Octopus HOB Skimmer Owners - Page 4

luke33 · #76 12/01/2007, 03:15 PM

One thing, if you have modded your skimmer or pump in any way the warranty is void.....just thought i'd throw that one in there

FishAreFriends2 · #77 12/01/2007, 04:14 PM

Dzeadow is still covered under warranty for sure, he hasnt even done anything to his skimmer except do mods that dont require chopping away at the skimmer. The u mod was his own doing and the acident mentioned above was on a new pump. So the bh100f is still in its orginal form but with some added on features.

FishAreFriends2 · #78 12/01/2007, 04:18 PM

I think that there are some problems to look after
bh100/300 had overheating resun pump problems
and now recently reported
Bh100f
some have bad nobs on top that leak in air and cause the siphon to break. Once thats fixed I think no one would have to worry anymore. I hope the bh300f doesn't have this problem. Although it sounds like a easy fix since you can buy those nob things.

koraltek · #79 12/02/2007, 01:50 PM

mkay, finally some pics of my bh100 while im waiting on my bh100f...if it ever f'ing gets here!!!

here's a shot of the bubbles in the body, the second shot is of about 12 hrs of skimming, the third is after about 30 hrs.

notice the air valve i have on there that is almost in the closed position (2:00-2:30) to make the body totally fill with bubbles.
the pump and venturi are stock with the impellar mesh modded.

here's a couple pics of what it looks like on the tank, sorry no white balance...lol

happyface888 · #80 12/02/2007, 07:18 PM

wow thats pretty amazing, thats how a mesh modded pump bubble prodcution looks like, its all milked out from top to bottom? Thats way more bubbles than what I have. What happens if you opened the air intake all the way would it be too much air or it wont be as affective? I notice on the 3rd picture you got a nice cup of skimmate, and also bubbles ridding up the side. I found a mod that someone did to make the bubbles stop riding up the sides and that made it more affective but this was used on a cpr. Someone used silicone and put a bead around the bottom of the cup and made it tighter when you pushed the cup down. so the bubbles would stay in the neck instead of ridding up the sides. Are you going to give that mod a try and see if it makes it more affective? Looking forward to that bh100f when you get it, but your going to have a hard time taking that pump out. dzeadow used some pliers and I used a long nail to twist the cap off in order to take the pump out. Since you have a meshed pump you can just throw it in. Those are some awkward looking koralias what are they? Are thoes the pumps that are tunze nanoX koralias?

Koral
since you have the bh100 and the cpr bakpak do you think sticking on a resun on the cpr would make it skim as good as the octo bh100? Although both look the same or does it have something to do with the cup design?.

dzeadow · #81 12/02/2007, 07:48 PM

when mine's working it's milked out from top to almost the bottom, like 2-3" I think from the bottom are clearish while the rest is crazy bubbles.

luke33 · #82 12/02/2007, 07:57 PM

Well, i wouldn't necessarily say its "milked out" Its really only full of bubbles but if you can see any water at all, then its not milked out. Here's an example of a full reaction chamber of air but not milked. The second pic is pure milked out or the look of white pvc.

happyface888 · #83 12/02/2007, 08:07 PM

that typhoon is dissappointing

never gave me the skimmate I wanted an I had to do so many mods and it still didnt give it to me. Octo smoked it. Hows yours going dzeadow? still breaking on you? I just thought of a idea think you can maybe take off that swithc and throw on something that can temperoly seal the hole? Just to test if your siphon still goes out?

dzeadow · #84 12/02/2007, 08:13 PM

the way the whole thing is set up, it's the only way I can start the siphon. w/ that box on there I can't get a pump to the intake tube. I'd have to go to HD/Lowes to see if they have a John Guest fitting to replace that one, most of the ones I've seen don't have threaded fittings but I guess I've never taken a hard look at them

happyface888 · #85 12/02/2007, 08:24 PM

I hope David gets you replacement parts, the whole skimmer doesnt have any problem just that john guest. Is there a way to actually test if that john guest is really leaking in air? and you tefloned that nob pretty good also so there shouldnt be any air leaks. If you can find some substitute for a short time to place on the opening where the john thing fits, you can see if your siphon breaks but you have to make sure no air can get in. I was thinking of using clear wrap and using a rubber band to hold it in place. Maybe than no air can get in.

nevermind just re-read since you cant get in there with a pump than it wont work.

If mine ever goes sour, im going to yank off that nob and seal the top. That seems to be the best solution. Im thinking about sending a email to david to help you out too. davids a nice guy.

Just thought of a dumb idea, for the mean while find something you can stick and cover the john guest and the tube, Maybe that way no air can get in.

dzeadow · #86 12/02/2007, 08:41 PM

I don't think there's any reason to send anymore emails. He is a nice guy and there's no need to ruffle feathers. Let's just give him some time to see what he comes up with.

happyface888 · #87 12/02/2007, 09:10 PM

Yeah I didnt send him one

, korals got way more skimmate than me in 30 hours and his tank is smaller than mine,

Its so tempting to do the mesh mod but I'm lazy and dont want to pull my skimmer off the tank and that pump is hard to take out. If koral gets his and tosses it on its going to be pretty amazing, a friend told me he msged David to ask whats the max the bh100f can handle and he said 90gallon and the bh100 was said to handle max was like 50gallons or something like that.

btw did you fix that resun or its totally destroyed?

happyface888 · #88 12/02/2007, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dzeadow
the way the whole thing is set up, it's the only way I can start the siphon. w/ that box on there I can't get a pump to the intake tube. I'd have to go to HD/Lowes to see if they have a John Guest fitting to replace that one, most of the ones I've seen don't have threaded fittings but I guess I've never taken a hard look at them

Yeah your right, searching online all I see are these...

luke33 · #89 12/02/2007, 09:22 PM

What do you mean 90 and 50?

happyface888 · #90 12/02/2007, 09:27 PM

90 gallons and 50gallons

Hmm I did find this thing I guess its a adpater to the F john guest.

http://www.h2odistributors.com/john_guest.asp
So it looks like that F connector sits on top of that. could it be that your F john guest part isnt tight and its leaking air from there? I took a closer look at mine and its 2 things.

Jason1520 · #91 12/02/2007, 11:26 PM

That stinks to hear that the bh100 only actually does 50g. Online it said up to 90g, so I thought it would handle my 75g. It seems to be doing really well too.

The only mod I have made was courtesy of Happy....the rubberband around the collection cup. It prevents bubbles and pressure form going up the sides! Seems to help.

happyface888 · #92 12/03/2007, 12:08 AM

Glade to hear jason, I think the silicone would be better since it wont slide around. What kind of rubber band did you use? dzeadow tried it and it was wiggling around so he's using teflon tape atm. But I guess anything that you can put on the bottom of your cup that prevents water from going up the side is the main thing. As for the bh100 I dont believe its only up to 50gallons, since my friend wasn't sure when he told me. But I believe the max it can handle is more like a 75 since you seen it doing a nice job on PIanktons 90gallon. I wouldnt worry too much about it, since my friend just told me and wasnt sure. If you want it to do a even better skimming job you can mesh mod it. Koraltek did his and he has alot of bubbles. Both the bh100/f are the same maybe the bh100f is slightly rated higher since it doesnt have to shoot water up ward and no back pressure.

Quote:

I think you need to give it some time.
also, a mod that i did on mine was to add a silicone gasket to tthe collections cup.

Take off you collection cup and put a thick silicone bead on the bottom rim of the cup. Put it on the top of the rim so that it extends a little past the edge of the rim. Let it dry. Now it should slide in with some slight pressure. What this does is that it makes all the pressure escape through the collection cup tube, pushing the skimmate up through it, instead of the bubbles escaping through the side of the collection cup. This modification doubled the skimate of my skimmer.

happyface888 · #93 12/03/2007, 01:23 AM

I just noticed that my nob face's forward while yours faces the back

If it was a set nob the direction of the nob should be the same but mines facing the front and yours facing the back, that gives you another clue that its a 2 part kind of thing right?

happyface888 · #94 12/03/2007, 03:09 AM

another way for a siphon to break is if the water isnt comming in fast enough in your overflow box. I tested this just earlier when I was doing a water changer when water was barly making it into the skimmer box the water in my first chamber slowly droped and than it started to suck, and once I put water back in the siphon still didnt start, so fastest way take a power head and shoot it up the intake. I highly doubt that your having that problem dzeadow, you have some many teethes on that and water should be going in at a fast pace. My water lvl in the first chamber looks just like simmlinks

Quote:

Originally posted by Simmlink
Here are my comparisons to the Remora Pro:

Here is a side view... the BH-100F fits MUCH better on my tank than the Remora Pro... and much more stable.

Pros:
-MUCH quieter than the Remora Pro, no more super loud sucking gurgling noises.
-Much more stable fit than the Remora Pro, especially for my tank.
-Good solid construction
-$80 Cheaper than the Remora Pro

Cons:
-Salt spray due to large bubbles... I'm hoping there is an easy solution to this

In conclusion, the only problem I'm having so far is the salt spray and bubbles... with that fixed, I'm way more happy with the Octo than the Remora Pro. I can't quite tell yet on Skimmate because it's only been running for 12 hrs, but I do have an inch or so of yellow scum in the cup.

And the head aims another direction too..Its a two part thing, Im thinking its either not fitted well or the F john guest is just bad..

dzeadow · #95 12/03/2007, 09:27 AM

that first fitting you found might actually be it. The fitting on the skimmer has female threads and the male threads are on the intake pipe. When I was noticing this happen more often, I checked that fitting, and twisted it tighter so it's actually towards the front more now. And as for the overflow box, since I figured that the problem at first was lack of water, I've adjusted that dam low enough where the water in the box is at the level of water in the tank, so there's no shortage of water in there. I don't know if my water level is that high in that chamber though. I"m going to have to break out a ladder and check it. If it's not I can reduce the amount of water getting sucked from the box by putting the return from my phosphate reactor in the inlet chamber. I'd just have to check and make sure it's not going to build up over time and overflow! That'd suck.

I keep thinking of things that could be wrong with this whole deal... If, let's say, the pump wasn't sucking enough air, it'd be pulling a lot of water in. You'd think that the siphon would be able to keep up though right? If the pump was pulling more air, the water wouldn't need to feed as fast. I wonder if I should maybe pull this pump off and replace it with the one I've got. just to see if that's the problem. I'll check the water level in that first chamber first though because if it's at the level that your guys' is at, then it's probably working correctly.

dzeadow · #96 12/03/2007, 09:38 AM

Ok, I got a ladder in there finally. The water level in the first chamber is like maybe 1/4 above the pump. I put the return of the phosphate reactor in the inlet chamber, so the inlet pipe just won't be sucking as much but instead the small pump that's also in the overflow box will be doing some of the work.

dzeadow · #97 12/03/2007, 09:40 AM

Happy, you should see the tar that's coming out of my skimmer now. I don't know if it has anything to do with that teflon tape or not, but it's disgustingly dark green! I'll try and take a pic.

edit: nevermind, the lights on the tank were off and when I took the cup out and looked at it, it's the same as the last time I took a pic. Smells like hell though!

scunfcu · #98 12/03/2007, 01:49 PM

Anyone use Carbon or phosphate removing media in the empty chamber on hb-100F? If so does it affect the skimming in any way?

happyface888 · #99 12/03/2007, 02:12 PM

I use carbon for the last chamber, another suggestion for those that have micros get some bio bale just like the cprs.

happyface888 · #**100** 12/03/2007, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dzeadow
that first fitting you found might actually be it. The fitting on the skimmer has female threads and the male threads are on the intake pipe. When I was noticing this happen more often, I checked that fitting, and twisted it tighter so it's actually towards the front more now. And as for the overflow box, since I figured that the problem at first was lack of water, I've adjusted that dam low enough where the water in the box is at the level of water in the tank, so there's no shortage of water in there. I don't know if my water level is that high in that chamber though. I"m going to have to break out a ladder and check it. If it's not I can reduce the amount of water getting sucked from the box by putting the return from my phosphate reactor in the inlet chamber. I'd just have to check and make sure it's not going to build up over time and overflow! That'd suck.

I keep thinking of things that could be wrong with this whole deal... If, let's say, the pump wasn't sucking enough air, it'd be pulling a lot of water in. You'd think that the siphon would be able to keep up though right? If the pump was pulling more air, the water wouldn't need to feed as fast. I wonder if I should maybe pull this pump off and replace it with the one I've got. just to see if that's the problem. I'll check the water level in that first chamber first though because if it's at the level that your guys' is at, then it's probably working correctly.

So the nob thing is a 2 part thing correct? Did you try to add some teflon on it to make it super tight? if that still fails than its all on the F john guest. The water lvl I believe is set, the pump cant suck that fast to where it empties the first chamber. Even if it shoots out more air the water wont go over that certain lvl. You can give the other pump a try, maybe it'll work but anything is worth a try. BTW did you get a response from David? And for the teflon are you noticing any water or bubbles trying to escape from the sides?