needle wheel for bubble magus atman pumps

[disaster999]

this is a review of the needle wheel for the bubble magus atman pumps, not bubble magus skimmer. i dont think much is needed to say about their skimmers as its been proven in this forum they are good performance skimmer for the price.

 

for those who dont know, the atman pumps that came with the bubble magus skimmer uses a mesh wheel to chop up the air. it works pretty good and produces a lot of skimmate, but without a regular maintenance, the mesh wheel will get, lack of better terms, "clogged" up and wont pull as much air in, reducing skimmate. a nice bath in vinegar + water will fix the clogging. another problem with the mesh wheel is that after a while, the mesh will degrade and start to come apart, when that happens, you will need to buy a replacement.

 

i came across a needle wheel for the atman pumps one day and i thought i would give it a try. its is a direct replacement, you just need to pull off the mesh wheel and snap on the needle wheel and rebuild the skimmer. first thing i noticed when starting up the skimmer...nothing happens. i had to blow into the air tube to jump start the skimmer. but once it does get going, the skimmer roars into life and fills the entire cylinder with fine bubbles and starts to produce a foam head almost instantly. within a few minutes i can see skimmate producing already. after around 10 hours there is around 1cm of skimmate in the cup of my nac6a already. i have to empty my cup every 4-5 days. im surprised how efficient the needle wheel is. the only complaint i have is that it doesnt have enough power on it own to start, but if you can overlook that small problem and dont mind blowing into the air tube every time you start it up, the skimmer kicks ass.