Sherman
Has Met Willis
It may not be the smallest ever, but it's the smallest I've personally seen. On my JBJ 12g nano, I'm running that Sapphire skimmer. It's always been a lot noisier than I thought it should be, and the pump it comes with has been extremely inconsistent, so I replaced the pump. I'm now running a MicroJet 320, and I mesh modded it! Sure, this seems a little silly, but I thought I'd give it a shot, anyway.
The pump is so small, I could only put a single layer of Enkamat on it. The impeller had three blades on it, and I cut those way down, to about 1/4 their original size. I left that little on there, so I'd have something to attach the mesh to so it would spin. The scale of the project is so small, I wasn't able to use the standard fishing string ties (and especially not zip ties) to attach the mesh. I tried super glue gel, but I made a bit of a mess of the whole thing with that. You can still see the residue on the inside of the impeller housing on the pump in the photos below. In the end, I used some aquarium silicone I had sitting around. Just a dab on the end of the impeller has held the Enkamat mesh without issue. I also had to drill a hole in the pump body for the air inlet. I took a look at my existing pump, and just matched it. It really wasn't anything fancy, at all.
In the end, the actual mesh ended up being a single layer, about the size of a nickel. It's only been running less than an hour, so I can't say much for any increase in performance, but it's definitely a LOT quieter, and the bubbles are undoubtedly much finer. If I pull off the collection cup, the bubbles almost look like smoke at the top of the skimmer body.
The pump is so small, I could only put a single layer of Enkamat on it. The impeller had three blades on it, and I cut those way down, to about 1/4 their original size. I left that little on there, so I'd have something to attach the mesh to so it would spin. The scale of the project is so small, I wasn't able to use the standard fishing string ties (and especially not zip ties) to attach the mesh. I tried super glue gel, but I made a bit of a mess of the whole thing with that. You can still see the residue on the inside of the impeller housing on the pump in the photos below. In the end, I used some aquarium silicone I had sitting around. Just a dab on the end of the impeller has held the Enkamat mesh without issue. I also had to drill a hole in the pump body for the air inlet. I took a look at my existing pump, and just matched it. It really wasn't anything fancy, at all.
In the end, the actual mesh ended up being a single layer, about the size of a nickel. It's only been running less than an hour, so I can't say much for any increase in performance, but it's definitely a LOT quieter, and the bubbles are undoubtedly much finer. If I pull off the collection cup, the bubbles almost look like smoke at the top of the skimmer body.
