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Aquaeuro Nano Skimmer II Mods


DrChop

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For anyone out there with an Aquaeuro Nano Skimmer II that has struggled with it doing its thing, I figured out a few things with the one I just bought last Saturday... After watching several videos on YouTube with mixed reviews and mine not doing squat, I decided to figure out why...

 

First off let me say that anyone including Marinedepot.com who says they don't fit the jbj nano 28ga are wrong. It's just not a slide right in drop in, you gotta turn it a lil to get it to fit. Second, ya I know there's a slight break in period most say 24-48 hours... Mine wasn't doing anything except kicking up my temps. I got liquid in the cup, but it was literally water from mist collecting, no foam, no nada.

 

So with that all said, I found a couple things out. First issue is air.. to make foam, you need good bubbles... to make bubbles you need air or something making serious turbulence. I've seen posts of people adding an air pump. Well, I found that the issue for air feed is a 2 part problem, or at least mine was. First problem was the airline itself. My particular unit had the silicone air line routed through the side of the debris guard and making a sharp 90° bend to mate to the inlet on the pump. That bend causes the airline to pinch therefore restricting the airflow. I had some vinyl airline laying around and I took about 15" of that, routed straight through the bottom of the guard rather than the side, eliminating the bend, left about a 1" U at the bottom to ensure no kinking, and ran it up the side. First problem solved.

 

Second part of the problem was the baffle. It is a stepped size unit that slides into various diameter tubing. Problem is, the opening is more like a pinhole than an air hole. It was considerably smaller than I expected and it should be. So what I did was take out my cordless dremel with a 7/64" drill bit and fixed the problem. That's about as big as you can go without seriously thinning the sides, not that it matters really, it's not under pressure or supporting anything, but still. I also did a quick boring of the inlet on the bottom of the pump so they were the same. Be careful there, you can easily drill through the plate that is above it and screw up the air path...

 

Now taking those adjustments and combining them with the fishing line mod to the impeller, this lil thing is a beast! I'm still tweaking the ideal height of the body and cup, but basically by setting the cup at its max height to where it's barely seated and the body in the water to the top grey collar (which is what coralfish 12g on youtube mentioned), I'm getting good solid foam, not just water spray like before. And overnight, it was working it's lil tail off. See the pix I've added. Sad that it could be a monster for a dirt cheap price but isn't, but great that it costs nothing to correct their design flaws, with maybe the exception of fishing line should you not have any, but you could use nylon sewing thread too. Hope this long winded post helps anyone who wants a skimmate demon under $50! I'll try to put together a video of sorts too, but the basics are here and will turn your skimmer into a muck monster. 14046107_1405494902795798_66627634140079

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