Help with Octopus skimmer-Pic attached

[topmav1]

Hi. I've had this skimmer for abt 6 weeks now. Tank was bought from someone who had it running for 2 years. This thing was pulling out great skimmate . Now its seems that the water in the chamber is too high causing water to pour out of the little outlet when it shouldn't be that high at all. The small water adjustment is all the way down so that cup should only be abt 1/4 to half full. Sorry i dont have all the correct terminologies but if anyone has this skimmer let me know if you've had this issue...


thanks

 

[batt600]

Dont have that skimmer ,but you should take it apart the air intake tube my be clogged for calic buid up or derbrie . Take it all apart the pump and let it soak in 2 parts venniger and 1 part water for a few hour and it should be good.

 

[topmav1]

Ye I semi- took it apart meaning i just took out the skimmer and drained it and tried to clear the air intake tube. Do you think that this kind of issue is most likely attributed to an air intake problem?

 

[aaron]

If it was the air intake do you think there would be all that air in the column?
Is your RO skimmer the king with a black tube that slides up and down on the outflow pipe to regulate the water level (I cant really see in the picture) I had to cut about an inch off the black pipe to allow me to set the water level low enough to get a reasonably dry skimate. When you talk about the little opening do you mean the pipe in the collection cup?

 

[topmav1]

Yes there is a little opening right below the collection that lets out water in case that middle chamber is too high which its doing. Yes I have a black tube that normally regulates the water level but its not doing that right now. Its currently all the way down and when i raise its slightly the water overflows whereas just a fes days ago it was fine and I was getting great dry skimmate.

 

[sharkbait69]

Stupid question but I figure I?ll ask. On some of the skimmers the open close stickers are on backwards. On my wifes octo I kept trying to open it but was closing it an spilling water all over. Try that if not I?ll look at my wifes skimmer and see if I can make it flood and throw some pointers your way.

 

[topmav1]

Thanks. It was working perfectly up until a few days ago...

 

[darkdrako]

I would check the airline and the pump. If your airline is kinked or blocked in any way, you could still have air entering the pump but not as much to displace the water entering the skimmer itself. Its the same idea if you put your finger over the air tube. Water will just build in the skimmer causing it to overflow.

The other thing you can try is to remove it from the sump and run it in ro water and vinegar for a day or two. That should clear up any buildups that may be in the pump, body or output tubing. Had to do that on an Euroreef RS 80. It was pouring over the top of the cup until I ran it in vinegar and then it was back to smooth sailing.

 

[topmav1]

Thanks!

 

[dnreef]

Looks like the 200, which I use. The outflow tube on this skimmer DOES NOT slide up and down. You have to turn/twist the tube in order to adjust the water height in the skimmer. The thing is, I don't see it attached in your picture! I see the grey elbow point up but there should be another gray tube going up from there with an insert that turns. Your air manifold should be at the top of that tube but I don't see it either. How is the air getting sucked in?

 

[topmav1]

Hey dnreef,

I do have a black straight tube attached to the grey elbow. When I raise the tube the water level rises and it is more of a wet skim. The pic attached is the piece that is at the top attached to the air tube that connects to the pump. When i removed it the water level lowered to where it should be and I got alot more bubbles than before. I assume now that this is the piece that was clogged. Can i soak it in vinegar?

 

[autoponicz]

thats the air silencer...if you dont hear a loud sucking noise from the air tube then dont even use the silencer...but you can soak it in vinegar ..its most likely clogged from what you described...or build a better one with some pvc

 

[topmav1]

Great. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[dnreef]

Topmav,
Do you have the 200? That silencer looks nothing like what they currently use and it has no reason being in the grey outflow tube. It's beginning to sound like you have missing pieces and got lucky that it was working well for a while.

The way this skimmer works (assuming you have an Octupus Extreme 200) is that you will have a vertical tube coming up from the elbow. That tube will have a "T" in the middle to which is attached a downflow tube. Essentially you should have 3 more pieces connected to that elbow. If you don't have them, you can create them with PVC. The good thing about this is that it would allow you to create a gate valve modification which makes it a lot easier to dial in the skimmer to its optimal setting. HTH.

 

[dnreef]

I attached the user manual for the skimmer. The graphic shows what you should have.

 

[topmav1]

Hey dnreef,
Thanks for the info. From what i can gather from google images, i think i do have the NW200 but it is not the new ones. I attached a pic I found on the nw200 that fits almost pretty much exactly what i have. The silencer is not in the in the grey outflow tube. Check out the attached pic. It doesn't look like I have the "Extreme" model.