Octo NW200 Step by Step to 40scfh

[luke33]

Well, i haven't messed with the recirc's as i know there plumbings much different. I recirc them myself and save 150bux, but i do know you can boar out the elbo's, open up the venturi a bit more and meshmod the pump's. That should give you 2-3x's the air production i'm sure of.

[JCTewks]

on the recirc's you're pretty much stuck with using the pieces that make up the stock venturi. You can bore it out and enlarge the airline fitting (or add new one)...but since these are metric you are stuck with the piece. Be careful not to break it as I don't believe that replacements are available for these.

Does the DDNW150 have the pumps horizontal or vertical? the straight venturi's on pumps mounted horizontily are easier to mod IMO. I have the DNW110...the venturi is an elbow and can be a bit of a pain to mod...but still very doable

[luke33]

Yep, thats the only problem i've run into with these skimmers. The parts aren't metric which sux!

[notenoughtanks]

Okay Luke, I had done the elbow boring a while ago, now I ventured to do the venturi mod. It is definately churning, but I have 2 issues. First, it's putting out waaaay too much water, so it's taking bubbles with it and splashing like crazy. Second the venturi is hella loud too, and if I put the silencer on it, it moves even more water. Do we need some tyope of restriction like the little thing on the sicce's? when I partially cover the intake, it works perfect.

[teog]

I know Im not Luke, but I would probably restrict the pump feeding the skimmer.

[luke33]

Not enough have you done the meshmod on it? For a silencer take a small pill jar and drill a hole in each end just big enough for the 1/4" tube, slide a small piece in the one end and your venturi tube in the other, put a small piece of paper towel in it, no more sound.....a poor man's silencer ; ) You can try to restrict the pump with a ball valve but i personally wouldn't.

[notenoughtanks]

Well I have designed a new venturi, initially seems to be an excellent improvement. Working on pics...

My riser tube has to be 1" lower to get the bubbles to the same spot as before. Doesn't this mean it's pulling more air?

[luke33]

That would most likely be the case, more air, less water.

[nietzsche]

i wanted to post this in here. luke helped me out through the process and what a difference:

this is my skimmer after all the mods: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...0108081504.flv



i drilled a hole on the male thread and put this adaptor. the slit faced the impeller and not the way im showing it



the bit on the left is what i used to drill the hole


i dont know if you can see in this picture, but before you could see what im thinking is the water line all the way up in the cup. the foam would never rise if i had it low in the skimmer neck. now, with the mods, the riser tube is set really low and the foam is definitely getting up higher without a problem. i dont have pics of what i did to the elbow or the mesh mod, but those were pretty easy to do

before:

[flyguy7150]

the only thing about doing the venturi mod like this, the threaded part (the volute cover i think), and the piece that locks it in place are now pretty much one piece.

[luke33]

Yea they are,but you can drill it like that and just fit the hose adapter in there real tight without glueing. It'll work just fine for in sump, not so much recirc if its outside your sump though.

[luke33]

Ok, here's the last 36hrs of skimmate. This is a huge collection cup so its pry close to 2-3cups worth of this nasty.

[flyguy7150]

Originally posted by luke33
Ok, here's the last 36hrs of skimmate. This is a huge collection cup so its pry close to 2-3cups worth of this nasty.

I wish my bubbles go into the cup like that. You're making me want to recirc my nw150. What makes recirc so much better?? Is it cause water from the DT passes directly through it, so it catches everything?

[luke33]

Well, there's a few reasons why I prefer recirc's to normal nw's. One its a must for me as i don't have an ato and my sump is a rubbermaid with no baffles and water fluctuates. With a recirc, water fluctuation does not matter. Another advantage is it is very easy to fine tune and once fine tuned its set, never need to mess with it again. The third reason is instead of pushing 800gph out my output, i'm only pushing around 200ish so no noise, or salt splash AND the biggie, 4x's the reaction time so more time to doc's to bond with air. Other than that, nothin else really comes to mind. ; )

Luke

[DamnPepShrimp]

I am confused on the 3rd part. I will be getting my octo as soon as aquacave gets them off back order, they seem to have the best prices. What fitting are you putting in there? Where exactly is it going? And are you getting rid of the old air/venturi fitting? Have a link to lowes etc to show me what to get? And after all these mods, do you have to cut the neck down? I just don't want to mess up the skimmer and have it not work at all, I am just confused on the venturi part? Thanks.

[luke33]

www.diyreef.com has 2 octo nw200's left for 179bux. Anyhow, when you get your octo i'll be around. The mods are all fairly easy and i'll be happy to walk you through.

[DamnPepShrimp]

Thanks, I just ordered mine. Aquacave had a good deal going on, but I don't want to wait for them to come in. Now I gotta get my sump finished. When the skimmer comes in, I'll PM you. Thank you for your help luke!

[Aquaticman74]

Luke,

what's wrong with the newer Octo Xtreme models that made you go with the old NW200 version? They have a bubble plate and the design seems similiar to the ATI skimmers. I realise the pumps aren't sicci's, but I'm not a mesh fan anyways.

[impur]

Just wanted to show a couple pics of mine running now. I'm at 48w pulling about 18scfh. My venturi airline runs about 35 feet to a window currently, something i'll change this summer.

4 days of skimmate




Did my WC and cleaned the skimmer yesterday, so this is 24hrs of skimmate

[luke33]

Cheapness......I would love to have a MSX 200 but the regular old octo's are just so cheap and easy to mod.

The design is actually the Bubbleking with the ati pump's. Its a very nice looking skimmer and it is an exceptional price for what you get. The pump alone is 130bux.

The coralvue octo extreme's if that s what your talking about....well, i'd rather have an old model personally.

[luke33]

Nice pics and good looking skimmate, i'll take some in a bit.

[Mr Bojangles]

Originally posted by impur
Just wanted to show a couple pics of mine running now. I'm at 48w pulling about 18scfh. My venturi airline runs about 35 feet to a window currently, something i'll change this summer.

4 days of skimmate




Did my WC and cleaned the skimmer yesterday, so this is 24hrs of skimmate

if you dont mind me asking where do you keep your water level at in the skimmer>?

[flyguy7150]

impur is that a nw200 or 150?? How does you get the bubbles to come out the cup like that?? Mine just like breathes at the top. Like it just goes up and down. Is my tank water really clean or something?? Also does length of the airline hose matter?? Is it better to get air from outside the sump??

[luke33]

Air from the outside is better but having such a long extension takes quite a bit of scfh away. Anyhow, here's my last 48hrs of skimmate. The cups are 23oz cups so its just a bit over 3cups. I'll be honest, its awesome skimmate but it doesn't smell like sewage like my last skimmer made it smell. But its the same color and also much easier to tune! Here ya go







Luke

[flyguy7150]

lol why do people put skimmate in their drinking glasses.

Hey luke, you think if i change my tubing from 1/4OD to 1/4 ID, I'll see any gains?? Or will it make performance worse. OTP-2000