Octopus Skimmer Mods

[danskim]

Whoa let's all calm down. Fliger, I'm gonna do that cool IceCap 660 mod to my Tek light soon.
Also... what ID vinyl tubing did you replace the stock one with, Rich?
The next size up I could find at HD was 1/4", but it looks pretty huge.

[Fliger]

Dude, take the meds. I was just asking for a picture that you said you would post. I think you might be a little paranoid with that "shot at my credibility" comment. Yowza

Apologies for all on the thread that it took this turn - I was just looking for a pic since clkwrk and I are in the middle of a skimmer swap (he's a neighbor)

[RichConley]

Originally posted by danskim
Whoa let's all calm down. Fliger, I'm gonna do that cool IceCap 660 mod to my Tek light soon.
Also... what ID vinyl tubing did you replace the stock one with, Rich?
The next size up I could find at HD was 1/4", but it looks pretty huge.

I THINK mine is 1/4". It is pretty huge, although I'm not sure how much difference it really makes. The output of the pump is the biggest issue, and any flashing issues in the venturi

[Jim_S]

Yes Rich, from me, this is a shot at your credibility.

I don't believe the things you say are true. I WANT TO SEE. Sorry if it bugs you, maybe you shouldn't be so opionated if you don't want to back up the things you say.

This is very on topic. Many of us are considering demoing an RO, and you being the main person who screams for recognition for this product, should provide evidence to back it up. I WANT TO SEE RESULTS!!!! And if you're not gonna show them, your credibility is shot.....

And as far as working goes, you're not the only one who puts in 60+ a week. Try selling advertiseing..... I eat, sleep and breath my job. Its a 24 hour a day commitment if I wanna get paid....

Jim

[Robert Patterso]

Originally posted by RichConley
Robert, initially the issue was that the pump could not move enough water to suck in very much air. What the boring out of the elbow,porting the pump, did was to allow the pump to move more water. It now has no problems moving water out of the housing.

Now you want to work on the ration of air to water. You can do this by making the venturi more restrictive, etc. (IE, you dont have too much air right now, you've got too much water, which is why the air is being swept down to the outlet)

Damn, Everbody take a chill pill, drink a beer, take a nap, whatever. I've done everthing that's been posted on this thread so far for my nw200 and so far it's obvious to me that it works. So I don't need pictures, and I don't have a camera so I won't be posting any pictures.

Rich or Rowland, How or what are you doing to restrict the venture to get more air the skimmer. It's pretty obvious it's producing plenty of gph now. because with gate valve wide open it still overflows. So I guess now I need to get more air to it to slow down the gph. Wants I know how to do this there's no doubt this thing will kick some serious ***!!! Pretty danm good for a $200 skimmer. I'm very impressed!!! Thanks for all info on this thread.

Sorry about above but come on, give it a break!!

Thanks, Robert

[RichConley]

If you want to see, look at Roland's. He has posted pictures of his meter. I dont have time right now, and I'm at work, so I cant right now.

If you NEED to see mine, you're going to have to wait until I have the time (and inclination) to basically disasemble my entire sump to get this thing out. Most of the equipment needs to come out before I can do anything. I can tell you, thats not going to happen any time before september.


"This is very on topic. Many of us are considering demoing an RO, and you being the main person who screams for recognition for this product, should provide evidence to back it up. I WANT TO SEE RESULTS!!!! And if you're not gonna show them, your credibility is shot....."

Frankly, I dont care. We're talking about modifications here that improve the RO skimmers. I'm not trying to sell you one. I dont give a damn if you buy one.

I'm a selfish bastard. I'm going to spend what time I have making my tank (and skimmer) better. Not having a ****ing match with you. I'm done here.

[RichConley]

Robert, all I've done is (originally) port out the piece of rigid airline tubing, and replaced the airline tubing with a different piece (the piece that comes with it appears to be a metric size slightly smaller than standard airline tubing. At some point after that, I broke the piece of rigid tubing off by mistake, so I just drilled through and ran airline tubing the whole path of the airway. I saw some small difference here.

Later I went to the 1/4" ID tubing, and I dont think that made any difference.

[Robert Patterso]

Originally posted by RichConley
Robert, all I've done is (originally) port out the piece of rigid airline tubing, and replaced the airline tubing with a different piece (the piece that comes with it appears to be a metric size slightly smaller than standard airline tubing. At some point after that, I broke the piece of rigid tubing off by mistake, so I just drilled through and ran airline tubing the whole path of the airway. I saw some small difference here.

Later I went to the 1/4" ID tubing, and I dont think that made any difference.

[Robert Patterso]

Originally posted by RichConley
Robert, all I've done is (originally) port out the piece of rigid airline tubing, and replaced the airline tubing with a different piece (the piece that comes with it appears to be a metric size slightly smaller than standard airline tubing. At some point after that, I broke the piece of rigid tubing off by mistake, so I just drilled through and ran airline tubing the whole path of the airway. I saw some small difference here.

Later I went to the 1/4" ID tubing, and I dont think that made any difference.

[Robert Patterso]

Originally posted by Robert Patterso

So basically just open air port at intake of pump so it can pull air into it, correct? When you say you run the whole length of airway, meaning what? sorry don't mean to ask dumb questions here but but this is my first attempt at a mod. on a skimmer. Have always just run right out of box.

Thanks again, Robert

[RichConley]

Basically, while I was modding the pump, I stepped on the venturi, and broke off the airline. OOPS.

When you pull out the piece of rigid airline, see the path the air takes? It goes in like a 1/4", then has to take a 90' turn, and travels another half inch. Basically I bored out that whole part enough to slide regular airline down that. Theres barely enough plastic, and I had to patch a bunch of places where I put holes in the venturi.

[Robert Patterso]

Originally posted by RichConley
Basically, while I was modding the pump, I stepped on the venturi, and broke off the airline. OOPS.

When you pull out the piece of rigid airline, see the path the air takes? It goes in like a 1/4", then has to take a 90' turn, and travels another half inch. Basically I bored out that whole part enough to slide regular airline down that. Theres barely enough plastic, and I had to patch a bunch of places where I put holes in the venturi.

Hey Rich, I think we may talking about two different venture's. Mine is off of a nw200 and it is one whole molded pc. The air intake is molded onto the water intake and just goes straight thru. There is no 90, just straight. So that being said do think I can drill a bigger hole thru or cut off and insert a piece of airline, rigid or flex. I have an extra one to experiment with.

Thanks, Robert

[RichConley]

Mine is a NW200. The one I'm talking about is the small grey one.

[Robert Patterso]

Originally posted by RichConley
Mine is a NW200. The one I'm talking about is the small grey one.

Rich, Both of mine are black, I got 2 of the same type. I think I received the older model, which I think is a bunch of crap if that is the case!! My skimmer body has the 90 instead of the T inside of body. Do you know if I can get the gray venture? So far I have drilled the air inlet over size about 3/64 or about .045 of an inch. The only other thing I know to do is warm up the end of the nozzle on intake to restrict the incoming flow of the pump. Which I'm assuming would toss out all the other mods. There was some improvement but still have to run gate valve wide open. One other thing, if I run the cover on the skimmate cup it will start to overflow. Does that make any sence to you. It takes about 3-5 min. before it starts to overflow.

[Robert Patterso]

Originally posted by Robert Patterso
Rich, Both of mine are black, I got 2 of the same type. I think I received the older model, which I think is a bunch of crap if that is the case!! My skimmer body has the 90 instead of the T inside of body. Do you know if I can get the gray venture? So far I have drilled the air inlet over size about 3/64 or about .045 of an inch. The only other thing I know to do is warm up the end of the nozzle on intake to restrict the incoming flow of the pump. Which I'm assuming would toss out all the other mods. There was some improvement but still have to run gate valve wide open. One other thing, if I run the cover on the skimmate cup it will start to overflow. Does that make any sence to you. It takes about 3-5 min. before it starts to overflow.

Hey Rich, I think I fingered it out. I lowered the gate valve 2" closer to water and put a piece of pvc pipe on the 90 after the gate valve so it's approx. 1" under the surface of water. I can adjust it any way I want and seems to be working great!! I don't know how much air I'm pulling but it seems to be sucking like mad. I don't have a schf gauge but I would be curious to see just how much. Do know where I can get one?

[koga57]

NW 110 and other Octopus pump problems solved.

On my NW110; I purchased the Gen X 1500 needlewheel pump and went to Home Depot for a 65 cent threaded elbow. This pump is ssssooooo much better than the Octupus pump it isn't even funny.

I realize you shouldn't have to buy an additional pump, but hey, better than buying a new skimmer.

I strongly recommend the Gen X needlewheel pump.

david

[wjhuie]

I am so happy with my nw 200 and nw 150 I am getting 2/3 of the cup filled everyday and im not talking about green tea looking crap but the stank stuff that make your wife yell at you for dumping it in the toilet and stinking up the house. I have done the elbow mod on both of them. I drilled out the venturi a little on the nw 200 but not on the 150. Man what a deal the skimmers are!

[Ereefic]

Originally posted by wjhuie
I am so happy with my nw 200 and nw 150 I am getting 2/3 of the cup filled everyday and im not talking about green tea looking crap but the stank stuff that make your wife yell at you for dumping it in the toilet and stinking up the house. I have done the elbow mod on both of them. I drilled out the venturi a little on the nw 200 but not on the 150. Man what a deal the skimmers are!

Where is your water level at on the NW-200?

[Robert Patterso]

Hey Roland, Your needle wheel mod., is it to break up the air more or more gph? I'm thinking I have more gph than I need. After all the mods I had to lower the gate valve 2" to keep it from overflowing, that's with it wide open. Now I have full control. That's if there is such a thing. What I'm trying to do is get more air to it now. I don't have the grey venture, they sent me 2 of the black ones. I added another air inlet to one of them to see if I can get more. Not sure if it will just split the difference or what. Emailed marine solutions to see if I can get the grey style. We shall see. Any suggestions?

Robert

[Robert Patterso]

Ok I think I'm done with my mods. Although I'm doing this by brail, I do believe the second air inlet made a difference. I drilled a second hole right next to the original about a 5 deg angle, glued a piece of ridgid airline tubing to it and tried it. If I plug one of the lines the water level rises probly an 1" to 11/2" or lowers when released. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that tells me I'm getting more air. Again no air gauge. If anybody has any thoughts I'm open to suggestions. Sorry I have no camera, so no pics.

[Roland Jacques]

Originally posted by jimdogg187
Yes Rich, from me, this is a shot at your credibility.

I don't believe the things you say are true. I WANT TO SEE. Sorry if it bugs you, maybe you shouldn't be so opionated if you don't want to back up the things you say.

This is very on topic. Many of us are considering demoing an RO, and you being the main person who screams for recognition for this product, should provide evidence to back it up. I WANT TO SEE RESULTS!!!! And if you're not gonna show them, your credibility is shot.....

And as far as working goes, you're not the only one who puts in 60+ a week. Try selling advertiseing..... I eat, sleep and breath my job. Its a 24 hour a day commitment if I wanna get paid....

Jim

Man Jim, this is bad.

1. What do you expect to see that has not been shown already? If you think Rich is lying, then PM him or start another thread or challenge him on the Octopus thread if you have to. Please don’t attack people here.

2. Let’s stay on topic. I made this thread so that people could "easily" find the info they need if they want to improve their skimmer. Mainly for people like myself who can’t afford H&S skimmers... and people who are more DIYers with limited skills and tools. And those with other reasons.

This thread is for us to collaborate together and share ideas, what we are doing to help each other reach a common goal. Their no room for creditability checking here. If you want to chalange a procedure or results, or method of testing fine do that. I encourage that I’ve found that I posted results when I had water in my flow meter so my reading was bogus. Rich and others have helped me allot. I have achieved goals beyond what I expected. The things I don’t no would fill libraries. Rich, Spazz, Chem E, ericreef... are teaching me some of these things. So don't discourage anybody from sharing here. Challenge our results or what ever, but don’t challenge integrity here please.

[Ereefic]

Originally posted by Robert Patterso
Ok I think I'm done with my mods. Although I'm doing this by brail, I do believe the second air inlet made a difference. I drilled a second hole right next to the original about a 5 deg angle, glued a piece of ridgid airline tubing to it and tried it. If I plug one of the lines the water level rises probly an 1" to 11/2" or lowers when released. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that tells me I'm getting more air. Again no air gauge. If anybody has any thoughts I'm open to suggestions. Sorry I have no camera, so no pics.

I just did something similar to this with my gray venturi. I put another hole so there were 2 - 1/4" RO tubing sucking air, not just 1.

It really didn't seem to make too much of a noticable difference. If I took one of those lines out, the other one got extremely noisy sucking air, but that is only if the line was flush with the inside of the venturi. If I pushed that line into the path of incoming water, it got really quiet. The flow meter was also bouncing around alot and you could here it in the pump too. Water level would fluctuate up and down about an inch every 10 sec. or so.

If I took my finger and covered the second hole I drilled, it quieted down a little big, but the air was still bouncing around.

Can anyone tell me what any of this means?

[Robert Patterso]

The only thing I would say is your pump is cavitating. Maybe to much air? I used standard rigid tube and air line. I marked my skimmer housing with a marker, it's been running for about an hour in 10" of water in a rubbermaid, no changes in water level as of yet. When I get my sump done that is the water level that it will be. I'm really just guessing here with your problem though, so someone else might want to chime in here. I used to race jet boats (small time) and if you were moving a little to slow and stood on it that's what would happen. It would suck in air and cavitate, bad thing.

[Robert Patterso]

This is probly going to sound like a real dumb question. I've been running 200nw in vinager while I was doing my mod. testing. Well I took out of sump to dump out the vinager water and run it in fresh h20. Turned it on and it only makes big bubbles, no little ones at all. Since I have never run a skimmer in fresh water I'm not sure this if this is the cause. The fresh water I mean. Somebody tell me that is the reason. It's still pumping water and air like mad but no small skim bubbles. Hopefully I already answered my own question. Need to hear from somebody else. Call me a big dumby, that's fine.

[theduckster]

Yep put in in salt water and it should be fine
fresh water dosent skim well