mesh mod ?

[NealNano]

I will be doing a mesh mod to my Octopus NW110. I have the octo 1000 pump. My question is should I use 1 2 or 3 layers of enkamat and does the first set of needles pop off or do I need to cut them off?? Please Help.

[ryancaudill]

Never done this mod on this pump's impeller but a similar one. Leave a couple of "needles" 2-4 evenly spaced out on your impeller so you know what kind of thickness to shoot for on the enkamat. Cut the pieces of enkamat and lay them in place making sure the last layer doesnt stick up higher than the posts you left after you ziptie it down. This should give you a good idea whether 2 or 3 layers. Most likely 3 will work but you dont want to overly compress the mesh just to get the 3rd one on.

[NealNano]

Thanks, I went with 2 layers and poped off the top needle wheel. I highly recomend this mod WOW.

[ryancaudill]

I wasnt as impressed with it as it sounds like you are. Mine has been in place for about a week and a 1/2. Not getting anywhere near the results as others have reported. My bubble look finer but I certainly dont have darker or thicker skimmate. I have heard it may take a couple of weeks to break in so I am still waiting. Or maybe it is that my water is so pristine that there is nothing to skim out. Yeah right.

[NealNano]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13139344#post13139344 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ryancaudill
I wasnt as impressed with it as it sounds like you are. Mine has been in place for about a week and a 1/2. Not getting anywhere near the results as others have reported. My bubble look finer but I certainly dont have darker or thicker skimmate. I have heard it may take a couple of weeks to break in so I am still waiting. Or maybe it is that my water is so pristine that there is nothing to skim out. Yeah right.
What skimmer do you have? Did you also do the venturi mod? The stock venturi is the weekest link in this skimmer imo. You really can't get the full benifits of the mesh mod without doing the venturi mod also. My skimmer pulls so much I had to lower the riser tube 2 inches. I think it is pulling aroung 20-25ish but I dont have an air meter to confirm this.

[ryancaudill]

Did you tie down the mesh with zip ties or with fishing line. Glad to hear getting results were relatively simple for your. Maybe there is hope for this mod in my pump with playing around with things a bit.
I have an asm G2 skimmer. My old sedra pump died about 4 weeks ago. I was going to with a sicce 2500 but I couldnt get a straight forward answer whether the plumbing would work out. I have heard many complaints about the sedra pumps not pulling much air for their size but I chickened out buying the sicce last minute and decided to do mesh mod instead.
Yes I opened up the venturi opening with drill bit as much as I could without the walls collapsing and I added a larger inner diameter airline tube to pull in the air. I also have a gate valve to control skimmer water level.
If I could have I would have bought a whole new skimmer and gone probably with MSX or reefoctopus but i cannot get my asm out of my sump unless I completely tear out all of my plumbing, sump and refug. Not that ambitious right now and this mediocre skimmer has been doing the trick for 4 years
I think I will buy a air meter to see what I am pulling. I dont know anything about this but would assume I could find one relatively cheap at HD.

[tangtang clown]

You definitely will not find one at HD. I just purchased one straight from Dwyers. I could not find any on Ebay so I paid $25.50 for a 0-50scfh that is about four inches tall. I have a NW200 Recirc. With mesh, 3/8" I.D air line, and changing the rubber gasket, I am only pulling ~20schf. All that work for 20scfh with the OTP 3000. This doesn't sound right. I have redone the mesh three times and I have four layers on it now and today is the 14th day it has been running continuously. Thinking about MSX. Here is a link for a thread I started last night. See if this helps.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13145370#post13145370