Super Reef Octopus XP 1000S HOB cone skimmer

[Mrbeachbum2]

Any reviews/ opinions? looking at ordering one soon for my 75 g

[nickandkara]

I think that octopus skimmers are one of the best skimmers from what I have seen and read. I have the octopus ext-200 and love it. Look the model you are intrested in up on youtube and you can see them in action.

[808Rob]

how are the pumps on those SRO skimmers, any excessive noise?

[nickandkara]

Mine is not loud, I mean as long as it is not touching the side of my sump. If you let anything touch it then it will create an annoying vibration but I would assume any skimmer would do that. I did have a little trouble at first with the noise, similar symptoms to other people, but I figured it out. I was putting the skimmer in the sump and then turning the pump while it was attached causing the front housing to become slightly loose on the pump. This was either causing a nasty vibration noise sometimes letting the impeller move around making a "screeching noise" that I have heard others talking about. After figuring out the problem it has never made another noise.

[Mrbeachbum2]

Originally Posted by nickandkara

Mine is not loud, I mean as long as it is not touching the side of my sump. If you let anything touch it then it will create an annoying vibration but I would assume any skimmer would do that. I did have a little trouble at first with the noise, similar symptoms to other people, but I figured it out. I was putting the skimmer in the sump and then turning the pump while it was attached causing the front housing to become slightly loose on the pump. This was either causing a nasty vibration noise sometimes letting the impeller move around making a "screeching noise" that I have heard others talking about. After figuring out the problem it has never made another noise.

Is it worth the money? Hows the skimming going/ on what size tank?

Thanks for the response.

[bottecchia]

Hey Mrbeachbum2-

I just purchased the SR Ocotpus HOB Cone skimmer. Arrived yesterday. At the moment, it's breaking in. So far, so good. The thing is a behemoth. Bubble production is outstanding with no micro bubbles coming back in the tank. Needless to say, I'm still trying to find the best settings for the water inlet gate and water return. This skimmer is replacing a Coralife super skimmer (65 gallon) on a 55 gallon tank (soon to be a 90 gallon). So the Coralife is really the only other skimmer I can compare it to...
Installation and set up was pretty straightforward ( no thanks to the lame instructions written in broken English), however there is a nice diagram of the skimmer and most of its parts included. Just need to be sure to keep the water return gate wide open when starting up, otherwise you will get massive overflow in a hurry.
I found the pump to be rather quiet. No mechanical hums of any sort noted. The only noise appears to be the sound of water moving through the pump, which I think is rather soothing.
Anyways, If you're interested, I'll let you know how the skimmer comes along.

[NewbieForever]

I have had this skimmer for a few days, so its still breaking in.

So far it seems decent, the red acrylic is ugly as heck, so I spray painted all the red acrylic parts on mine black with krylon fusion. The pump is not as quiet as my red dragon pump on my bubble king. The bubble plate does not get a nice even flow of bubbles through it either, they seem to all come out one side even after checking to be sure the skimmer was level, one side of the plate gets a ton and the other just spurts. The bubble break point in the skimmer is not even either, it fluctuate up and down about 1/4" like the pump is cavitating from back pressure or something. Mine hasn't really collected much of anything yet but like I said it is only been on my tank under 48 hours now. The skimmer also takes up a bit of space in the tank vs a skimmer like the warner marine H2 that just has the input/output in the tank.

It does not put any micro bubbles back in the tank, though which is great. Time will tell how this does long term. The sliding gate valve seems to work well for water level. The silencer keeps the sucking sound from the venturi quiet, mostly you hear the water moving through the return with this skimmer. The water travels through 3 sheets of acrylic glued together with the center sheet cut out in the middle. Then out the sliding gate valve, through a baffle, sponge and back in the tank. Its not silent but not too bad either.

I'll update in a few weeks and let you know how it is progressing. I am half wishing I waited for the H2 to come back in stock. After waiting a month and a half for the H2, than being told it was on B/O until the end of the year made me go with this.

The instructions sucked, one page with a few paragraphs that told me to "pinch tube with your amazing hand." enough said lol.

[NewbieForever]

FWIW now this skimmer is kicking butt. I needed a bit of adjustment, I was running the water too high in the skimmer putting to much back pressure. Also the water level in my cube was a few inches down. Once it was topped off for some reason this made the skimmers pump really work much better. I think it might have took an inch off the amount the pump had to suck water over the lip of the aquarium giving less resistance again.

Hopefully in a few more weeks I am loving it even more.

[DC_40gallon]

Bump - how is this doing now? Anyone else have any reviews or better yet, pics that they would share?

[bottecchia]

Well, It's been over a month now since I put this skimmer into my tank. I had the same problem with bubbles coming out from only 1/2 the bubble plate. I think it has to do with lowered water levels in the tank (during water changes, excess evap, etc.) along with keeping the in flow gate too low. All you need to do in that case is turn off the skimmer, pinch the air tube (with your wonderful hand), and turn it back on with the tube pinched, and release the tube when the water level in the skimmer reaches the neck.
Whenever I do water changes and refill, I've noticed that the skimmer tends to overflow initially. To remedy that, I usually close the in flow gate all the way whenever I add water & keep it closed for about 10 minutes then open it back up to about 1/2 way of 3/4 way. No more overflow.
I still have to monitor the skimmer and adjust the back flow gate from time to time. So the skimmer still requires tweaking in that aspect. Hopefully it will become more stable in the next 3-4 months when the skimmer gets a bit more grime.
Skipmate continues to be a nice dark yellow/ green color. Compared to the Coral Life Skimmer (65 gallon) that it replaced, I'd say that I'm getting 2-3 times the amount of skipmate every 2-3 days with the Octopus than I was getting with the Coral Life every 2 weeks at the same consistency. No comparison there. Unfortunately, the Coral Life is the only skimmer I've used before getting the Octopus, so I can't really comment on how it performs compared to others.
I'll try and post some pics later...

[DC_40gallon]

I really would appreciate your time and effort to take a few pics.

Thanks for the update and look forward to hearing more!

[Felixc]

Could you please update the status and perfomance of your HOB octopus. Your reviews have been very helpful.

[E.intheC]

Does anyone have long term experience with this skimmer?

[Dapg8gt]

Just got the octopus BH90 a week or so ago. Awesome skimmer works like a champ.. Clean design , easy to dial in and looks awesome. Check it out it's well worth the $170 I got it for. It's on a way overstocked 45 gal and started pulling skim instantly. Didn't even need to break in and had no micro bubbles. It's def working better a week or so later but with my carbon dosing I didn't even have to stop other than the first day just because I was concerned it wouldn't skim. Awesome skimmer. And it's black :-)

[nogascans]

I have had the big red one running for about 3 months now. Main issue is the skimmer is real sensitive to tank water level, and an ATO would help with this. I currently don't use an ATO due to budget, and perform refills daily with Kalk and RO thru a drip.

One issue I had was that if skimmer cup filled, the way mine was plumed for the skimmer cup to filter/muffler/pump, the overflow would drip into hosing and cause the pump to suddenly surge in volume of water, causing an immediate overflow on floor. I cured this by removing the vent from cup, and vent it into room. I then took that side port, and tee'ed it with the optional bottom fitting and ran into a 5 gallon drain bucket (old salt bucket with top drilled). No more draining cup, and I drain what fills the overflow once a week. This allows me to adjust for a wet or dry skimmate as needed. I have some pictures if needed.

Sincerely,

David

[jasonak]

I just got this skimmer second hand and its so nice compared to all the cheap skimmers I used to buy and just mod. Ive had it on my tnak about half hour really quite and lots of bubles any how was wondering where I should run my water level ? Also the gate on the intake..what excately does that do ? any ideas on where to set that ?
thanks