Octopus Skimmer Mods

[Maeda]

I'm having alot of trouble getting my skimmate IN my cup.
Anyone know how to fix this? I get tons and tons of nastiness, just all in the neck. Raising the water level gets me urine colored skimmate and the same amount of nasty in the neck...... -_-



one more thing...

Just out of curiousity, and owning and tinkering with my NW150 for months now...

Who's got the bragging rights for highest SCFH on a NW150?

[jmbecker]

I just bought a pci ps-2000 skimmer could any one send me some pics of all the mods.what is the mesh mod

[Tony44]

I just got the Octopus NW150 today, and its skimming alot. Is it supposed to constantly keep skimming like mine is? At this rate, it looks like my five gallon bucket will be full in a day, is this normal?

Sorry if its obvious, I am still new to this hobby.

[reefez]

I just got the Octopus NW150 today, and its skimming alot. Is it supposed to constantly keep skimming like mine is? At this rate, it looks like my five gallon bucket will be full in a day, is this normal?

Be careful with the adjustment of the water on a new skimmer. I am still breaking in my 3 week old octopus 3000. Just this morning at 2:30 am I was awoke by my son shouting Dad! Your tank is makeing a loud noise! Good thing he heard it. My skimmer overflowed 4 gal. into the stand which fried my Iwaki 40 rlt return pump I have been up all day fixing it and re plumbing a new pump. I had to settle for a GEN-X 30 PCX. Any way when I went to bed I checked the skimmer as I always have for the last 3 weeks because this was not my first flood. Now the waste hose from the cup is ran through the wall into the garage into a 10 gal. tank. Mine has skimmed real wet for the first few weeks too,but has started to get more dialed in as time goes on. I have a pretty dry foam now that starts just above the bottom of the cup and works it's way up and over the tube.

[reefez]

Jm Becker read through this thread to find the info on all the mods.

[Tony44]

Originally posted by reefez
I just got the Octopus NW150 today, and its skimming alot. Is it supposed to constantly keep skimming like mine is? At this rate, it looks like my five gallon bucket will be full in a day, is this normal?

Be careful with the adjustment of the water on a new skimmer. I am still breaking in my 3 week old octopus 3000. Just this morning at 2:30 am I was awoke by my son shouting Dad! Your tank is makeing a loud noise! Good thing he heard it. My skimmer overflowed 4 gal. into the stand which fried my Iwaki 40 rlt return pump I have been up all day fixing it and re plumbing a new pump. I had to settle for a GEN-X 30 PCX. Any way when I went to bed I checked the skimmer as I always have for the last 3 weeks because this was not my first flood. Now the waste hose from the cup is ran through the wall into the garage into a 10 gal. tank. Mine has skimmed real wet for the first few weeks too,but has started to get more dialed in as time goes on. I have a pretty dry foam now that starts just above the bottom of the cup and works it's way up and over the tube.

Its ridiculous, at first, there was no skimming for like the first hour, so I turned the little nob thing, that lets air into the pump. Next thing you know, its skimming water with a bit of foam. I closed the thing air thing, and its still doing it. I took it all apart, thinking it must of came off, or wont go back on like how I had it. Put it all back together, and its still doing it. The only problem with this is that its taking water from my tank, causing my overflow to not take up as much water as it should, so less water gets into the sump, eventually my sump will go dry, and my return pump will be history.

What do I do here?????


Any help is much appreciated.

[argo]

Guys and gals, I need your help and your advice.
To make a long story short - I almost flooded my living room. Thank God I installed a 2" high drip pan under my sump and externally setup Octopus NW-150.
Last night (between 2:30 and 6:30AM) I had a brief power outage and the needle wheel pump lost air suction. When the power got restored the pump choked on the water inside the air tube and continued to push the water up the tube till it started leaking into the drip pan. I was 1/8" away from mopping 10 gallons of salt water off newly installed HW floors.
Today, I went ahead and bought a UPS, hoping that CyberPower’s 335Watts model will have enough juice to power NW pump should I loose power again, but the pump won't run on that UPS – it continued to run but lost venture action when I tested that UPS.

So, guys and gals, what am I doing wrong?
How can I: 1) make sure that pump restarts venturi action after a power loss and 2) which UPS will run this pump for at least a few minutes until the power is restored.
Thanks all for your time.

[hounddog01]

Originally posted by argo
Guys and gals, I need your help and your advice.
To make a long story short - I almost flooded my living room. Thank God I installed a 2" high drip pan under my sump and externally setup Octopus NW-150.
Last night (between 2:30 and 6:30AM) I had a brief power outage and the needle wheel pump lost air suction. When the power got restored the pump choked on the water inside the air tube and continued to push the water up the tube till it started leaking into the drip pan. I was 1/8" away from mopping 10 gallons of salt water off newly installed HW floors.
Today, I went ahead and bought a UPS, hoping that CyberPower’s 335Watts model will have enough juice to power NW pump should I loose power again, but the pump won't run on that UPS – it continued to run but lost venture action when I tested that UPS.

So, guys and gals, what am I doing wrong?

How can I: 1) make sure that pump restarts venturi action after a power loss and 2) which UPS will run this pump for at least a few minutes until the power is restored.
Thanks all for your time.

Just make sure the tube is over the sump so the water goes back into the sump instead of into the pan.

[B.friend]

Were do you guys set your water Height at~

[argo]

Brad, thanks for your reply and a good tip. The question remains: how can I make sure the pump restarts venturi action after turning back on? Is there a mod that would help preventing water entering the air tube? Thanks again.

[nebraskareef]

Originally posted by argo
Brad, thanks for your reply and a good tip. The question remains: how can I make sure the pump restarts venturi action after turning back on? Is there a mod that would help preventing water entering the air tube? Thanks again.

drill the venturi straight through.

It worked for me.

[tgunn]

Originally posted by argo
Brad, thanks for your reply and a good tip. The question remains: how can I make sure the pump restarts venturi action after turning back on? Is there a mod that would help preventing water entering the air tube? Thanks again.

Its funny, my meshmodded OTP2000 pump starts no problem when the power is lost. The two other OTP2000 pumps DO NOT restart after power loss.

I'd pick up some vinyl tubing from Home Depot to extend the venturi lines. I extended mine well above the top of the skimmer so that if it stops the water doesn't overflow. The water should only go up as high as the water level in the skimmer.

Does your pump chatter when it can't draw from the venturi? Mine makes an awful noise when it can't get going.

Tyler

[argo]

nebraskareef, thanks for your reply. I'll give that a try.

[davidabrown66]

Now that mine is skimming, I'm having the same problem. I think this may be normal, since that's where the foam starts to build and therefor deposit gunk. If I set my water level higher, the foam accumulates higher up and therefor less dry foam=light skimmate, but more of it.

I'm hoping that the breakin period isn't done yet, and that I can dial it in a little better, b/c I'd hate to have to move this whole thing to the sink to remove the gunk below the union down to the bottom of the tapered edge to the main body.

Anyone else out there having this problem as well or have a solution to cleaning it when it does this? I'm currently detaching the union, and taking a paper towel to the lower part of the body to clean off the gunk.

Originally posted by Maeda
I'm having alot of trouble getting my skimmate IN my cup.
Anyone know how to fix this? I get tons and tons of nastiness, just all in the neck. Raising the water level gets me urine colored skimmate and the same amount of nasty in the neck...... -_-



one more thing...

Just out of curiousity, and owning and tinkering with my NW150 for months now...

Who's got the bragging rights for highest SCFH on a NW150?

[hounddog01]

Originally posted by argo
Brad, thanks for your reply and a good tip. The question remains: how can I make sure the pump restarts venturi action after turning back on? Is there a mod that would help preventing water entering the air tube? Thanks again.

How much mesh do you have on the impeller. Did you remove one set of pins?

The usual cause for not starting is the impeller is too thick and there is not enough torque on the magnet to start it up. Mine had a hard time starting at first. It always started but clanked a little. Now it works fine with 3 layers of mesh and 1 set of pins. I do have the 3000 pump.

[reefez]

Ya you have to remove that first set of pins or the pump will clatter very loudly and not start. I have the 3000 as well and had that problem but it was because the mesh was too thick. It is starting every time now. Also drilling the venturi straight down helped too.

[squin]

Originally posted by hounddog01
How much mesh do you have on the impeller. Did you remove one set of pins?

The usual cause for not starting is the impeller is too thick and there is not enough torque on the magnet to start it up. Mine had a hard time starting at first. It always started but clanked a little. Now it works fine with 3 layers of mesh and 1 set of pins. I do have the 3000 pump.

I had a similiar experience with my RPS-3000. I modded my impeller by adding 3 layers of Enkamat to the two, existing needle wheels. I also slightly enlarged the venturi air intake by boring out the existing nipple without removing it. The result was an increase in airflow to 15 SCFH. Unfortunately the pump would fail to start over half the time. I would often have to blow in the air line to get the pump to start.

I recently removed one needle wheel entirely and removed half the pins from the second. I then added 4 layers of Enkamat using fishing line. Now I get the same airflow of 15 SCFH, but the pump starts reliably and rattles very little on startup.

One thing that should be noted is that these mods have increased my power consumption from 70 watts to 114 watts. I'm still waiting on a spare venturi before I attempt drilling out the venturi to accept 1/4" poly tubing, or boring out the venturi discharge as outlined in previous posts. I'm hoping this may increase airflow while at the same time lowering the water flow and subsequently lowering the power consumption.

I'm suspicious that increasing airflow can only be accomplished with an increase in water flow and the associated increase in power consumption.

Many have posted their approach for boring out or replacing their venturi, but the impact on power consumption seems inconclusive. If anyone has some recent details on modding an RPS-3000 (or similiar recirc skimmer running outside of the sump) to increase airflow while maintaing power consumption near the 65 watt rating, please share your mods and results. I would love to hear from someone who has successfully modded their stock venturi, and has measured the resulting airflow and wattage. If I have overlooked a post outlining these results please throw me a bone and point me to that post.

Thanks for all the good feedback!

[charlesjordanjr]

Thanks for the info guys. My NW200 is still stock. I am considering adding GG to the stock imp. I am not sure if it will help or not. I guess there is only one way to find out.
-Chuck

[reefez]

One thing too that I think is noteabel is the water flow through the 3000 is in my experience thus far pretty important. First I had it plumbed with one of my overflow lines. My pump was an Iwaki 40rlt. I had a valve on the feed line to restrict the flow to the skimmer to around what I thought it should be. Last week I had a flood that fried my Iwaki pump I am now running a gen-x 20 that is rated at 975gph. I have the same overflow line feeding the skimmer but now do not need to restrict the water flow to the skimmer. With the Iwaki I could never get it dialed in good thus the impending flood. Now with less water going through the skimmer it is more stable and easy to adjust. I now have better skimmate too. Just thought I would share that tidbit.

[davidabrown66]

I received my spare venturi on Friday and drilled the venturi straight down with a 1/4" drill bit. I glued in the RO line and cut the notch at the end. I also used a 5/8" spade bit to drill out the main water channel in the venturi housing, and I'm still getting the same air draw as before.

As a recap, I've added 2 layers of Enkamat to the stock impellar without removing any needles, and I've done the gasket mod.

I have the original venturi which I bored out (keeping the venturi valve intact) and I bored out the other side of the venturi, but didn't use the spade bit on it. So, the air input is about 1/8" on this guy, and it draws the same air as the modified one at 1/4".

As another test, I took off the enkamat, and went with the stock impeller, and I seem to get better performance with more bubbles coming to the top of the neck just before the union. I can only explain that by thinking that the two layers of enkamat are causing more drag = more wattage thus slowing the rotation of the impellar a certain degree.

As another test, I ran the OTP pump with the skimmer 1/3rd full so I could see the discharge of it without the water getting in the way of my observation. It seems like the pump still has back pressure when discharging in the tee'd fitting inside the skimmer. I seems to shoot out then hit the tee, and then back down some.

My only thinking now on how to increase air entering the venturi is to add a 3rd layer of Enkamat, and snip off the top layer of needles, but I haven't seen an increase in performance from anything else I've done, so I'm hesitant to say the least. I've also have come to conclusion at least for myself that the only way to possibly increase performance is to increase wattage used, which would be worth it if I could get this thing to draw twice what it is now.

I'll have my Dwyer meter by this weekend, so I'll be able to give some actual air readings. I don't have a Kill-o-watt meter, b/c I'm mostly focused on a performance increase even if it costs me slightly more per month.

Have I missed something? Why are the modifications not doing anything for me?

[davidabrown66]

You have 975 gal/Hr through your recirc skimmer? I thought it was supposed to be 1 - 1 1/2 times your tank volume of water? For me that would be about 350 gal/hr, and I have it running about 400 gal/hr. from a ph in the sump.

Originally posted by reefez
One thing too that I think is noteabel is the water flow through the 3000 is in my experience thus far pretty important. First I had it plumbed with one of my overflow lines. My pump was an Iwaki 40rlt. I had a valve on the feed line to restrict the flow to the skimmer to around what I thought it should be. Last week I had a flood that fried my Iwaki pump I am now running a gen-x 20 that is rated at 975gph. I have the same overflow line feeding the skimmer but now do not need to restrict the water flow to the skimmer. With the Iwaki I could never get it dialed in good thus the impending flood. Now with less water going through the skimmer it is more stable and easy to adjust. I now have better skimmate too. Just thought I would share that tidbit.

[B.friend]

Question for you guys Do you Drill Straight thru the venturi. I was wondering on that.

[B.friend]

And instead of enkmat has anyone used Window Screen Net layerd?

[squin]

Originally posted by B.friend
Question for you guys Do you Drill Straight thru the venturi. I was wondering on that.

I had originally drilled straight through, but after doing a little homework on venturi's I think I understand why the manufacturer went to the trouble of drilling at a 90 deg angle. It's my understanding that for a venturi to work optimally the airway opening needs to be at or just after the transition from a smaller water flow opening to the larger opening, in this case the face of the fitting. By doing this air is introduced into an area of lower pressure, thus creating greater suction.

I plugged my staright through hole by inserting the butt end of the drill bit through the nipple to the base of the 90 deg transition. I then filled in the straight through opening with superglue gel. After it dried and I made sure the airway from the nipple to the fitting face was open.

The result was an increase of air flow from 15 SCFH to 23 SCFH. The downside was the power consumption increased from 114 watts to 126 watts running the mesh modded impeller! Not wanting to damage the pump I have placed my original, unmodified impeller back in service until I can experiment more. I now get 15 SCFH with the stock impeller.

I also opened up the discharge by enlarging the opening of the discharge in the 90 deg fitting on top of the pump. This apparently increased the water flow and air flow, but at the cost of higher wattage when running the mesh modded impeller. Opeining up the pump discharge in combination with closing the straight through opening and running the stock impeller has dropped the power back to 100 watts at 15 SCFH air flow. I have to wonder if opening up the pump discharge was a bad move. More water flow = higher wattage.

I have not bored out the venturi with a spade bit or other tool because I think the pressure drop associated with the existing design may be important. I don't want to end up with higher water flow and wattage and little or no increase in airflow.

Once I receive a replacement venturi I will try the mod from earlier posts of inserting the 1/4" poly tubing through to the fitting face or transition in combination with the mesh modded impeller. My goal is to get airflow around 25 SCFH and still maintain power consumption at or below 100 watts.

I highly recomend using a Kill-A-Watt to monitor power consumption. Running these pumps at double their rated power can't be good for the life of the pump. Plus you run the risk of the pump tripping on overload.

Modding these pumps is a seesaw of gains and trade offs. If anyone has a recipe for higher air flow and lower power consumption on a recirc skimmer I'm all ears!

[reefez]

You have 975 gal/Hr through your recirc skimmer? I thought it was supposed to be 1 - 1 1/2 times your tank volume of water? For me that would be about 350 gal/hr, and I have it running about 400 gal/hr. from a ph in the sump.

No not at all. I said I had one of my overflow lines feeding the skimmer and that line has a valve on it to open or close to restrict the flow as needed. I was probably in the neighborhood of 250-300 ghp going into the skimmer.
The Iwaki pump running 5 feet of head through 2 90 degree elbows and a Squid is pumping more like 800-850 gph and when you split that in 2 1in. overflow pipes running to the sump you have roughly 400-425gph per overflow line. I have one line feeding my Octopus 3000 400-425gph with a valve that I close to get my desired flow through the skimmer.
My point is that with the new Gen-X return pump it is more stable in that I don't have to restrict the flow to the skimmer coming from the overflow. It is way more stable and less prone to a overflow because it has a constant flow of tank water feeding the skimmer.
So I think people are better off running the 3000 with a dedicated pump from the sump or overflow from the tank with no restriction. When I had to adjust the flow to my skimmer with the valve it was nothing but headaches. Now it's more stable.