Octopus BH-100F Setup Question

[Volcmreefer]

Just got a BH-100F and set it up today. Siphoned the water into the first chamber and turned the pump on. Then I noticed that the more you push the black silencer onto the tubing the more water that it sucks out of the siphon chamber(1st chamber). So i adjusted the air/water ratio so that the water remained level in the first chamber. The only thing that I noticed is the collection cup has to be pushed down quite a bit for the bubbles to reach the bottom of the senter tube in the collection cup. Is this normal? I am going to try to post some pictures. Any suggestions on how to mmake this thing work better would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and HAPPY REEFING!

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[dzeadow]

if you have this set up exactly like your picture, i can see at least 1 possible problem. The air silencer is meant to have 1 air tube hooked up to it, what's the other tube hooked to it? Hook an airline up to your shut off valve for the siphon and suck some water out of it and in mid suck turn the valve back off to make sure there's no air bubbles in there. The siphon should easily be able to keep up with your pump and keep the water level up in the first chamber. Generally when the water level starts to drop its because there's air in the siphon still. Its been a while since I've had mine hooked up but if I can help I will.

 

[GermanNuts]

If time permits, I will take a picture of mine and post it tomorrow.

 

[reefer31]

Only 1 air line tube should be connected to the silencer unless that second tube is just open to take in air. I would also recommend just having 1 tube going into the air silencer. In the pictures it looks like there are not that many bubbles being created, the restriction in the air line could be the problem.

 

[Volcmreefer]

The instructions say to connect one of the hoses (tube #2) to a valve (which I didn't get) and the other (tube #1) to the blue hard tube that is coming out of the top of the tube that syphons the tank water into the skimmer. It then tells you to start the pump of the skimmer and at the same time take away air hose #2 from the valve and connect it to the silencer. Crazy set up! Have any of you guys done this? Need some help!

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o41/Volcmreefer/DSC_0169.jpg

 

[Volcmreefer]

Just tried it again, my way. Plugged the pump in so that the water in the 1st chamber of the skimmer is lower than the tank level. Started the syphon by hand. One of the tubes is sucking in air and the other seems to not have any purpose at all. Really wierd. Getting good foam in the cup now. Hope this is how it works.

 

[dzeadow]

take one tube from the pump and attach to the siphon tube, then take the other tube and attach to the air silencer. I think that'd be the way I'd do it. looks like they've changed it a bit since i first got one.

 

[dzeadow]

the way the picture has it set up the pump is sucking water from the siphon tube as well as the 1st chamber, and air from the air silencer.

 

[Volcmreefer]

Tried doing it like the instructions say and the water in the 1st chamber just runs out. The siphon isn't working. Not sure why. I am going to take it apart tomorrow and see if there is a hole in one of the hoses by the fitting. So I should basically do it like the instructions? This is really confusing. Do I need to go to Lowes and buy the missing valve in the directions above? I will hook it up tom and take pictures so that I can get on the same page. Thanks for you continuous help Danny.

 

[dzeadow]

yeah no problem. in one of your pictures you have a JG valve fitting attached to an airline, what's that hooked too? On mine (mine's well over a year old) there was one kind of like that but it was on top of the siphon tube and once you had the siphon started you turned that valve off. So I'm wondering if it's supposed to go like this:
siphon tube > hard red tube > hose > JG valve > hose > pump > hose > silencer. Once you have the siphon started turn the JG fitting to the off position and it should work.

 

[dzeadow]

here you can kind of see how they used to be:

obviously they've changed the pump out and a couple of other things.

 

[Volcmreefer]

Just got the thing hooked up and it's making some pretty loud gargling sounds. Also, it seems that the water level isn't high enough in the last chamber, so there are constently big air bubbles coming into the tank from the return line. Is there anything that I can get for this model to reduce the bubbles? Heard that a CPR bubble trap works. Any suggestions guys?

 

[dzeadow]

try putting the air silencer into the T. OR you can go get a 3/4" pvc plug and sand it til it fits since those pipes (at least they are on mine) are metric. Once it fits, drill a 1/8" hole in the top of it, you're basically making a durso standpipe. Putting the silencer in there worked for some people back in the day as well.