Coralife Super Skimmer 125 Mod

[jubbin2001]

So I had an old Coralife skimmer body laying around (since I wasn't going to pay $77.00 for a new pump), and wanted to use it for something. So I had an old Maxi-jet 1200 laying around and decided to mod it a bit, to see if I could make something work. Well much to my suprise I actually think it worked out better than I expected. Here are some images.

Skimmer body:



Collection cup:


Pump mod:


Impeller:


Silencer Mod:



I am using this to cook 25lbs of older rocks from an aquarium I just tore down. I had the rocks in the water for about 4 days before adding the skimmer, and what you see in the cup is after 24hrs of skimming.

I can't take full credit for all this, it was a collection of ideas from various sites, and from here. The silencer idea was from reading how everyone complained about the noise from the maxi-jet being venturi modded, so I used some extra pvc pieces I had laying around to make it. It would have been a straight one, but I had all kinds of elbows around, and no couplers, so I used an elbow. It's pretty darn silent now, I can barely hear it, it worked well.

After looking at the project, I still think that the MJ1200 might be a little underpowered for the body. I have the adjustment knob almost comepletely shut, and the bubble line stays on the bottom 1/3 of the collection cup cone....might be a good thing though...I have yet to have it overflow . But all in all for a realatively free setup, I can't complain much. I have a feeling if it was on the 65 it would work out much slicker, but...meh, it saved me from having to buy a new skimmer for now.