Octopus Extreme questions

[Tomoko Schum]

Hi y'all,

My new Octopus Extreme skimmer arrived tonight and I got it in my tank now.

The sicce pump is a bit louder than a Sedra pump I had on my ASM skimmer. The sicce pump started out really loud but quieted down over 15 to 20 minutes to a tolerable level (still noisy to me.)

Its foam is fine but not extra fine. The skimmer came with a mesh and a yellow impeller head. I don't know how to get the mesh on the impeller. I don't even know how to take the housing off the pin wheel impeller head that is on the pump right now. I see a small tab on the housing. I tried to loosen the top of the impeller housing but it is on so tightly that it won't budge for me.

I recall that some of you own Octopus Extreme skimmers. Can someone tell me how to undo the housing and also how to put together the mesh kit ?

 

[wpecoul]

Does the yellow impeller head have any holes drilled in it?

I don't have an Octopus Extreme (yet- ordering an MSX 200 in about a week), but I've run a mesh mod on my ER 5-3 for over a year now. You need to secure the Enkamat (mesh) to the yellow impeller head with small zip ties. If there aren't already holes in the impeller disc, you'll need to drill some. You want them at about halfway out on the disc, and you need four sets of two holes. Use a marker and section the disc into fourths, then using the drill bit as a gauge (the bit should be barely wider than the width of the zip ties), mark a spot for a hole on each side of lines you drew. Don't make the spots too close together, as the zip tie needs to go down through the mesh, around the back of the impeller disc, then back through the other hole to be secured. Also, you need to leave a little room between the holes. To give you a mental picture, each of the four lines from the center to edge should look like an handwritten division symbol. When it looks right, drill the holes.
Next,you need three layers of the Enkamat to put on the impeller. I would cut three squares that cover the impeller disc, then cut the center hole out for each. Lay them on the impeller disc, and run the zip ties through them, but don't tighten them down all the way yet. Now trim around the center to make sure you clear the impeller hub. Once that's done, snug the zip ties down pretty tight to the disc. Now trim the mesh to make it even with the disc, then cut the long ends of the zip ties off.
Now you just have to swap the impeller heads. Afraid I can't help with that one - I had to carefully pry mine off with needlenose pliers.

Hope this helps. There's a YouTube video on it out there somewhere that shows it a lot more clearly than I was able to write it. It took me longer to write than it will take you to do it.