FatBastad's tank - Jebao WP-10 Installed / early review

Skimmer arrived yesterday!

Took everything out and inspected.
Was simply holding and looking at the venturi and the air stem simply fell off - I'm not even going to say snapped off, it fell off!

Unbelievable!

After a lightning quick assessment, I thought up a solution in less than 10 seconds. My permanent fix that is 50 times stronger. ;D


After it was baptized in 9 inches of a water\mild vinegar solution for 30 mins in a trusty 5 gal bucket, it was time to rinse and install!

Remora came off, Sump was vacuumed and the SCA-301 was installed.
It's currently running at a setting of just under 3 in 9 inches of water.

I'm sure I'll have to experiment with the height a bit in the coming weeks to tune it but if anyone is currently using this model and is happy with a particular water level, let me know!



I didn't finish this up until late last night so pics will come tonight, including the steps I did for the new venturi stem.



-FB

 

FB,

I have the SC150, now the SCA 302 ( I think).

I've had the plastic pipe for the rubber air hose get clogged over time, so now I just run 20ml RO down the rubber hose every so often, seems to take care of it.

I would really like to see what your mod for the venturi is though, Please post some pics and an explanation soon!

 

I will, it's very simple. Tho I don't know if they are the same or not.
I used your tip of putting a MaxiJet airline valve on it too, which is currently wide open.

 

Awesome. Congrats, FB. Looking forward to pics!

 

Thanks for mentioning that Mod FB!

It gives you a little more control over things, as some of the manufacturers do also have an air intke adjustment valve- like that one does with the Mod.

On the Atman 2500, they pus a blue looking piece of plastic- rarely fits right without modding slightly over the intake, it acts as a vinturi and the robber hose lumen is continuos with the inside of the venturi by a small pice of plastic pipe.
I broke one off flush already, but for some reason, they had sent me two. So I found the box and used the other.

Either way I always like seeing projects and mods of equipment, etc.

 

First, I snapped this pic about a week ago. I keep a analog thermometer in the top back corner of the display tank. I noticed water in it and thought, "No way.", but decided to pull it out to verify... sure enough, it was 1/4 filled with tank water. I don't think it's too big a deal. The inner glass tube wasn't broke so I imagine no mercury was leaked.
It was most unsettling tho.


So the skimmer arrived yesterday and you know I was determined to install it that night! Box arrived fedex in good overall condition.
Gave the unit a once over, all looks well.


Opened up the "venturi" bag which was wrapped in it's own little foam wrap package. Was inspecting it and the air stem literally broke off in my hands.




...so is this the build quality I should expect from the rest of this skimmer?
I was irritated to say the least.
Granted, this is probably the weakest link in the entire construction of the product; however, a very important piece to say the least!

So as I stare at it and think, I can fix just about anything, I'm sure I have something in the house to fix this or at the very least Jimmy-Rig it until I get a new one...
Eureka! A papermate pen! I'm certain it's a very close fit.
I grab one and visually check it out, yup, this will work.


Cut off the end of the pen right at the ring of where the taper starts.


My cordless drill is currently unavailable so I threw a drill bit about 3/4" the size of the hole in my Dremel and carefully proceeded to remove the remaining stem like a mad dentist. (Obviously, I also "drilled" out the end of the pen so it's a nice hollow tube, no pic of that)


Yup. A beautiful fit. (make sure to carefully and lightly deburr the inside and outside of the pen and venturi hole)


Nice and tight! Air tight in fact.
However, I did use a fine layer of super glue around the edge of the hole to solidify things! I let this air dry for a while

NOTE:
You can NOT tell from this pic but the new pen stem is NOT pushed down far enough to make contact with the white plastic inner funnel.


You can just make out the gap in this blurry pic.


By giving it the weakest test available, "the mouth test", it certainly feels like its flowing a bit more air than before I carved out what was left of the original stem with the dremel.
So to credit Todd Sails, I added an unused MaxiJet airline valve onto the intake line.

To get the rest of the broken stem out of the hose without cutting it, I gently tapped it with a hammer until it shattered and removed the pieces with tweezers. The tube went on the new stem nice and tight!

Without further blathering...
Sump pics from tonight, 24 hrs later!

 

Awesome work-around, FB!

 

Brilliant FB!

Yes, that is exdactly the same type venturi, it's even blue just like mine.

You're already getting some good skim too!

I'm telling ya, these things work about as good as the ones that cost 3 + times more money, for no better perforamnce.

Now YOUR mod has given me a quick, simple nad easy way to fix the one that broke on me already, I saved it of course.

This will now be known as the

Fat ******* venturi stem Mod!

 

Thanks guys.


Yeah, I've been known to save everything too!
It's always rewarding to successfully use or implement a widget or part you decided to save years earlier!

Now I can't verify for the nannies out there that it won't leech anything into the water but my best guess is this material is going to be safer than 98% of any other plastic solution you'll come across.

Besides, I've been writing with and chewing on this brand of pen for the last 8 years and I've yet to pinpoint any related side effects! ;D

 

It was a fair amount of skim for still being inside the break-in period window...

Hoping it'll step up and pull out the nasty.

I'd like to be able to feed more and not grow algae.
Everything goes crazy over the Reef Chili, which I use sparingly.

Picked up a bottle of TLF MarineSnow the other day, doesn't get the same reaction from the tank but folks seem to like the stuff so we'll see...