Octopus Skimmer Mods

[tgunn]

Originally posted by hdtvguy
Tyler

Jayson will be getting his mesh in he ordered soon. I would hold off should be this week I think? I plan to add the mesh to my quad. Just a heads up.

Rob

Hey Rob,

Sure, I can hold off no problem. I didn't realize he was going to be doing the mod too..

Can't wait to see the results!

Thanks,
Tyler

[BigJPDC]

Well . . . this turned out to be more work than I thought, but easy nonetheless.

Big thanks to Dandy for the mesh hook up, your package will be out soon.

Because I couldn't get the nut off to remove one needle wheel, I went with a single layer of enkmat, held on by three zip ties. I just couldn't get it to spin with any other combination. I might look into buying a replacement impeller and just hack that one apart.

Anyways, I sure don't remember these kinds of bubbles, I hope it turns into wicked nog:





jp

[Avast Marine]

Looks good JP. I would start off your water level very low, like at the beginning of the neck transition and adjust after a 24 hour period.

I am still trying to get mine dialed in right. Right now I can't seem to get a stable foam head with anything more than 22-25 scfh (gen-x 4100 pump pulls 35-40 scfh) and even then it skims pretty wet, not bad but, I do like to see it dry out a little bit. I tried slapping on a gen-x 2400 mesh but, it couldn't take the head pressure. Right now I am using a mj900 as a feed and it's dialed back to about 120gph, the water level is set to the bottom of the union.
I am wondering if because I sort of slapped together the neck/collection cup if I am losing performance? Basically there are three sections to the neck and a slight groove at each point, I used silicone to attach them and to fill in the holes and rounded out the connections with the dremel. I was planning to rebuild it out of 1 piece of acrylic tube after I worked out the kinks and got it dialed in but, I am wondering if the multi piece neck is preventing me from getting it dialed?

[Covey]

Well I broke a ton of my rules of DIY but I moded my pump just now.

We can add yet another material that can be used for impeller moding.
Bio-Foam, this stuff.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113804

I had it in the fish closet with assorted FW junk so I thought I would give it a try. I thought it was a little dense but but considering that 3M stripping pad used earlier I thought I would give it a try.

Here my first attempt considering that I did know if it would work it is not a very sharp circle.

Surpisingly it did.

I don't have an air meter yet but it is a marked increase in air.
Also I normally skim wet and unmoded I run the water level up to about 3 inches for the lip of the cup. Now the water level has dropped down into the union.

It is not all roses though. It vibrates more now. The rather slopply circle I cut is what I believe to be cause of that. That could be fixed.

It also is making a rather loud slurping noise thru the intake. I might just run the silenter for once.

Those things are minor I am coming out to say that I wouldn't suggest the biofoam at this time as it seems to pass larger bubbles than the needlewheel did. The bubbles are either tiny tiny or medium airstone sized. I think the foam is letting some bubbles pass along the face of it and those are not getting shredded.

Typing this I think I came up with something to get around the big bubbles but I will have to try it after the christmas stuff tommorrow.

It is still skimming quite well this is less than a minute after I fired it back up

[Roland Jacques]

Covey,
FWIW that foam may not be a good long term choice IMO. i believe it is too soft and will come apart (unless they have changed that foam). also it probably will not hold it shape very well under the centifical force. you might trim it down to the dia of the wheel it might hold it shape better under the force .

[RichConley]

Originally posted by BigJPDC

Because I couldn't get the nut off to remove one needle wheel, I went with a single layer of enkmat, held on by three zip ties.

You dont have to remove any nut or anything. The needlewheel is just glued on. You can just pry it off. Just stick someting sharp between the two wheels, into the seam, and start wiggling.

[Covey]

Originally posted by Roland Jacques
Covey,
FWIW that foam may not be a good long term choice IMO. i believe it is too soft and will come apart (unless they have changed that foam). also it probably will not hold it shape very well under the centifical force. you might trim it down to the dia of the wheel it might hold it shape better under the force .

It was a experiment on my part to see if that foam works and to see how the skimmer reacted with more air in it.

I'll probably just switch it out for DLS or that enkmat stuff in the next couple days.

Do you guy think this stuff would work?
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113808
I was planning on ordering stuff from Dr. F&S anyway it would be nice to order it all at once.

[Roland Jacques]

Do you guy think this stuff would work?
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produ...1&N=2004+113808

It would work but not to easy to attach. If I remember right that stuff is bulky it would require a lot of zip ties... to get it to lay flat.

[Covey]

I read that whole main threadwheel mod. It took a couple hours. Anyway I think the PF4 stuff that Magvi found looks to be the best stuff but for the sake of all the other mod'rs out there I am going to search for another mesh option.

The PF4 looks good but it is not very convienent to only be able to buy those massive roll from Aquatic Eco-System.

I've tommorrow off I am going to go riffle through a few super-markets and home centers and see what I can come up with.

If all else fails I will probably put up some of that 3M stripping pad until I can get some PF4.


The bio-foam is a bust. I've had it on there for 2 days and I would venture to say it is not as productive as even the stock NW. Even though it moves far more air the bubble size is inconsistant and that seem to be messing with the foam head.

[Avast Marine]

Covey, I found the floor stripper pads to be the best of the "off the shelf" materials. Its about a inch thick and available at rental centers. I could only use 1/2" for the genx2400 I used it on and it did actually perform as well as the pf4.

[mavgi]

Originally posted by dandy7200
Covey, I found the floor stripper pads to be the best of the "off the shelf" materials. Its about a inch thick and available at rental centers. I could only use 1/2" for the genx2400 I used it on and it did actually perform as well as the pf4.

it's interesting , i want to know did you have a chance to measure the pump watt when you use it and compare it to the mesh ?
how much time it's stay on the wheel without to get a part ?

if it's make the same foam and bubble as the mesh , i know you have the mesh and you test this material to did it's look milky like the mesh ?

if it's was the same then it's can be easy to reach and maybe more cheaper then the mesh .

[Avast Marine]

Magvi, it produces the bubbles the same as the mesh I got from you. I don't have a killawatt meter to measure voltage. I don't think it will hold up as long term as the pf4 though. I will try and post a picture of it tomarrow.
I ordered the acrylic to make a better neck and collection cup today, we'll see if that having the neck one piece instead of a few seams makes a differance in the foam stability.....I think it will. The genx4100 seems to run best at about 650lph air and this seems to be the right amount for the nw200 recirced.....strange that is the number Deltec suggest for the ap701

[Covey]

I ordered some of the PF4 from Magvi but the biofoam ended up being good awful. It was making the pump run hot and didn't skim well.

FWIW that foam may not be a good long term choice IMO. i believe it is too soft and will come apart (unless they have changed that foam). also it probably will not hold it shape very well under the centifical force
You were mostily right it didn't shred but it ended up coming off and spinning around half folded over and dragging on the inside of the pump.

So like I said I went out looking for a replacement while snail mail takes its time with the PF4.

No landmark discoveries but I did end up getting Kentrob's "Quickie Heavy Duty Grill Scrubber".

I tired to be real neat with this one. I pried off the first ring of spokes and dremeled off the all the other ones. I cut a disk out of the lid to a PhosBan contianer, Bubble master style, and used a hole saw to cut a nice clean circle in the grill scrubber. I cut a 1 7/8" dia mesh disk and zip tied it to the disk.

This might have been too small.

I hooked up the skimmer and got everything running and got an odd result, only slightly any more air then stock. Like I said. I think the mesh disk is to small this time.

It had some interesting side effects(the small disk).

Mainly only slightly more air but a DEAD CALM body with greatily reduced turbelence. Calm neck too. The mesh makes the tiniest bubbles I've ever seen. It will probably skim like this until I get the PF4.

I have alot of pics but forgot the camera I post some tomorrow.

Rich what diameter is your PF4 on your OTP-3000?

[tgunn]

The owner of the LFS (Jayson, SWC) helped me mesh-mod one of the pumps on my three pump recirculating octopus..

Modding that one pump sure made a difference! I will take some pics and post 'em later. I've got enough mesh to mod the rest of the pumps; I'm going to keep an eye on the one for a start though..

The only thing I notice is that I have to blow on the air line to get the pump going otherwise it just sits there and cavitates... Apparently this is the only downfall to the mod on the Octopus pumps...

I wonder if putting a check valve right at the venturi intake would enable the pump to start up after a power loss?

[BigJPDC]

Originally posted by BigJPDC
Well . . . this turned out to be more work than I thought, but easy nonetheless.

Big thanks to Dandy for the mesh hook up, your package will be out soon.

Because I couldn't get the nut off to remove one needle wheel, I went with a single layer of enkmat, held on by three zip ties. I just couldn't get it to spin with any other combination. I might look into buying a replacement impeller and just hack that one apart.

Anyways, I sure don't remember these kinds of bubbles, I hope it turns into wicked nog:
jp

Well that was quick. Skimming pretty much stopped a few days ago. I have to set the water level to inside the collection cup to even get anything to overflow into the cup. Removing the enkmat didn't have any effect, so something must be up with the air intake? Any ideas? I removed the enkmat because the pump wouldn't turn over on a restart.

thanks,
jp

[Avast Marine]

Not exactly clear whats going on JP.....try pouring a little water down the air intake to clean it out before breaking the skimmer down. If you could take a picture of the impeller I'm sure Magvi could trouble shoot the mesh though.

[BigJPDC]

Thanks Dan, I'll try that and then break it all down and try again this afternoon. Hope you got my pm the other day.

jp

[BigJPDC]

I took that plastic thingy that connects to the airline at the neck off and poured water down it for a bit. It sounds like it is sucking more air now but I am really not sure if I have it configured correctly. I think I will want to devise some method of holding the airline above the water without that thingy.

The water level in my standpipe is even with the union, and I am getting big breaking bubbles at the surface of the cup. Does that sound right? I thought I wanted tiny bubbles.

jp

[Avast Marine]

I think you should go ahead and put the silencer back on. It will be easier if you only change one thing at a time to determine the problem. BTW, I am really looking forward to those cigars, I miss the city as well. We used to go in at least once a month when I lived in Hyde Park, now it just seems so far away lol.

[BigJPDC]

Cool - I hope you enjoy the sticks, it looks like a nice enough afternoon here to go try one.

so I hear trickling in the next room, which is never a good sign, and when I get there the Octo is percolating and overflowing. Something must have been knocked loose or something.
Water level is back down to the beginning of the neck and bubbles are breaking halfway up the cup.

I never replaced the o-ring around the riser pipe, and wonder if that is messing with me somehow.

jp

[boxfishpooalot]

How many times have you come home to a soaking wet carpet from your skimmer overflowing? Well with this mod you wont come home to a wet carpet anymore!

And the best part with this mod compared to a collection cylinder is it has unlimited water holding/draining capacity. People that have their skimmer directly plumed to a storm drain are asking for a salinity of 1.010 in there reef when they get home..

Simply super glue a pipe over the drain line inside the collection cup as shown in the pic.Or find a perfect fit pipe to fit inside it. Make the height of the pipe about 1/2" below the skimmate overflow area to allow for skimmate to collect as it would naturally. Otherwise your cups lid will jump around from the water being too heigh.

Your done. Just route the clear silicone/vinal tube that would otherwise go to the collection bucket/cylinder skimmate collection below to the tank/riser pipe with the adjustment valve on it or simply back into the sump....

Even if some skimmate gets back into the tank, you will still maintain heavy particulate matter that sinks to the bottom.

I like to skimm really wet. And guess what

NO MORE WET CARPET FROM SKIMMING WET!!! IDONT LIKE SURPRISES.




Here it is overflowing safely back to the sump!

[frank2926]

Originally posted by tgunn
The owner of the LFS (Jayson, SWC) helped me mesh-mod one of the pumps on my three pump recirculating octopus..

Modding that one pump sure made a difference! I will take some pics and post 'em later. I've got enough mesh to mod the rest of the pumps; I'm going to keep an eye on the one for a start though..

The only thing I notice is that I have to blow on the air line to get the pump going otherwise it just sits there and cavitates... Apparently this is the only downfall to the mod on the Octopus pumps...

I wonder if putting a check valve right at the venturi intake would enable the pump to start up after a power loss?

from what I have read on other threads is that if the pump does not start back up there is to much mesh. It should not be bigger than the outer most edge of the disc on the needlewheel.

[boxfishpooalot]

Thats what i hear too. Nobody likes my flood mod?

[BigJPDC]

The flood mod looks good - does it impact the way you'd empty the cup for regular maintenance though? I empty mine every couple days - is there a quick disconnect?

I think my mesh wheel failed because of the little nubs on the zip ties binding somewhere - any tips?

Happy New Year!

jp

[CarlC]

JP try using something like fishing line. Just put a dab of glue on the knot to keep it from working loose.

Carl