cpr bak pak with maxi jet 900? will it work?

[WA coral]

I just acquired 2 maxi jet powerheads they are 900s and I was wondering if I can change out the rio 600 on my cpr bak pak and replace it with the maxi jet 900 ? Or will that over power it ? Has anyone done this b4 ? and if so how did it work for you and was it worth swaping? any imput would be great. thanks andy

 

[reedman]

I ran a 1200 on my bak pak and it worked great.

 

[steve-s]

I ran a 1200 on my bak pak and it worked great.

Same, definately an improvement over the RIO RVT's. I also found it a bit quieter and less large bubbles exiting the skimmer.

Cheers
Steve

 

[matts125]

make the switch Andy...


Matt

 

[werew]

I put a MJ 900 on my backpak and it worked great... but i couldnt leave well enough alone and decided to improve further.

I did a fishing line "needlewheel" mod on the pump's impeller blades. Worked GREAT. It makes a lot more bubbles and they're VERY small, pulls a lot more crud out of the water and its much darker than before.

I took pics of the mod and posted a "how to" thread over on Reef Central under this same name.

 

[WA coral]

I tried to make the switch but when I tried to introduce air to the flow it began to push water out of the air tube? Not sure why but I did run into a fit problem, the maxi fits directly into the tube for the bakpak but you cannot introduce air without the extension on the front of the maxi with the air hole so I put the extension on the front flow tube but now it does not fit into the inlet tube of the bakpak so I found some tube and cut a coupler to make the inlet tube and the maxi output tube match, this is when it started to push water out the air tube? I am not sure if the air extension and the makeshift coupler were to long for this setup or if something else is going on? Should I try to get rid of the air inlet extension and coupler and just drill my own air inlet directly into to the output tube on the maxi? Any thoughts

 

[Al G.]

The Maxijet won't work with the venturi that already comes packaged with it.

You need to get a separate venturi kit to use the MaxiJet with the Bakpak.
Like this one from Premium Aquatics.
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Store_Code=PA&Screen=PROD&Category_Code=Maxijet&Product_Code=MJ-VENT


Or you can try this mod.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56425&highlight=venturi

 

[WA coral]

Thanks for the ideas I am going to try the home model tonight and see what happens, I am using a maxi 1200 so I hope it is not to much but I do have some 900s if it is. I will post again with the results. andy

 

[WA coral]

Well the link on the last post by AL G. for the diy skimmer pump switch for the cpr bakpak, from a rio 600 to a maxi 1200 went well. All modifacations were made with only the hardware that came with the maxi and a hack saw. There seems to be alot more bubbles and flow and I seem to be getting alot more nasty brown stuff as well, it is only the first day but as far as I can tell it looks like a great improvement. thanks again andy