coralife 125 protein skimmer upgrade

[dafraguy]

Recently my coralife skimmer pump took a crap. I am not that upset since i have not been that satisfied with its performance from the get go. I started by purchasing two duel outlet air pumps from walmart, four wooden air stones from lfs, and a small 110 gph fountain pump that we had. I removed the old feed pump, drilled four small holes in the reaction chamber below the fastener ring, and fed some air hose threw into the chamber.I attached the air stones (four total) and pushed them down in the center tube. Then i cut the air hose where they pass through the tube, attached the check valves, hooked up the air pumps and the foutain pump to feed the skimmer, and started it up. I had to adjust the outflow way down to keep the water level high enough in the reaction chamber. I am very pleased at how this mod performs and the bonus of running the skimmer with less than 25 watts. I have posted some pics.

 

[mr_X]

those air stones will become less efficient fairly quickly. one of the reasons skimmers went to venturis was that. they will clog up and need to be replaced or cleaned on a regular basis. pretty cool looking though!

 

[dafraguy]

thanks Mr x i thought it looked cool too like some kind of weird science. i plan on replacing the air stones every other month or when needed,just didn't want to buy another venturi pump for the skimmer since it was already on its second pump.