I-Tech Skimmer Club .

[flat broke]

It might be easy enough for you to make one yourself by adapting something to slip over the outside of the inlet. I was able to lightly sand a std pvc cap to fit over an Eheim 1250 that I wanted to put a reducer on.


going this route, you can use a drill to open up the center of the cap to whatever dimension you need. The only downside is that unless you want to drill the Aquabee volute for an intake, the intake in the cap like the one above ends up being a little far from the face of the pinwheel.

I also made another type of reducer by gluing a 1/2" pvc electrical conduit box adapter on to the face of a piece of pipe (this was done an an AC70). This allowed me to shroud the air intake similar to the Coralvue Sicce intake. The pic is cruddy, but shows the shrouding effect.


This shows the whole thing


A quick video of that little AC70 running in a 5 gallon bucket
http://good-times.webshots.com/video...00472751vLRbJL
If there was a pinwheel available for this little guy, this could be a nice setup for a small/100.

I think the trick to DIY pumps for the small/100 will be low gph throughput to eliminate/reduce turbulence. Chasing more airflow with the sacrafice of higher water volume probably won't work well in this small of a vessel.

Chris

[flat broke]

Originally posted by SHOmuchFUN
The pump came with a needlewheel, so I assume that the pump is meant to have a venturi attached. It would be silly to have a needlewheel pump with no venturi.

This is what I received:

In reviewing your pics, I might have stumbled upon a question that I had written off as a triviality a year ago. I'm wondering if that Aquabee volute cover would fit in an Eheim 1250. Could you get me measurements on your cover based on the pic below?

[/URL]

Thanks,
Chris

[mflamb]

Originally posted by kc350twin
I emailed the builder today and got a very informative answer on these skimmers in less than 10min. Thats fast. I also called and they are super nice.
Kc3

That's why us locals love FAOIS so much.

[jimmyd01]

I'm in the club! My medium has been running about a week in a new 125 gal.[IMG][/IMG]

[dzhuo]

the bubbles look big?

[jimmyd01]

That was the first 12hrs. of running, much smaller now.

[Milhouse]

Man I'm hoping to hear something soon. Has anyone taken delivery on one recently? I'm hoping they are working 24 hours a day 'cause I'm Jones'n for a new skimmer.

Perhaps I'm just extremely impatient, lol.

[SHOmuchFUN]

Originally posted by flat broke
In reviewing your pics, I might have stumbled upon a question that I had written off as a triviality a year ago. I'm wondering if that Aquabee volute cover would fit in an Eheim 1250. Could you get me measurements on your cover based on the pic below?

[/URL]

Thanks,
Chris

I will get back to you on this... Hopefully tonight.
From first glance though, the volute assembly on the aquabee is 3 pieces.

The cover, the screw ring, and the reducer... The cover fits into the pump with a rubber ring, the screw ring fits over the cover and locks into place on the pump, cinching the cover into place. The reducer then screws into the cover via a small threaded male adapter.

I'll get more pics tonight.

[brucem]

I think you can order the volute from petorama

[flat broke]

Originally posted by brucem
I think you can order the volute from petorama

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to check that out when the dimensions come back.

Originally posted by SHOmuchFUN
I will get back to you on this... Hopefully tonight.
From first glance though, the volute assembly on the aquabee is 3 pieces.

The cover, the screw ring, and the reducer... The cover fits into the pump with a rubber ring, the screw ring fits over the cover and locks into place on the pump, cinching the cover into place. The reducer then screws into the cover via a small threaded male adapter.

I'll get more pics tonight.

This is the exact same manner in which Eheim pumps are constructed. The part you're refering to as a reducer is essentially a hose adapter. You'd likely want to make a smaller I.D. restrictor right in front of (or even directly below) your air intake point (So the pressure is lowest beneath the port). The idea is to reduce the amount of water drawn in, but also accelerate the flow of water (via Bernoulli's principle) to increase the amount of air drawn in. As the restriction increases, the velocity climbs and the pressure drops. The reduction in pressure aids in air draw. There is a great vissual of this that you can play with to see the different effects at http://home.earthlink.net/~mmc1919/venturi.html The goal is to get as much air as possible without allowing the pump to fully cavitate which would in turn cease the flow of water and the subseqent draw of air.

Find a way to make cheap, easily replicated restrictors to use in conjunction with with the existing volute, and you can do lots of experimenting and fine tuning.

Chris

[lpsluver]

Wanted to start a dialog on this pump alternative for the I-Tech 100 (pump). I know it's a Mag and there are Mag Haters out there but they are reliable and quiet in this size range. Judging by the "Note" at the bottom of the page maybe the 700 would be a better alternative. They have a great price point, relatively speaking. The venturi seems a little long but...

[chewie]

I'm wondering if that Aquabee volute cover would fit in an Eheim 1250.

The aquabee volute cover is bigger O.D. than the eheim. It does not fit.

[flat broke]

Originally posted by lpsluver
Wanted to start a dialog on this pump alternative for the I-Tech 100 (pump). I know it's a Mag and there are Mag Haters out there but they are reliable and quiet in this size range. Judging by the "Note" at the bottom of the page maybe the 700 would be a better alternative. They have a great price point, relatively speaking. The venturi seems a little long but...

The volute on the Mag is small, which is going to be to the detriment of your air/water ratio. In a small bodied skimmer, you want to really focus on reducing water throughput, and increasing airflow to reduce turbulence which can destabilize the foam. Plus I'm guessing that their "fractionating impeller" (a 3 bladded spikewheel if I recall) could use some work.

I think a better alternative would be a Quiet One 2200 with MSX pinwheel and DIY resucer/venturi.

Another option would be the Eheim 1250, but comming up with a pinwheel would be tough as Eheim won't sell the EU 1250 pinwheel in the U.S. If it turns out that the Auquabee volute cover would fit, it reduces the machine work required to diy this into a solid performer. The big issue here is cost. The 1250 is basically $100. By the time you buy the things to make it a good performing pinwheel/meshwheel, you could have just bought the Aquabee and saved some time and $$. But if you have a 1250 laying around...

The modded AC70 is another viable candidate though. I was getting a solid 480-520lph of air with mine. It's a pure DIY though as you need to DIY the complete volute, as well as the meshwheel assembly. With sometihing like this, you'd need to look hard through the "pimp my pump" thread http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...5&pagenumber=1 to get a good understanding of what works and doesnt.

For the $$ I don't think the Quiet One 2200 with an MSX pinwheel is going to be beat. Even a Sedra 3500 pinwheel pump costs more than that, and will likely not pull as much air.

For what it's worth, I'll be running the 1250 first, because I have it, and it's already modded. If I don't like the output of that pump with the skimmer, I'll probably do a QO 2200 with MSX Pinwheel, unless the Tunze pump is in and John has had some time to test it.

Chris

[lpsluver]

Which tunze pump will he be testing? the 9410.040 or the 9420.040?

[flat broke]

As far as I know, he was going to be testing the 20 on the medium and the 10 for the small/100. You can always email him on that though, as I may have misunderstood.

Chris

[tboneman]

Do any of you Medium I tech owners have a picture of where your Sicce pump attaches to the body? I ordered mine a week ago and would really appreciate a picture so I can figure out the best way to do this.
Thanks!

[GQuinn]

Originally posted by tboneman
Do any of you Medium I tech owners have a picture of where your Sicce pump attaches to the body? I ordered mine a week ago and would really appreciate a picture so I can figure out the best way to do this.
Thanks!

Here is my medium w/Sicce pump that I just received.


Gary

[kc350twin]

Please keep us informed about the Tunze testing. I would much rather wait to see if those work. I have heard they are very quiet.

Is there a estimated time for testing?



Thanks
Kc3

[mflamb]

Originally posted by kc350twin
Please keep us informed about the Tunze testing. I would much rather wait to see if those work. I have heard they are very quiet.

Is there a estimated time for testing?



Thanks
Kc3

I would contact John and ask him. There is contact info back in the thread.

[tboneman]

Thank you GQuinn!

[DeathWish302]

Originally posted by kc350twin
Please keep us informed about the Tunze testing. I would much rather wait to see if those work. I have heard they are very quiet.

Is there a estimated time for testing?



Thanks
Kc3

I was @ John's store a couple weeks ago and was talking to him about his skimmers. Sounded like the Tunze was too much for the smaller skimmer as it was bubbling over as we talked. I know these are John's creation, but I would really consider a gate valve to control air allowed to the venturi.
My QO3000 (heavily modified) throws 30-35SCFH unthrottled and I tone it down to ~16SCFH. The Tunze motor may work if heavily throttled back....

Just My $0.02,
DW302

[flat broke]

Originally posted by DeathWish302
I was @ John's store a couple weeks ago and was talking to him about his skimmers. Sounded like the Tunze was too much for the smaller skimmer as it was bubbling over as we talked. I know these are John's creation, but I would really consider a gate valve to control air allowed to the venturi.
My QO3000 (heavily modified) throws 30-35SCFH unthrottled and I tone it down to ~16SCFH. The Tunze motor may work if heavily throttled back....

Just My $0.02,
DW302

I think the test you saw was with the 9420 which will likely be used on the Mediums. AFAIK, the 9410s aren't out yet and these are a little lower on the flow side, so the idea is that they'd work better with the small/100.

The problem with throttling back air to a great degree is that your air/water ratio drops which means that the overall throughput could become more turbulent due to more water pressure/volume being present.

I don't disagree that tuning the airflow of a pump to the skimmer is important. But if the pump pushes too much water for the skimmer to begin with, reducing the airflow probably won't be the ultimate solution.

Chris

[DeathWish302]

Originally posted by flat broke
I think the test you saw was with the 9420 which will likely be used on the Mediums. AFAIK, the 9410s aren't out yet and these are a little lower on the flow side, so the idea is that they'd work better with the small/100.

The problem with throttling back air to a great degree is that your air/water ratio drops which means that the overall throughput could become more turbulent due to more water pressure/volume being present.

I don't disagree that tuning the airflow of a pump to the skimmer is important. But if the pump pushes too much water for the skimmer to begin with, reducing the airflow probably won't be the ultimate solution.

Chris

Agreed! There is a happy medium between throttling air and flow rate for a specific size skimmer.

DW302

[dzhuo]

Originally posted by jimmyd01
That was the first 12hrs. of running, much smaller now.

can you post another picture of skimmer in action?

[jimmyd01]

Originally posted by dzhuo
can you post another picture of skimmer in action?

Sure can, how's it look now?
[IMG][/IMG]