Hi
I want to beef up my BakPak with a better pump. The Rio 600 is noisy and (I heard) prone to failure. Has anyone tried a different pump?
Thanks for your help.
I bought mine used, it came with a mag3 on it. It seems to work well, I don't know if it just popped right on, but I'll look for the guy's email that I bought it from.
Its funny, I did the typical conversion to a MaxiJet 1200 with the venturi attachment, but also tried the rio800rvt and get much better flow, more air injected, etc. Has anyone had a similar experience? I would guess the venturi attachment cuts down the 1200's flow by as much as 40%-50%?
I have a maxijet 900 on my bakpak. I skipped the venturi attatchment and just stuffed the air hose into the intake side of the pump. If i close the valve on the air tube, the 900 runs alot more water through the skimmer. So the air does drop the GPH rating. I haven't tested to see how much, though.
It's been many years since I used a BakPak skimmer but back in the day, the key to these skimmers was slow flow to maximize contact time. The best solution was just to add a air stone to the bottom of the chamber to get more air bubbles with the slower flow of a RIO 600.
Now that you mention it, he did say maxi jet, not mag3, But I really wouldn't know the difference anyway!
There is an air hose connecting to the inlet of the powerhead, and it made quite a gurgling noise. when I'd put my finger on it the flow would increase dramatically. So, I did put a gang valve on the end of it, and adjusted it to get the most bubbles & flow.
