Octopus BH1000 Skimmer Question

[JonnyIce]

Hello! I purchased a used BH1000 in the summer and just got around to hooking 'er up! After about 2hrs running last night, the foam started rising towards the collection cup and all seemed well...I got home early this morning and it was still running nicely...Woke up this morning and its making those gargling noises---where the pump seems to make sporadic jolts to push the foam to the cup, but then falls down...Is this normal? I haven't opened up the air valve yet...should I? Sorry for the dumb questions but this is my first time time skimmer lol--thanks!

 

[marrone]

First, make sure the skimmer is submerged in the correct water level. Then you need to open the air value up until the foam starts to reach the cup. Do it slowly and you'll eventually get the skimmer dialed it. Even once you get the level correct you're going to need to keep an eye on it until you get an idea of where it should be.

 

[JonnyIce]

I ended up moving chambers and tightening up a washer :-X...I got this skimmate after about 24hrs.

 

[GROSSR]

I could be wrong, but, my unit started doing exactly that last night. I have a BioCube 29 and I have the input in chamber 1 and the output in chamber 2.

I have had filter material go up the input pipe and do this. Also, I just had this problem this past week, where the the pump is pushing out the water and it seems like the pump is not doing its job. I took the pump apart, cleaned it nicely and that didn't do the trick. I actually started looking online for a new pump.

what I tried was unplugging and plugging the pump back in, so in 30 seconds I have unplugged and plugged it back in about 4 or 5 times, I did this 3 or 4 minutes, I figured I am getting a new pump, who cares. The pump started back up and I got tons of bubbles again. I contacted [email protected] to get his opinion.

Might be the pump or the impellor. Either way I will be ordering another pump. I love this skimmer.

BTW...where is your ailine in the pic?

rich

 

[JonnyIce]

Hey Rich!
I am using the skimmer on the BC29 ... and now have the same setup as you...It seemed like it needed a constant flow and i had to clean out my return pump (MJ1200) to keep that flow going...but now that i have that clean pump and the power of the BH1000---my tank has serious flow going on lol...its like a riptide...i will pay close attention to pump as i did purchase this used! thanks!

 

[JonnyIce]

My goodness, the stuff this thing pulls is absolutely vile...i feel as if i need to wear a mask before emptying the collection cup!

 

[GROSSR]

How is your skimmer doing?

I had the pump act up again. I turn the skimmer off at night and start it back up in the mornning. The start up part has been my issue.

Anyway I have an intank media column, so I move the skimmer input to chamber 2 and the output to chamber 3.

When the pump started to act up, I tried the recommended close the airline and that worked this time.

Once the pump started it appears to be ok. Still looking around for an extra pump. The skimmer is to good to back to a Remora.

Jeremy offered a pump at 47.99 plus 19.00 to ship. In principle the shipping is way to much.

thanks

rich

 

[JonnyIce]

Yea sounds a lot for shipping :-/. My skimmer has been working great, just not sure exactly where I should put my ATO sensor lol but right now I'm just manually monitoring the levels. Between cleaning the MJ1200 pump and using this crazy skimmer it's like a rip tide in my tank lol.