cilyjr
Chris
so some people have asked me in the past and today christine asked exactly how I modded my asm skimmer. i did an asm G 3 but I am told they are all the same.
so I did not mesh mod my skimmer though that seems to be the most popular mod I do not think it is necessary for skimmers that have needle wheel impellers. i think it adds stress to the pump and can break them if the mesh gets caught up but not being cut properly and I dont think there is enough gain to warrant the risk.
what I did do.
I recirc modded it. I drilled 2 extra holes in the skimmer the 1st about 1/2 way up the skimmer body to allow a new feed pump i guess one could put this anywhere in the skimmer body. I used a 3/4 hole saw and a 3/4 uniseal but really anything could be used for this hole. in this case I pushed a small piece of 3/4 pvc pipe into the skimmer body then used a 3/4 to 1/2 inch reducer elbow and then a barb fitting I have a Maxi Jet 1200 which I believe is about 300 Gph. this supplies a constant feed and the water level in the sump does little to the water level in the skimmer.
Next I had to turn the sedra pump to pull from the skimmer body. For this I used a 1 inch hole saw now there is already a hole in the skimmer where the pump pushed water into the skimmer this hole needs to be directly below and at the proper height for the pump to fit both at the same time (see picture below). the pump is turned to both pull and return water back into the skimmer body. ya need a a venturi for this pump and i reused the one that came with the skimmer (slightly modded more to follow) this guy will fit into the uniseal it is very snug and requires a push (be careful not to crack your skimmer body) push it in so it is just snug with the seal. so i ran it just like this but noticed that a good 2 inches of water at the bottom of the skimmer didnt really fill with microbubbles because the pumps return is higher then the intake. so i took another 2 elbows and a piece of pipe and redirected the return to the bottom of the skimmer. since reaction time is key for skimmer why waste all that space.
the venturi mod is super simple. I found that the venturi on the asm skimmers clog very easily and can cut skimmer production by a significant amount though it will look like it is producing microbubbles in the reaction chamber. it was fine for me before the recirc mod as i could pop out the venturi and clean it easily but with it stuck into the skimmer body it becomes a bigger chore. so i decided to open the venturi and allow more air flow which also reduces the ability of salt creep to clog it. all i did was cut a littlebit off of the top of the air intake to have a little bit more plastic to drill into and used a 1/8 drill bit and opened up that hole.
the last mod I did was how the water exits. most people use the well known gate valve mod for this but I used a wedge pipe. I cut some 1 1/4 inch pvc pipe and put a tee on top of it. off the side of the tee there is a 90 degree elbow to direct water back to the sump. the next step is to widen the top part of the tee where the wedge pipe actually fits into it. I used a sanding drum for a dremmel. be careful to mark exactly how deep you want the pipe to fit so when turned the wedge allows the side of the tee to be completely unobstructed. the last part is to make the wedge. it only takes cutting a piece of pipe at a 45 degree angle at one side. i routed a small channel to fit a rubber gasket here but its really not necessary. after it was all done I inserted the assembly into the skimmer and marked on the top of the wedge pipe the highest i ever wanted the water in the skimmer to be then i took it back to the saw and cut it there. the advantage is when the skimmer goes bonkers it will never overflow the collection cup.
and thats about it. here is a shot of it running it fills the cup in about 4 days. with a lighter side of medium fish load. happy modding
so I did not mesh mod my skimmer though that seems to be the most popular mod I do not think it is necessary for skimmers that have needle wheel impellers. i think it adds stress to the pump and can break them if the mesh gets caught up but not being cut properly and I dont think there is enough gain to warrant the risk.
what I did do.
I recirc modded it. I drilled 2 extra holes in the skimmer the 1st about 1/2 way up the skimmer body to allow a new feed pump i guess one could put this anywhere in the skimmer body. I used a 3/4 hole saw and a 3/4 uniseal but really anything could be used for this hole. in this case I pushed a small piece of 3/4 pvc pipe into the skimmer body then used a 3/4 to 1/2 inch reducer elbow and then a barb fitting I have a Maxi Jet 1200 which I believe is about 300 Gph. this supplies a constant feed and the water level in the sump does little to the water level in the skimmer.
Next I had to turn the sedra pump to pull from the skimmer body. For this I used a 1 inch hole saw now there is already a hole in the skimmer where the pump pushed water into the skimmer this hole needs to be directly below and at the proper height for the pump to fit both at the same time (see picture below). the pump is turned to both pull and return water back into the skimmer body. ya need a a venturi for this pump and i reused the one that came with the skimmer (slightly modded more to follow) this guy will fit into the uniseal it is very snug and requires a push (be careful not to crack your skimmer body) push it in so it is just snug with the seal. so i ran it just like this but noticed that a good 2 inches of water at the bottom of the skimmer didnt really fill with microbubbles because the pumps return is higher then the intake. so i took another 2 elbows and a piece of pipe and redirected the return to the bottom of the skimmer. since reaction time is key for skimmer why waste all that space.
the venturi mod is super simple. I found that the venturi on the asm skimmers clog very easily and can cut skimmer production by a significant amount though it will look like it is producing microbubbles in the reaction chamber. it was fine for me before the recirc mod as i could pop out the venturi and clean it easily but with it stuck into the skimmer body it becomes a bigger chore. so i decided to open the venturi and allow more air flow which also reduces the ability of salt creep to clog it. all i did was cut a littlebit off of the top of the air intake to have a little bit more plastic to drill into and used a 1/8 drill bit and opened up that hole.
the last mod I did was how the water exits. most people use the well known gate valve mod for this but I used a wedge pipe. I cut some 1 1/4 inch pvc pipe and put a tee on top of it. off the side of the tee there is a 90 degree elbow to direct water back to the sump. the next step is to widen the top part of the tee where the wedge pipe actually fits into it. I used a sanding drum for a dremmel. be careful to mark exactly how deep you want the pipe to fit so when turned the wedge allows the side of the tee to be completely unobstructed. the last part is to make the wedge. it only takes cutting a piece of pipe at a 45 degree angle at one side. i routed a small channel to fit a rubber gasket here but its really not necessary. after it was all done I inserted the assembly into the skimmer and marked on the top of the wedge pipe the highest i ever wanted the water in the skimmer to be then i took it back to the saw and cut it there. the advantage is when the skimmer goes bonkers it will never overflow the collection cup.
and thats about it. here is a shot of it running it fills the cup in about 4 days. with a lighter side of medium fish load. happy modding
