Bak-Pak Skimmer Mods - (Maxi Jet 1200)

[Jennifer]

Recently I have received a few questions about the Bak-Pak skimmer.
For those that are interested I have found and performed two mods that have greatly increased bubble production and bubble size. The good thing is that these mods make the maxi-jet pull in twice as much air with out causing more bubbles to enter the display tank.

I do plan to do a full DIY on my web site when I have time to do so.

First mod came right from CPR Aquatics chat forum. It removes the factory venturi intake. This method is said to pull more air than any other venturi mod. After doing this mod I would agree. It is definitely pulling almost 2 times the air volume.
Check out the detailed DIY CPR Maxi-Jet Intake Mod

The next mod is the usual fishing line Mod. I thought of using a mesh mod but first hand experience from others is that the mesh mod causes too many bubles to enter the display tank. I may add more fishing line later, but for now this is working great.

 

[Jennifer]

Here is what the skimmer looks like after the Mods.
I am very happy with the results from these Mods.
Might be hard to tell from these pics but there is a whole lot more bubbles in there.

 

[JPags]

Jennifer

I use an AquaFuge with the Skimmer on it with a Rio 600. I had tried the Maxi Jet with the Venturi adapter and the noise from it was unbearable. I just did a mesh mod to the Rio, I simply used the mesh and then used fishing line to attach it to the front of the impeller, no modifying of the impeller was necessary and it realy increased my bubble production and much finer bubbles.

With the Maxi-Jet mod you have, is the Maxi-jet quite?
I had seen this mod and had not tries it yet.

Also, have you tried the mesh mod to the maxi-jet or is there not enough room without moding the impeller?

Do you have to drill the holes in exactly the same spot to keep the impeller balanced, to avoid excess noise?

I had heard about the fishing line mod, but never saw a picture of it.

Thanks for the info, I will let you know when what happens when I complete my maxi-jet mod.

John

 

[jamesdong009]

Thanks for the great info. I'll have to try them out.

Looks pretty easy also.

 

[Jennifer]

Jennifer

I use an AquaFuge with the Skimmer on it with a Rio 600. I had tried the Maxi Jet with the Venturi adapter and the noise from it was unbearable. I just did a mesh mod to the Rio, I simply used the mesh and then used fishing line to attach it to the front of the impeller, no modifying of the impeller was necessary and it realy increased my bubble production and much finer bubbles.

Cool idea ! and yea Rio's are noisy to begin with.

With the Maxi-Jet mod you have, is the Maxi-jet quite?
I had seen this mod and had not tries it yet.

Yea it is pretty quite, unless you open the air valve too far. past where it really should be anyway. Then It gets a little noisy.

Also, have you tried the mesh mod to the maxi-jet or is there not enough room without moding the impeller?

IMO there was not enough room or the right type of impeller. I thought of doing a needle wheel mod using a bio-ball.I may still try that at some point.

Do you have to drill the holes in exactly the same spot to keep the impeller balanced, to avoid excess noise?

Not exactly but close anyways. If you skip drilling on eof the fins then the impeller may go off balance.

I had heard about the fishing line mod, but never saw a picture of it.

Thanks for the info, I will let you know when what happens when I complete my maxi-jet mod.

John

You are Welcome. LMK how your mod works out for you. - Jenn

 

[Jennifer]

Thanks for the great info. I'll have to try them out.

Looks pretty easy also.

Welcome, and it is.

 

[Jennifer]

Has everyone done these mods already?
Do my mods need a little refining?
"Constructive" criticism is always welcome.

 

[pvh]

I will be doing it later today. I'll let you know.

 

[Jennifer]

I will be doing it later today. I'll let you know.

Cool cool.
I would recommend adding a bit more fishing line than what I did.

It is still pulling more air but I feel that I can get the bubbles even smaller by adding more line to the impeller.

I am going to add more to mine today.

 

[jbishop]

Nice Write up Jenn

 

[pvh]

I think I'm going to try the first mod first. Looks a bit easier of the two.

 

[Jennifer]

Thanks Jbish.

Drilling the holes in the impeller was not bad. Threading the fishing line through there was getting a bit annoying tho. I think that is why I stopped where I did.

 

[JPags]

Did the first mod, but I am still getting a lot of noise from my Maxi-jet. I think it could be the impeller needs to be replaced. I was going to try the other fishing line mod on the current impeller just to see what happens, and so I don't mess up a brand new impeller when it comes in.

One other question. Have you ever though of trying to add a rejuvenating venturi to the Maxi-jet, like the rio has. I know people say the rejuvenating venturi is much better because the bubbles re-enter the impeller and become much finer, and I was thinking about it, it should be pretty easy to do.

John

 

[Jennifer]

Did the first mod, but I am still getting a lot of noise from my Maxi-jet. I think it could be the impeller needs to be replaced. I was going to try the other fishing line mod on the current impeller just to see what happens, and so I don't mess up a brand new impeller when it comes in.

Good idea. The prob may be the impeller. You can check by closing the air valve all the down, and then slowly open the valve until the point where the pump should start to get noisy. Then close the valve slightly. If the impeller is good than this should work, also this is about the maximum setting that you want to run the skimmer at.

One other question. Have you ever though of trying to add a rejuvenating venturi to the Maxi-jet, like the rio has. I know people say the rejuvenating venturi is much better because the bubbles re-enter the impeller and become much finer, and I was thinking about it, it should be pretty easy to do.

John

I have not tried adding 1 to a maxi-jet. I have played around with that on another skimmer I have that uses a Rio with the rejuvenating venturi.
After a bit of investigating and tinkering. I find that I can get more air into the skimmer by removing the rejuvenating venturi. Instead of 1 air line going to the pump I now have 2 and the bubbles seem to be as small as they were with the Rejuv venturi.

 

[JPags]

I find that I can get more air into the skimmer by removing the rejuvenating venturi. Instead of 1 air line going to the pump I now have 2 and the bubbles seem to be as small as they were with the Rejuv venturi.

Thats interesting, I may try that tonight on my rio that I did the mesh mod on and see how it works.

John

 

[stingythingy45]

Has everyone done these mods already?
Do my mods need a little refining?
"Constructive" criticism is always welcome.

I have a CPR Bak Pak on my QT tank that is modded.
I used gutter guard plastic mesh to go this.I has a MJ 1200 on it as well.
It's been running for almost a year that way.

 

[afboundguy]

Modded my Rio

I modded my rio for my Bak Pak with the fishing line and it works great!!! I get so much more bubbles it's insane. I plan on getting some mesh and add that as well. It also makes no extra noise which I was a little worried about.

 

[afboundguy]

Threading the fishing line through there was getting a bit annoying tho.

Try doing it with an annoying kitten trying to play with the extra fishing line

 

[pvh]

I tried the first mod and I didn't get much bubbles. Mostly large size bubbles.

I will give the 2nd mod a try later.

 

[Jennifer]

Nice job on the Mod Afboundguy.

Try doing it with an annoying kitten trying to play with the extra fishing line

You win. That would certainly be annoying, but cute as heck. Pics would have been funny.

pvh
I tried the first mod and I didn't get much bubbles. Mostly large size bubbles.

I will give the 2nd mod a try later.

That is weird Peter. How big a hole/fitting did you use?
I used 1 of those small airline connectors which only has like a 1/16 hole in the middle.
Maybe once you have the second mod done it will be ok.