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By Agu Lukk |
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After trying every mod I could find, or think of, I decided to replace my CPR SR6 skimmer. Because water level in my sump is 12" deep, the only person willing to build one that could be submersed that deep was George Weber. When my new skimmer arrived the similarities to the CPR were so great that this modification was obvious. It only took a couple of hours, and cost was minimal. |
| These are some of the simple pieces used to create the modification. Most of these pieces can can be found at Home Depot or equivalent. |
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| Step one: Remove the existing intake tube on the skimmer. I was fortunate in that mine was already loose and it just took a bit of twisting to get it out. |
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| Step two: I plugged the existing hole and drilled a hole lower in the tube to eliminate an elbow. I don't think that was necessary, and the existing hole can just be enlarged to accommodate 3/4" ID PVC. | |
| Step three: The venturi is a design provided by Geo aka George Weber. The washer is just a piece of rigid plastic drilled into a disc with a hole saw. I only had a 1" hole saw so the disc had to be sanded down to fit into the 3/4"slip x threaded fitting. Since then Geo has gone to using a hose barb available at farm stores that fits right into the PVC. A third alternative is to buy a regular hose barb, cut the threads off, sand down the corners, and slide it into the PVC fitting. Geo recommends a 3/16 hole so that's what I used, but I think this is an area where some experimentation can be done. Also, my venturi is threaded on both ends, this was so I could remove it and experiment with different venturis. Since the first try worked great I never tried anything but the "disc" venturi. |
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Step four: Add the air intake to the venturi.
This needs to be done after the venturi is glued so you may want to do a
dry fitting of all the parts prior to doing this. I used a threaded hose
barb, but any fitting that can accommodate airline tubing will work. The
hole needs to be drilled on the "downstream" side of the
venturi, that would be on the slip side of the fitting. (If this is
obvious to you don't laugh, but I had to ask Geo that question).
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| Step five, Assembly. I would recommend dry fitting everything prior to gluing it together. From inside the skimmer, 3/4" PVC down (how long, that's up to you), elbow, PVC through skimmer body, elbow up, PVC up(this can be done as one piece to the venturi as seen on the Geo skimmer, or removable as I did on the CPR. The threaded top of the venturi fitting needs to be above the skimmer body or you won't be able to screw on the top elbows if you have a removable venturi.) venturi, threaded elbow, male to male union, threaded elbow down, hose barb, 3/4 flex tube, pump. Once everything is fitted it's time to glue and thread it together. I used aquarium silicone where the PVC goes through the acrylic, and don't recommend that unless the skimmer will be in sump, it won't hold everything securely. There is also a brace made from a piece of PVC and cable ties, I would recommend two of these supports. |
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This modification is far from perfected, but I was
pleased enough with the first try to not experiment any more. Different
types of venturis or size of venturi openings can be tried. Length of
riser tube may also affect skimming capacity. This mod worked great
using a Rio 2100 and a Mag 950, a Sen 900 was too powerful making it
difficult to control water height in the skimmer column.
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Skimmer Silencer |
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| A second DIY. The output of the CPR skimmer needs to be above water level to reduce backpressure and maintain consistent water height in the skimmer body. This results in noise and salt creep, two things I don't like. An output tube that extends into the water and has several holes drilled around the perimeter close to water level eliminates these problems. Using a union to extend the tube works, but I've found just replacing the down tube works best. |  |
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A thank you to George Weber, who allowed me
to appropriate his ideas, and John
Geisler (JJ) for taking the pics, creating this DIY page and posting
this mod on his website. |
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| Return to JJ's DIY page | |
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You are the |
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