maxijet 1200 mod's for my protein skimmer

[Gz28]

Well my cpr sr3 skimmer quit making bubbles so i figured the pump was clogged and i was right. I took it out to clean it and thought while i have it out let me tinker with it and see if i can get it to make more bubbles.......Im sure a few bad nights have started this way for your fellow diy'ers out there. LOL basically when i was done it barely made any bubbles and the one's it made were really big. I did find some very interesting information out there that i would like to share with you which is why i am writing this post.
My skimmer didnt come with a mj1200 it came with an acela sp1-1000 when i got it home from pass road pets i took the impeller plate off and just barely touched the ceramic impeller and it broke, and following gerwins suggestion to put a mj1200 on it is how i ended up with one on my skimmer. so what i did at the time is drill out a hole on the intake before the impeller to place an air nipple because i cant use the venturi adapter that comes with the mj1200 "come to find out this way works better anyway" after i did that it still didnt make very many bubbles until i cut one of the little plastic grates that comes with the mj and super glued it to the bottom of the intake after that i got alot of bubbles, i gues it created a little turbulance in the water.???? *shrug.

ok anyway that has been my setup for the past few months. the other night when i was trying to make more air bubbles i first drilled the air nipple out just a hair to make the air intake bigger, and in doing so i broke the grate that i super glued on there, oh well no big deal i have a new mj ill just drill a hole in that one and put this nipple on there. when i did like i said earlier few bubbles and big bubbles at that. I think i just found out why, i was searching cpr aquatics website and i came across a forum where they reccomend doing what i did with my mj but they said the hole has to go in one of the 2 spaces

[Gz28]

adjacent to the output. i checked and sure enough i had chosen the 1 space opposite of the output. be sure to take note of this if you do this. here is the link to the forum with pictures so you can better see what im talking about. http://www.cpraquatic.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2875


also while looking around there a guy posted about a "fishing string" mod to the mj1200 in which you drill holes in the impeller blades and sew fishing string through them it is supposed to create alot more bubbles and smaller bubbles. i found a few posts where somone did this and all claim to have had sucess with it. here is one such link. towards the bottom of the thread is a more detailed pic of the fishing string and the impeller.
http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/sho ... hp?t=68297

and the last thing i found is a mod that cost's around $11.00 which boosts the flow of the mj it claims up to 10 times the flow..who knows if it really gives you 10x but it seems to be a well known mod. it is a kit that replaces the paddle blade impeller with a propeller shaft like that on a boat. i dont personally need extra flow but if you are using your mj's as a power head in your tank or as a pump you might consider this.
http://www.fishlore.com/er_maxijetmod.htm im sure gerwin can get his hands on these kits.

I will update this post once i try the fishing string thing.

[Gz28]

The fishing line mod worked!!! I do have alot more bubbles, and it is chopping them up really good! I had to raise the height of my skimmer cup to the highest position if you have a skimmer that uses a maxijet or similar pump i reccomending giving this a try. now if i could find a way to get rid of the loud vibrating "humming" noise from that skimmer i would have an awesome skimmer!! humm wonder if dyna mat is fish safe.
also on another forum someone said they drilled a hole on adjacent to each side of the output and ran 2 air lines and they got even more bubbles, i might give that a try just to play around next time i take it out to clean it. Ill let you guys know if it works or if it makes things worse. let me know if any of you guys have tried this already or if you do.

[Gz28]

Update: i placed a second nipple and air tube on the other side of the output, it did not help if one tube is sucking in air it doesnt suck it in the other tube and when both muffler valves are set to 1/2 or less it sucks air into both tubes but makes less bubbles. also on a side note whatever i did after i resealed the hole for the second airline made the pump quit sucking in air when it was at the bottom of the middle chamber in my biocube, it would suck air until it got about 1/2 way down. Gerwin sold me a RIO+ 600 today i just but it in, not only does it make pretty good bubbles but it is QUIET!!!! i actually hear the gurgleing sound from the muffler over the humm of the pump. the rio is not actually quiter than the maxijet when running out of the skimmer, but once you put the maxi in the skimmer it becomes very loud...I am so happy I think i might be able to take back all of those bad things i said about this skimmer!!!! thank you gerwin!!!