Anyone Ever Try to DIY a Needle Wheel Type Impeller?

[Canadian]

When I look at these impellers (Turbofloter, Euroreef) I think to myself, "What a joke. I could make this thing no problem. Then I could throw it into the pump for a skimmer and see just how much better they are."

I don't imagine it would be that simple, but I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this. If you have, how successful was it and did you try it on different skimmers?

If this impeller design is so much better then why don't other companies implement them? Or are there patent issues at play here? Maybe it's more complex than I'm giving them credit for?

[veng68]

I've never done it but how about getting a replacement impellor from a turbofloter or a euroreef and sticking it in the appropriate pump (Rio whatever for the Turbofloater and ehiem/Sen for the Euroreef). Just a thought.

Cheers,
Veng68

[Salt Creep]

I've noticed that a regular impeller chops up air just as well as a needle wheel. Have you tried blowing air into a regular powerhead? Try it with something that can "run dry" though, because some powerheads won't take having air bubbles between the magnet and the casing.

Ken

[Kinesthesia]

It's funny you should mention it... I thought the same thing. I've got a no-name venturi skimmer and I thought that if I could just get a needle wheel...

Anyway, last week a bought a Rio 800RVT, which has an air intake before the impeller rather than after. Problem is, it's not strong enough, not even close (this may be due to sucking air as well as water, the water pressure coming out of it is less than my MicroPumps)... and it's rather noisy to be honest, so it's not retired to my rock curing tank.

But I had the same thought as above, you can get the needle wheel "replacement" from Premium Aquatics, which I think will go into a Rio 2100 for the Turboflotor. But the problem becomes how to get the air injected before the impeller. The needle wheel is just a modified impeller to more efficiently chop up bubbles, but with no air intake, no bubbles to chop.

But if you get anywhere with this... let me know !

[Canadian]

Here's what I think would work:

Take a MAG pump that can accomodate the Needle Wheel impeller. Swap the impellers. Then take the Aquariums Systems-MaxiJet (Seaclone) venturi intake and put it on the intake of the MAG pump. You'd have to use a piece of PVC as a bushing to get the venturi to fit the MAG, but that's no big deal. Voila you're done!

Or try to jurry rig a MaxiJet powerhead (assuming there would be enought flow) to accomodate a dif impeller.

My only concerns are that none of the Needle Wheel impellers would fit into a MAG or MJ, but maybe they could be modified to fit, and that a MAG might not like running full of air.

It's gotta be worth a try. Unfortunately I don't have any of the Needle Wheel impellers available to me, so what I'm gonna try to do is just modify an existing MJ impeller and turn it into a needle wheel. I think a bioball would make a nice "needle wheel" if it was cut down to size. This will have to wait until the weekend, but I'll get back to you with the results.

[goby]

canadian,

I remember reading a few years back about someone doing it with a sliced up bioball, and drilling the center for mounting. I think this is your best bet.


g

[Kinesthesia]

Hmmm... I don't get the bioball reference. It seems to me that if a pump were spinning the impeller fast enough to move a decent amount of water, esp while sucking air that any plastic components wouldn't hold. But hey, I'd love to be proven wrong and hear of a cheap and easy way to do this.

Personally, I think the place to start is with the needle wheel impeller.
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PA&Product_Code=TURBO-NEEDLEW&Category_Code=Aquamedic

Find a pump that it will fit, probably a Rio 2100. And then work on the air intake. I think I'll send email to Premium Aquatics and see where that gets me.

[wld1783]

Forget the fancy impeller. I bought a turbofloater T1000 with a RIO2100 2 months ago. Last week the pump failed fortunately it didn't leak voltage into my reef tank like the RIO 3100 did in my sons FOWLR (RIOs suck).

I had a spare RIO 1700 with standard impeller for water changes and put it on the Turbofloater. WOW!! No need for an air pump and it seems that the bubble size is just as fine.

Today the 700GPH Mag Drive arrived and after some DIY PVC fittings the skimmer works great. Lots of fine bubbles and at 700 GPH circulation plenty of contact time. The skimmer output seems to have doubled. I had to throttle it back.

My point is that the needle wheel does a great job of chopping up the bubbles but the inherent design is not sufficient to draw large amounts of air through the venturi. I believe that this is due to the fact that the needle wheel will not pump the same volume as a standard impeller. The standard impeller circulates more water and subsequently chops a greater volume of air to produce the same if not better effect.

If you are set on a lousy RIO pump prone to failures and voltage leakage, you can order a separate needle wheel for about $8.00 from Turbofloater. This only fits RIO 1700 & 2100 pumps not the Mag Drive. The needle wheel is juts a gimmick you don’t need one.

[Oppsea]

Gobby, I also remember the bioball mod as an air/water injector try. It was not adequately structurally sound as I recall, and the guy spent time trying to find something better. From the few tries I’ve done, almost any impeller will work if only small amounts of air are permitted to be ingested. The pump manufactures hate this kind of talk, worrying about premature pump failure and warranties.

[Drock]

Here's a link, http://www.about.com/pets/saltaquarium/library/weekly/aa091099.htm
It looks simple enough if it works.
HTH...Duaine

[flaunt]

This is an interesting link showing someone's bio-ball impeller: http://camelreef.free.fr/skimmer/skimmer.html