wattsupdoc
Active Member
Additionally, bubbles entering the recirc pump and being re-chopped will surely cause the pump to be unstable. Any needle wheel (or mesh wheel) can only handle a certain air/water volume mixture. So if your pump is currently capable of drawing its maximum amount of air, as it should for most efficiency, then the recirculated air(bubbles) will surely cause the pump to stall. Most of the time, a more efficient skimmer draws more air. That is at least one major component to a skimmers performance. The other is the ability to handle the air and flow. A skimmers neck size generally determines how much air it can handle. The more stable the flow in the reaction chamber, the the amount of dwell time the skimmer allows the water to become in contact with the air are the other factors. Most recirc skimmers capitalize on all these points as with a lower volume of water flowing in and the recirc pump picking up and recirc the water the flow is gentler, dwell time increased and the pump can draw more air as it doesn't have the head height imposed on it to limit air intake. Of course you could mod a maxijet with mesh and use it as a feed pump, but IMO this would only cause instability. If you want to capitalize on your skimmers performance, modding it for more air is generally the best way. By doing a mesh mod on the impeller.
All this is making me want to drill a couple big ol holes in my perfectly working skimmer.
All this is making me want to drill a couple big ol holes in my perfectly working skimmer.