What's the smallest needlewheel pump available?

[scottk]

Trying to juice up a BAKPAK for a small tank beyond the normal Maxijet1200 mods that are around. Does anyone know of a small needlewheel pump to use as a replacement? Or perhaps a better mod for a MJ1200?

[Travis L. Stevens]

Have you tried the BioBall mod for MaxiJets? I'm not sure where the air enters on a BakPak skimmer. What about increasing to something like a Mag 5?

[scottk]

Haven't tried bioball mod yet. Hoping to find an easier mod than that one. I don't think the larger pump is the answer. More flow just pushes more bubbles into the tank, I think.

[hahnmeister]

You might be able to do a Aquaclear 802 mod. http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8487250#post8487250

More air, less water throughput. Should work fine on a Bak Pak. It might be too large if set up to perform the best, but if you set it up with 3 or more mesh layers, the water throughput goes down. Its 'adjustable' in other words...

[quangtam7]

Maxijet 1200 with nw is prolly best for your skimmer, I used tile saw to cut it, took about a minute. Check out this thread http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=834002

[scottk]

Thanks. Good link! I'm going to try that out in the next couple of days.

[hahnmeister]

Smallest may not be what you want. MJ1200s suck IMO. They dont have nearly the throughput that they could, and FWIW, they barely move more than a MJ600... try it, you'll see. For its size, the MJ600 kicks the MJ1200s butt. You could run dual MJ600s and get a sizable boost over what a RIO800 or MJ1200 would give you.

Smallest? Well... Aquaclear 101/10 is what I use on a nano-reef. It does 80gph only though... too small for you.

If you want something pre-made that smokes a MJ1200, try an oceanrunner. The 2700 should give you loads of bubbles in your bak-pak.

[quangtam7]

Ocean Runner 2700? There is no way you can use on Pakpak, it will shoot the water right out of the skimmer, and it is HUGE
Here is it's size vs 6" skimmer,
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/quangtam7/RecrSkimmer11.jpg

one pump running
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/quangtam7/RecrSkimmer22.jpg

Both pumps running
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y12/quangtam7/RecrSkimmer33.jpg

[hahnmeister]

There are two 2700s. One, the one you are using, is the pump made for the T1000 classic in its recirculating configuration. It comes in at about 600gph as just a pump. The 2700 also comes as a 300gph powerhead... the pump that is used on the T1000 multi. Thats what I would try.

[Bullredchaser]

Sedra 2500 is the smallest needle wheel.