper:

What is the stopper and how do I use it ?

Because the maxi jet runs on alternating current (AC) power it can spin both left or right and will do so randomly
when you first plug it in. if it starts going the right way then perfect but half the time it will start going the wrong
way and end up sucking water in the front and blowing it out the fins on the side. This is where the stopper
comes in. the stopper is simply a piece of acrylic rod shoved through the side of the housing. I drill a 3/16” hole
about a 1/8” below the top of the housing (just under the cap) and glue a ½”-1" piece of 3/16” acrylic rod. What
happens when the pump starts the wrong way is it pushes the whole impeller up towards the cap when this
happens the prop will slam into the stopper (acrylic bar) and bounce back the other way and start running in the
right direction. This is extremely easy to implement and works very well. Some people have found with the
octura props that you don’t need a stopper because the ends of the prop extend up and actually slam into the
centering cap itself. I personally always use the stopper bar because it works so well , costs almost nothing and
takes about 20 seconds to install . Mother always said “if it an’t broke don’t fix it” : )

Oh yeah, don;t try any of the links to www.mjmods.com, they don't work?!?

There is also dhnguyen's DIY build on ReefCentral The "Hitchhiker's Guide" to the Maxi-Stream mod that goes into a bunch of detail on the MaxiJet mod, but he has a different take on how to make a stopper and there's a bunch of pic's on these pages of how and where he puts the stopper.

I think maybe a mod of one or the other of these stoppers could work for Koralia's and let us use the wavemakers.

Vic