Octopus HOB Skimmer Owners - Page 6

dzeadow · #**126** 12/03/2007, 11:03 PM

yeah, after someone had mentioned it I did a search and that's what it appears to be. Pretty cool. freaky little SOB's though. Anyway, back to this thread!

happyface888 · #**127** 12/03/2007, 11:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by luke33
Happy, take that volute cover and drill a 1/8" hole in it and put a 1/8" hose adapter in it, then slice the bottom of the hose adapter and face that towards the impeller. You don't need 1/4" since this pump is so small, 1/8 will do you better as it will be easier for it to draw air. Then take off a layer of NW and put on a layer or two of mesh. This will give you much better results......trust me

Correct me if I am wrong, heres a modyfied pic of what you described. And I dont think I've ever seen a 1/8 I.D, do they even exist?

And that is a pretty cool worm.

dzeadow · #**128** 12/03/2007, 11:19 PM

more often than not, you get more airflow if the tube outlet for the air is facing towards the impeller OR like in your picture, you slice it at an angle and point the open end of that slice towards the impeller, it'll have more "suck"

happyface888 · #**129** 12/03/2007, 11:22 PM

yeah thats what I read too, the closer it is to the impreller the more air it gets. And I modded the volute cap widen it alittle, this should help aswell. Well while I was digging around in my Box of fish stuff. I found a strainer that looks exactly like this

thats from a custom flow package I used for a canister a while back. I tried to stick it on, it didnt fit so I sanded the crap out of it and now shoved it on. I dont really care for the surface skimming box since its submerged and useless. And another bonus I can change water and not have to shut the skimmer off since the tube is long enough and by the time I change out 5gallons the tube is still in the water.

luke33 · #**130** 12/03/2007, 11:22 PM

That is correct and just leave it stock, no fittings in it needed, just the volute cover with a hole in the thread. And 1/8" hose is what neary every octo comes with stock. It will work well. Try and get it as close to the impeller as you can, but straight down and tight.

I modded an octo 3000 over the weekend. Stock it pulled 13scfh unrestricted. With the elbo it was around 10. After i took off the top layer of nw, added 4 layers of mesh, drilled a 1/4" hose adapter in the volute cover, boared out the elbo, it pulled 35scfh before breakin in, i'm sure it does 40now. Point being, it will work better this way.

happyface888 · #**131** 12/03/2007, 11:25 PM

So I basicly stick a 1/8 air tube in the hole and no I.D is required? I think I did something like this back than on the typhoon but water would go up the tube and it wouldnt produce any bubbles, any reason why this happened?

dzeadow · #**132** 12/03/2007, 11:26 PM

is it basically like the pic that Happy did? I don't suppose you took any pics of this mod? I'd be willing to do this on this other Octo 225 since i already broke the venturi intake off.

happyface888 · #**133** 12/03/2007, 11:30 PM

i think I seen it done befor by luke, ima have to dig in his gallery.

luke33 · #**134** 12/03/2007, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by happyface888
Correct me if I am wrong, heres a modyfied pic of what you described. And I dont think I've ever seen a 1/8 I.D, do they even exist?

And that is a pretty cool worm.

Yep, basically drill right where the red marker is or a bit closer if you can fit it, and put a 1/8" hose adapter, slit it towards the impeller, attach a hose and let her rip. You remove a layer of NW, add mesh and i guarantee you'll pull twice the air.

happyface888 · #**135** 12/03/2007, 11:50 PM

Ah found it and Luke beat me to it, notice the hole is drilled on the volute cap instead of adding a attachment with a hole. I have no idea what that white cap is neither its from luke. So ignore that white add on.

Its just like this but ignore the I.D
Luke should that grey nob be removed? or left alone?
[img]http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n43/dzeadow/volute1.jpg[/iimg]
dzeadow said its glued down and thats the entrence for the water.

no hob will ever get this nasty stuff

happyface888 · #**136** 12/03/2007, 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by luke33
Yep, basically drill right where the red marker is or a bit closer if you can fit it, and put a 1/8" hose adapter, slit it towards the impeller, attach a hose and let her rip. You remove a layer of NW, add mesh and i guarantee you'll pull twice the air.

What happens if water rides up the tube? This happened befor on the typhoon when I just shoved a tube in it.

On a side note this is a pretty good bubble trap thats also being used on the deltecs

The Bak Pak Bubble Trap effectively eliminates turbulence bubbles and micro-bubbles caused by chemicals in the tank. The NBT is available in black and attaches to the outlet elbow of the Bak Pak.

happyface888 · #**137** 12/04/2007, 02:04 AM

Well this ends the problems with the siphon thing, now to discuse some modding ideas
A quick review based on personal experience, may not be the best review but I tried :P
Octopus BH100F
Its been a couple months now, and this skimmer by far has been the best hob I have used, budget wise, of course there are better hobs but I dont have alot of money. This skimmer cost 150 total including shipping and it was a inexpensive skimmer that works well. I have used a cpr for 7years and all I got was green tea, than I swithced to a D&D typhoon and boy was that skimmer dissappointing after hearing all the good reviews this thing flooded on me. I think when ever people see octos they assume its a cpr knock off but to be honest they may look the same but there is definetly no comparison based on proformance. The octopus is slightly bigger and The collection cups different aswell. Sometimes little things make big difference. The skimmers on a 45gallon with a coral beauty, bicolor blenny, six line wrasse, 2 ocellaris clowns and a yellow tail damsel and a few low maintance corals. I feed once a day and every 3-4 days I get a good amount of brown skimmate. When I first got it, this thing was a monster and worked really good too. The back chambers come in handy, I tossed my heater back there and my temp probe. I can even put carbon or whatever filtration I want.
The annoying thing about this skimmer would be the way it starts up, which is the siphoning thing. I have tried alot of times and I have yet to get it started with the octopus instructions but others have no problem doing this. I might just be dumb when it comes to that but who knows. Also the surface skimming box is practically useless since the intake is too long, so if you use it. Its going to be completly submerged in the water. You can hack saw the inlet tube to make it shorter just for the surface skimming box. But I dont use it myself, but you still need to have that thing on or else you'd get snails or fish the intake. The pump has no problems and is not loud. Cleaning the thing is pretty easy but un-mountaing the pump is a little tricky. Like all hobs this thing still produces micros but there are ways of dealing with it just get a cpr bubble trap or make one.

But anyways I like the skimmer for the price it works well.

Side Note For those DIY SURFACE SKIMMER PEOPLE
If you ever decide you dont want to use the stock surface skimming box and would rather build your own. Make sure no snails can enter your inlet, I would copy the stock skimming box design where the inside has a tube that leaves alittle space seperating the tube from the bottom. Where there's enough space for water to be sucked up,but not big enough for snails to go in there, this also applies to small fishes like 6lines wrasses for example. This happened to me, a fish got into a DIY kind of surface skimming box and got sucked up into the first chamber and I had to take it apart just to get it out. But if you keep the stock box you can ignore all of the above that only applies to DIY'ers Skimming box. One last tip make sure your outlet faces the wall, this is just incase a snail gets in there and clogs it. Koraltek had this happen a snail went up the outlet and clogged the skimmer thus flooding his floor.

Well after a little searching I figured the answer to my own question I think. if you are going to do the mod mentioned above make sure the tube has a tight fit, if its not a tight fit water will ride up the air line. And like you said dzeadow make the line have a slant on it facing the impreller for maximum air draw. I have no idea if the grey cap will affect the profromance but we will have to wait and see how yours go.

I'd also do this simple mod

I tested this between stock and modded and the one where I carved it out, I got more air from this. I have 2 genxs so I tested both to see which one got more air stock or modded cap.

I think the winning mod/fix would be replacing the resun225f with a stock sedra 2500 pinwheel, after browsing around in the deltec forum I noticed that the mce 300's maxijet is a pinwheel. But so far it seems that the bh100/f can keep up with them. the bh100f is half the cost of the deltec and the bh100 is 200 dollars less.

Jason1520 · #**138** 12/04/2007, 03:58 AM

Happy, I used a regular rubbar band. I put it around the bottom and it seemed to work. The problem is that it was slightly too thick, causing me to have a difficult time getting the collection cup back in. Not to mention when I pull the collection cup out, the rubber band falls off.

I guess I am back to the drawing board. I think I am just gonna go and get silicone, from my local pet store.

Oh, since I am so new at this...what is preffered, or should I say the benefits of both wet and dry skimming. I hear some talking about dry skimming as better and some saying wet is better.

Does it matter? So far mine has been wet. Alot of liquid and some little specs of solids. I have not attempted dry yet?

dzeadow · #**139** 12/04/2007, 07:12 AM

It's really personal preference. If you skim wet, you'll get more "stuff" so to speak since it'll be picking up more organics in the water that may not have been pulled when skimming dry. The difference you'll notice in all these pictures is wet=light tea colored and obviously watery.. dry=dark green to black sludge. Mine's pulling out stuf that almost looks like that picture where someone's holding "snot" in their hand. I can see the snot strands in my cup surrounded by darker colored water. If you skim wet, and skim wet a LOT, you'll end up having to top your tank of w/ saltwater more often because that's what you'll be pulling out. So when topping off, make sure you check your salinity. If your water level is low and salinity is stable, add saltwater, if the water level is low and salinity is high, add ro/di water.

As for your rubber band mod, try the teflon tape, I did that, it's tough to get the cup in and out, but it hasn't fallen off yet.

FishAreFriends2 · #**140** 12/04/2007, 11:33 AM

Man I still can't believe the main cause for messing with the siphon was a snail. Who would of known, I also thought it was the John Guest. We went through so many ideas and frustration too, but Its good to hear that you found that little bastard and fixed the siphon. My bh100 is pulling out skimmate just like PIanktons but its not as dark though. I will give the teflon a try, are you noticing any bubbles trying to pass up the teflon?

FishAreFriends2 · #**141** 12/04/2007, 11:58 AM

Has anyone tried to put chaeto in the return chamber? I read over at nano-reef some reefers are doing that to their cpr in replacement of biobale.

dzeadow · #**142** 12/04/2007, 12:51 PM

No chaeto, but I do have a carbon bag in there. Like Luke said quite a few pages ago, putting chaeto in there would require you to light the skimmer, probably causing undesireable aglaes to grow as well, reducing the effectiveness of the skimmer.

I don't see any bubbles going up and around the teflon as of yet, but of course I did put a little too much on it, it's tight as heck. But it's also pulling some good skimmate doing it this way. So if you have the opportunity to pull the cup off for a day, doing the silicone would probably be a better, more permanent fix. The teflon is starting to want to roll over after putting it in and taking it out 3 or 4 times... it's still on there though so we'll see when it finally wears out.

dzeadow · #**143** 12/04/2007, 01:01 PM

Well, I ordered some enkamat from Sherm via ebay today. $6 total including shipping. When it gets here, I think I'm going to mod the crap out of this 2nd 225. I'm going to bore out the intake hole so more water can get in, and I think I might try a 1/4" airline too... I think once the water entrance is widened, it'll allow it to pull more air.

happyface888 · #**144** 12/04/2007, 01:45 PM

This is going to be interesting, once you get your meter you can compare both pumps a mesh modded with 1/4 air tube vs stock needlewheel. I wonder what the air draw would be with a 1/8 mesh modded. And which one would be better 1/4 or 1/8, I used 1/4 on the genx but luke recommended 1/8. Man I need luke to chime in on this thing. Im not a pro on this mesh mod with air tube thing. So luke think you can explain how much the resun225f/genx1k can handle? And would too much air make the pump choke?

happyface888 · #**145** 12/04/2007, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jason1520
Happy, I used a regular rubbar band. I put it around the bottom and it seemed to work. The problem is that it was slightly too thick, causing me to have a difficult time getting the collection cup back in. Not to mention when I pull the collection cup out, the rubber band falls off.

I guess I am back to the drawing board. I think I am just gonna go and get silicone, from my local pet store.

Oh, since I am so new at this...what is preffered, or should I say the benefits of both wet and dry skimming. I hear some talking about dry skimming as better and some saying wet is better.

Does it matter? So far mine has been wet. Alot of liquid and some little specs of solids. I have not attempted dry yet?

I'll agree with dzeadow, its personal preference . I like to skim more towards wet because I believe I can take out more organic stuff like that instead of skimming dry. the skimmate I have now is brown, anyone willing to pour their skimmate into a glass cup

that be a nice view of the skimmate like what luke does.

dzeadow
what parts are needed to make this, the threads too long to go back and look

and have you noticed any back pressure? And a update on the bubble killer would be nice too.

I'd like to make one that looks like this but its not going to make it to the surface.

dzeadow · #**146** 12/04/2007, 02:16 PM

I'm wondering what the difference is in between pumps.. such as between the oct225, the oct1000..etc. I mean, do you think they're charging more for similar pumps where one's restricted flow determines that it's less gph vs the same pump opened up has the better performance? What I'm wondering is, will opening up the volute for more water movement give me the same flow rate as a 1000? or close? will doing that mod to it allow me to put the 1/4 airline on it or would 1/8 be all I can do? I wish I worked at a place like aquacave or something and had the ability to look at the pumps and compare what's different.

dzeadow · #**147** 12/04/2007, 02:18 PM

the problem with finding plumbing that's going to look nice w/ our setups is, we're working w/ metric sizes and they don't match up w/ our standard pvc. I used a 1" to 1 1/4" elbow w/ 1 1/4" piece of pvc to extend up. Obviously there's plenty of teflon tape there too to make the elbow tight.

happyface888 · #**148** 12/04/2007, 02:24 PM

We will need luke or Koraltek to chime in on this too

I'm no expert but luke has alot of pumps and Koral works at a fish store so he has access to other pumps.

The oct225f and oct 1000 dont look alike right. I searched it and all I found were octopus turbine pumps

octo/resun 225f

happyface888 · #**149** 12/04/2007, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dzeadow
the problem with finding plumbing that's going to look nice w/ our setups is, we're working w/ metric sizes and they don't match up w/ our standard pvc. I used a 1" to 1 1/4" elbow w/ 1 1/4" piece of pvc to extend up. Obviously there's plenty of teflon tape there too to make the elbow tight.

do you notice any back pressure?

dzeadow · #**150** 12/04/2007, 02:28 PM

no, the level in the return chamber is at the top of the return pipe, sometime it floats a little higher than that, but no i don't see anything significant. and the reason might be because the pipe that i put on there is actually close to 2x the size of the outlet pipe. There's less restriction so I'd imagine that's why I don't see anything.