Looking for Jebo 520 Becket mods

Yes, I have a skimmer fetish. ;D

I picked up a Jebo 520 plus a pump off of E-Bay for $70ish. I couldn't stop myself. The pump has got to be worth half of that. I'm thinking of modifying it to accept an old becket I have lying around. Like I don't have enough DIY projects going on. I know I've seen threads on RC, but for some reason I can't find them. I've even seen threads to make it a recirculating skimmer. I don't plan on going to that extent. Do any of the DIY gang have a link saved?

Frankly, I'm pretty impressed with the base unit. Good solid design and materials. Very large reaction chamber. I have not fired it up with using it's basic venturi, but I'm guessing that it may still be pretty effective without the Becket. For someone on a limited budget this may be the skimmer of choice. The venturi looks much less restrictive than a Becket so it will pass a higher volume of water and probably have less bubbles and contact time. Adding a Becket and an adjustable wastegate should really improve performance. Oh, it is another Metric unit. the feed pipes are 25mm. It should be easy to adapt them to 1" with a little PVC cement.

Oh, you have to love the 520 gal rating. Talk about over rated. : ;D

 

Gotta link or pics?

 

Hi,
Here you go.
It's about 6"w and 20 tall.

 

I don't think that that skimmer would be big enough for a beckett. I would use it as is or run a Sedra or Gen-x needlewheel on it.

 

I've seen links for both mods. From an internal volume standpoint it is bigger than it looks in the picture. Frankly, the Becket is much more restrictive than it's venturi. I was thinking about a needlewheel too just to gain experience with them. After all a Becket is just a fancy venturi. I'm going to mod it to accept a 1" thread so I can add either foam maker to the inlet. Others that have modified the Jebo have done it simply for the basic design and size of the reaction chamber.

 

Hey Blade, it sound like you know your skimmers so can you explain something to me please (others to...). What is the difference between a Becket, a venturi and a needlewheel. And how do they work? Just give me the big picture.

Thanks

Marc.

 

I like screwing around with skimmers. There is a big difference.
Let’s see if I can answer your question.
All skimmers work by making foam. I think I made my first skimmer in 81 based on an article I read out of an air stone, a lift tube, and 1/2 of a shampoo bottle for a cup. Since then we keep on getting better on making foam. Air stones are still very effective.
Venturies and Beckets are really the same thing. Both avoid the use of an air pump and just use the force of the water moving through the skimmer to make foam. A Becket is a kind of venturi. Both work based on the venturi effect. Just like a carburetor is used to atomize gas and mix it with air for your car. Basically, you reduce the diameter of the tube the water flows through causing it to speed up. When a liquid or gas speeds up it creates a low pressure area. You are able to introduce air at that point and it will get sucked into the water. They are quite easy to build. I’ve built one out of short length of ¾” PCV by gluing a stopper with a ½” hole drilled through it at one end. Then I simply drilled a small hole in the PVC just past the stopper. Add 2 threaded ends and you are off and running. Depending on the location and size of the injector (hole) and the speed and volume of the water you can create bubbles. Do it right and you can get lots of very small bubbles. Do it wrong and you just get a few big bubbles. A Becket is a well engineered Venturi. Many have a spring loaded air restrictor that keeps the Becket from sucking too much air and creating large bubbles.
A needle wheel is a type of pump. It sucks water and air into itself. The water and air are mixed by the impeller. If you are familiar with a SeaClone hang on skimmer where you use basically hang an air hose in front of a power head, this is what is going on. Needle wheel pumps take this action 1 step further. The impeller isn’t just comprised of flat paddles that push water out of the pump by centrifugal action. It has multiple ragged and staggered blades that “chop” the air/water mix into an extremely fine mist before pushing it out. They claim to improve the mixing over a “standard” venture pump combo. At least that is the concept. I have not used one as of yet.
Now, here is the $64,000,000 question. What is the best way to make bubbles? Some of the best skimmers in the world still use air stones. Most of the high end skimmers use a Becket and sometimes multiple Beckets. I’ve seen a prototype SeaDart huge needle wheel pump. That beast just looks crazy. You should see the pictures of the foam it produces. And IMO there is nothing wrong with a well designed venture that isn’t a Becket.
Confused? I know I am. Personally, I think as the technology and design of needle wheel pumps advances they are going to work their way into large high end applications. I think they may work very well with a recirculation system like the one on my big Berliner.


Whew. Did any of that make sense?

 

Thanks blade.. it did make some sense, but since i am french ill probebly read your post a few more times just to be sure i understand it. Ok so i know what a needle wheel skimmer is. Ive had berlin skikmmers before and right now im using a prizm (i know... prizm ) so there all needle wheels. Ill just read your post again to really understand Venturies and Beckets.

Thanks a lot blade

Marc

 

Here is the Jebo after modifications. I'm not sure this will be it's final version, but I'm letting it run for a while to see how much skimmate it produces.

The Becket seem to produce smaller bubbles, but the original venturi produced more bubbles. There may be no net gain. A higher pressure pump may be in order. I have an MD 40 clone running and thought it would be enough.

 

OK I started the mod process, but before I rigged the becket I let it run in it's natural state. You know, for a medium sized tank (up to 125 or so) it might be fine with just the addition of a waste gate or ball valve. I think it's potentially much better than the Skimmer I have on the 210 so tomorrow I'm going to do the becket mod.