Octopus HOB Skimmer Owners

[dzeadow]

Hmm.. if I had extra pvc stuff laying around I'd give it a go, just to see what would happen. The pump may not be strong enough to do it.

here's another thing.. is there a way to bond pvc to these volute caps? Really, if you're in the spirit of things and have extra gen-x volutes that you're not worried about modding, chop off the entire pipe part that comes out of the volute, making sure to leave the "hub" part where the impeller sits. Next, you'd have to bore out the 3 holes that go around that hub to a larger diameter, say 5/8 or something, and then glue a 3/4 pvc fitting to the volute.. make your own! I just don't know if the pvc would bond to the plastic. I'd wait on this one until Koral posts some numbers, if they're in the 7-8-9 range, I'd be all about it.

[dzeadow]

Well, before you guys all go cutting off your venturis, let's see if there's any more drop in air flow. Just from last night to today it went from 4-5scfh to 3ish. It's still foaming like mad and I have 1/4" of very light tea colored skimmate, and the neck is actually turning greenish again, but I want to make sure it continues before I feel bad that you chopped off your volutes! So let's get a couple more days under the belt here before doing anything.

[dzeadow]

Crappy.. I just busted the set screw for the collection cup off the skimmer . I put too much teflon tape on at first and tried forcing the cup in, when it didn't go I re-wrapped it, put the screw tight to the box and it shot off the skimmer! Thank god it didn't crack or anything, it just looks like it seperated where they glued the little piece w/ the threads to the skimmer box, I could probably just glue it back on. Still a bummer.

[Jason1520]

dzeadow, just wanted to update you on my water level problem with the bh100. I did just like you said and started with checking the return pipe for snails, which I had none. I then put the air line into the tank to clear out possible salt buildup, that didnt work either.

The i started looking and realized that the bh100 has a spong of some kind for filtration at the bottom of the return pipe. The spong looked gross, so I pulled the skimmer off and apart. I cleaned the sponge and put it all back together, IT WORKED. this leads me to another question...

Do I need this sponge at the bottomof the return pipe? or is it there for "extra filtration"? The fact that there was actually alot of "gunk" in it makes me beilieve that it really does work...but how much is it needed. I guess I could leave it in and just make cleaning it part of regular maitnence, but to have to take the entire skimer off the tank and apart every month to clean that seems like a pain.

Anyways, thanks again for the help!

[dzeadow]

Well, it's more for reducing the amount of microbubbles that return to the tank, but there's other ways of accomplishing that goal w/ out having something that's going to be a nitrate factory. If you don't clean that sponge out, a) it'll start to clog and do exactly what you said it did and b) all that gunk will begin to break down and have negative affects on your tank. Personally I'd remove it and see how bad your micro bubbles are, and if they're bad you can try one of the methods that others have on here.. but we can cross that bridge if you're having the problem. I'm glad that you found the problem though!

[dzeadow]

Ok, well I tried the mod of cutting off the pipe on the volute and increasing size... Let me start off by first saying this: If you don't own another volute that will fit on your Resun, I'd highly suggest NOT doing this. I almost cut off the hub that holds the impeller centered about 10 times. I used a 3/4 male adapter increasing the size of the actual intake part of the hole to 1" vs 3/4"ish and the end of the pipe is obviously a threaded 3/4" hole. I accidentally grabbed the wrong drill bit so instead of using the ro/di tubing that I wanted to test this with it, I had to drill the hole even bigger and use 1/4" vinyl tubing. The results don't show any better than the other mod I posted. But it could be the fact that the tubing is too big. I'll have to try and remove this pvc fitting some how and try to put on another one and re-drill w/ the appropriate bit. The results also showed that when the power head is at 0" (waterlevel), it has about a 4-5scfh draw w/ the current set up, but going inch by inch down in the bucket gets a result of 0. I'll see what I can do w/ changing the fitting out and doing the right tubing.

[dzeadow]

Well, the only other fitting I had was a 3/4 to 1/2 MI adapter. So I replaced the one on the volute w/ this one and used the ro/di tubing. It's pulling 3-4 scfh..not bad, but not worth the trouble of doing all the modification. I'll test it again when I can take the skimmer off my tank.

My sheet goods are supposed to be arriving today for the DIY skimmer!!!

[Lost in Tanks]

if anyone is wanting to play with the Dual HOB i have one that i will be letting go fairly cheap cause i just upgraded my tank and skimmer (75 gal RR and NW200 skimmer) the skimmer will probably be ready to go in the next couple weeks..

[FishAreFriends2]

Originally posted by TKByrnes
well they are sending me a new pump! I wonder how long it will take to get it! 2 weeks to get the whole skimmer prob a month on just the pump!!

Any updates to how things are going? As mentioned in earlier posts the bh100 does for some reason always have a faulty pump. But once replaced the skim like monsters. Gotta love the skimmer. Dzeadow has a intersting mod, I might have to do that mod since obtaining those parts koral has cost soo dam much. Dzeadow do you think its possible to copy the volute koral has by DIYing it? And I'm still curious to what the air pull on that thing is.

[dzeadow]

I've tried doing something similar to Koral's mod, chopping off the volute and replacing it w/ a pvc fitting, but I haven't gotten any more out of it than the easy mod I did.. and if you don't have a spare pump I wouldn't even think about chopping anything off.. I almost ruined the whole thing about 4 different times. I have an idea of how to get it to koral's volute type, but I'm just too lazy at this point to try.

[FishAreFriends2]

If its about the same I guess the $5 mod is the way to go.

[dzeadow]

Well, don't throw that conclusion out there yet until we get some #'s from Koral.. I'd like to hear those first. My mod is in no way like his volute since I didn't know any dimensions of the internal workings as well as not having the venturi which is apparently pretty good.

[FishAreFriends2]

Does that asm mini g ventrui use a 1/4 tube?

[happyface888]

Luke did you get your bh300f yet?

[luke33]

Nope, pry be another week if i had to guess.

[dzeadow]

holy crow, who'd you order it from?!

[customanimalart]

Holding off on ordering a internal pump type until I get more feedback on function. Thus far, my Prizm Pro Deluxe (up to 300g ) is doing an adequate job and am getting nast crap out of my tank.

[dzeadow]

which internal are you waiting to hear on? the 300F or the 100F? I'll show you a really nice pic of skimmate from the last few days on my tank and so will Happy if it's the 100F. It looks like remnants of Swamp Thing in a cup! But I gotta take a pic.. it'll be a little while.

[dzeadow]

Dang DP's. So how was everyone's holidays? Looking forward to New Years?

[FishAreFriends2]

Dang luke you actually forked up the money to buy one? The bh100fs are doing great from what I'm seeing.

[luke33]

No, just going to test one. They just made it through customs so it should be fairly soon. Next week if i had to guess.

[dzeadow]

I'm getting 6-7 scfh from a super modded Resun!

[FishAreFriends2]

How the heck did you all of a sudden boost it from 4? and I thought you mentioned it dropped down to 3scfh recently..

[dzeadow]

Well the old meshmod I threw on the skimmer was back to 3. Then I switched it to the NW and it was at 4ish. The one I'm calling super modded is the one I cut the pipe off the volute and replaced it w/ a pvc adapter, bored out the volute to 1" and the output to 1/2". When I pull the Octo off my tank I'll test the regular volute w/ the bore out output and NW. I'm sure it'll be right in that range and a pretty easy mod to do if you have a dremel.

[FishAreFriends2]

Pics please. I hope after the mod of the output still fits the plumbing or that would suck big time.