Octopus Skimmer Mods

[JRod]

Anyone drill into the tube and install a drain to be able to drain the skimmer out if you need to clean it or mod it.

Doing the Mesh mod today and have to pick up skimmer and tip it over to pour water out.

Would love to add one of these, but there lies the fear of cracking the acrylic.

[SeaView]

anyone know where to buy a new venturi? After drilling mine out, even though the intake is louder, the skimmer doesn't seem to perform as well; I wish I hadn't done it.

I am seeing similar performance issues. While the air intake seems greater there is also more turbulence in the riser tube and the foam is very wet and not forming well. In order to get the best foam I need to lower the water level height and then the foam doesn't overflow the tube. No matter what height I can't tweek it to perform as well as it was before enlarging the venturi.

[hounddog01]

I'm not sure how large you made it but if you stuck to the RO line you should be ok. If you just did it give it a day or two to come to life. I run my water level right at the top of the skimmer body where it starts to taper in.

If you have not done the mesh mod I do not know if this will work very well for you. I am watching mine now and in 2 days there is an inch and 1/4 of skimate in the cup and foam coming up and over the cup riser.

I think the venturi mod and mesh mod need to be done together.

[rleechb]

Originally posted by Mr Bojangles
its sounds goofy, but you need to put a air valve or something in the intake tube to slow the air down just a but, I did the same thing and thought the same thing until someone told me to do this and it works like a champ

I have an air valve on it. Anyone know where I can buy a new venturi adapter? I was much happier with my skimmer before this mod.

I've been running it for 2 weeks, btw.

[Roland Jacques]

last i checked no one had venturis

Check SWC i have not checked there yet. let me no if they have any i need 1 also for a different skimmer.

i think a new shipment is comming soon

[SeaView]

I believe there is a direct decrease in performance with increase in venturi hose diameter. At some point the air intake will limit the water intake and greatly reduce bubbles in the skimmer body.

I had drilled out the venturi and glued a - RO sized plastic nipple. I slipped a length of standard air tubing into the nipple and was getting a good deal of air and bubbles. Then I decided to try to increase the performance by using a wider hose. 1/4" flex tube that fit around the out side of the large nipple. The difference was incredible. Even though the suction on the hose seemed greater there were practically no bubbles in the skimmer body. Squeazing the hose a bit to reduce the air caused massive amounts of bubbles to start being produced.

I think others have been observing this as well. There is a maximum size to the venturi and hosing that will produce the best performance. If skimmate seems low - increasing the airflow may not be the solution. Infact, you may need to reduce it.

[kroe]

I think the way to get the perfect air/water balance is to increase the size of the venturi air line "too much" then put a valve on it so you can tune it for the perfect mix.

The venturi mod is absolutely necessary if you are doing the mesh mod, but I do agree that there is such thing as too much air flow.

[hounddog01]

I would agree also that with each pump and skimmer there is a limit on how much air can be pulled for maximum efficiency. I think the NW-200 is somewhere between 20 and 30. I am still trying to buy a larger air meter to see how much air mine is pulling. It is always over 20 I just do not know how much. If I had to guess I am between 23-26.

I can not say how happy I am with the skimmer after the mesh mod and venturi mod. They should come from the factory this way. If they did they could charger $50.00 more and sell 100 times as many.

[SeaView]

I just slid the air hose through a plastic tube with a screw to adjust/finetune the air flow. I think this is a much better method for tuning rather than changing the water level witht the riser tube. I have noticed that the riser tube adjustments take a along time to steady off where ann air valve is immediate and doesn't require you to get you hands wet. Anytime I touch the water it lowers my skimming for a good 1/2 hour.

[hounddog01]

it takes some time to dial it in but once you get it watch out it will overflow your cup.

[villious]

Hi all. I just purchased a NW-110 Needle Wheel skimmer. It's working great and produces a gazzilion micro bubbles in the chamber.

My probleme is the skimmer sucks the bubbles through the outlet tube on the bottom and puts them into the sump chamber where my return to the tank is located. My sump and tank fills with micro bubbles. Is there anything I can do to reduce or eliminate the bubbles?

Thank you....

[192clark]

you should have baffles between the skimmer area and the return area of sump. They should eliminate bubbles.

[hounddog01]

A filter sock on the output will also take care of it.

[kroe]

Had the enkemat mesh mod and venturi mod (drilled out stock venturi for a thread in john guest fitting and used 1/4" PEX and a valve to regulate air intake) running for a few days now.

All I can say is WOW... easily doubled the output of the skimmer and made it more consistent. It is constantly pushing nice dry foam up up the tube in the collection cup. In three days I have accumulated more scum than I normally would in a week (before mesh mod and venturi mod).

[fighton03]

kroe,
what size what your factory air intake tube prior to the mod?

What is PEX?

How did you drill out your venturi? I have been following the thread and seen how others have done this, but just currious to see if you used the same methods.

[hounddog01]

Originally posted by kroe
Had the enkemat mesh mod and venturi mod (drilled out stock venturi for a thread in john guest fitting and used 1/4" PEX and a valve to regulate air intake) running for a few days now.

All I can say is WOW... easily doubled the output of the skimmer and made it more consistent. It is constantly pushing nice dry foam up up the tube in the collection cup. In three days I have accumulated more scum than I normally would in a week (before mesh mod and venturi mod).

It is amazing how much better it works that way. If they made it that way from the factory they would sell alot more skimmers.

[timrandlerv10]

who wants to make a mesh mod for me? i'll send you the impeller and mesh...and i'll sell another piece of extra mesh with the $ paypalled to you...

[hounddog01]

Sometimes I hate RC. My messages do not go thru!

anyway PM sent Tim

[polcat_4u]

I'll post for it's worth. Bought the new octopuss 3000 (pci-rps300) on Feb 23. Ran it for one week after vinager cleaning as a base line. Not bad, better than my DYI beckett.

Did the 90 mod, a good improvement in terms of air/water volume. Skimmate was tea colored, about a cup per day.

Did the GG mod, not really impressed all though it did move the foam up the riser better.

Removed the GG and did the enkamat mod (thanks to the ebay guy!!) Got some serious dry foam.

Did the venturi mod using RO tube ( I had the long hose barb version), lot's of turbulence and the foam was much wetter.

And the kicker...I ported my 300 ML ozone equipment directly into the RO line to restrict it and holy %#$ the thing went crazy.

I'm a little worried about some of the seals being ozone safe but that is easily fixed.

I built a DYI collection container with a ping-pong ball and flourecent light guard tube to gather the waste. This shuts down the skimmer once the container is full . I'm going to run the ventui into the collection cup (mod) and port the ozone into the cup as well. Can't afford a run away skimmer as mine is set up external. Actually that's why I bought this model, the output of the skimmer "T" is exactly at the top of my sump..

To all the new people on the thread, all these mods work! Take your time and read them all, they get better towards the end. This is an awesome skimmer, I spent 1 year dinking with a DIY beckett on a MAK4 and this thing blows it away after just a couple of weeks with a few simple mods!

Best of luck to all and keep the mods coming...this is one of the best threads on RC (albeit split).

On a final note I'm running this on 90G and now I can feed my friends to their hearts content. It's a beautiful thing for me because you see all these pictures of black gunk and ask "why can't I remove that stuff " now you can LOL.

Mike

[polcat_4u]

Originally posted by timrandlerv10
who wants to make a mesh mod for me? i'll send you the impeller and mesh...and i'll sell another piece of extra mesh with the $ paypalled to you...

I'll do it for free, send me a PM. I have way too much enkamat left over, you pay the shipping of the impellor "from & to" and I'll send you back the mesh modded impellor. I will remove the top layer of NW pins and tie two layers of mesh using 10LB fishing line onto six of the spindles.

Mike

[zt444a]

Anyone here use octopus reactors? Was wondering if they were easy to tune/set up.

Thanks...

[fighton03]

polcat...pm sent

[polcat_4u]

Originally posted by fighton03
polcat...pm sent

Answered...finally LOL

[skey44]

i am looking at trying the octo nw 150 from premium aquatics... and my question is if i don't mod it how will it perform on a 90g sps and low bio load system (scopas tang, saddleback clown, royal gramma and possibly two more fish)? will i have to mod it to keep up with this system? their rating is 120 g. it seems to be about the same size as an asm g2 which is overrated at 200gallons. it is about half the cost and made of seemingly better materials= basically an OR pump, cast acrylic, sch 80 union, etc. do you guys think this will be enough, will i have to mod it, or will it never be enough? thanks scott

[hounddog01]

If you have the room buy the NW-200. The 150 should do it with mods. The 200 will without. Remember they all preform better with the mods. When I say better I should say much much better.