Octopus Skimmer Mods

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When was it that the octopus skimmers got the cheaper pumps? I bought one on Nov 2006. I know that you can measure the needle wheel but the problem is that i had received mine with a regular paddle wheel and then the online store sent me the regular needlewheel.
 
alright, played with mine a little more. started the day with 15scfh @ 55w.

ported the volute, played with the venturi a bit and added a 3rd layer of pf4. still can't get better than 17scfh @ 90w. i'm reading at the middle of the ball btw, if that's wrong speak up..

that's hotter than i want to continually push this pump. i have a new venturi otw (want to try one more thing) and if that doesn't work, i'm definitely gonna look for a new pump..
 
Wow, they've really screwed up their new pumps!! Does any one have one of the new OTP3000's they'd be willing to ship me just to see IF they are really as bad as they sound? I could mod it and ship it back after testing.

Porthios, middle of the ball is where I read mine at. what meter do you have? If it is one of the RMA's they can be a little restrictive, due to their small fittings...but you'll only lose a few SCFH even then. 90 watts will quickly burn out the pump. What is the PF?

ibmgeek...You should have one of the good pumps! :) A little modding and you'll be able to tell pretty quick.
 
If you can't get it above 20SCFH easily it is one of hte new pumps...if it's one of the old pumps, it will do 25 easy by a first time DIYer :)
 
I haven't logged onto RC in quite a few months. I thought I'd check in and visit some of the threads I used to post on.

I have an NW 150 that is probably 1.5 yrs old and I'm still using my original pump. Since I see the new pumps aren't very good, I'm wondering if anyone has identified any replacements?
 
jctewks - i have the rma-7 meter. def wish i'd gotten a bigger one but..

don't have the kill-a-watt hooked up atm but i'll get the pf for you soon. wondering if the zip ties are rubbing on the bottom so i'm gonna try a new meshmod (with monofilament) soon. i'll get you the pf then.
 
porthios...since my first mod in the small volute of the 1000 i've been using 10#mono fishing line...spent about an hour trying to keep the zipties from rubbing then said screw it.

FYI...I've got my old coralife SS125 on the tank now...meshmodded pulling 9 SCFH 23watts with just an airline shoved in the inlet :) Not bad for a Rio :)
 
The only thing I used the zip ties for was to hold the enkamat in place so that I could fish line sew it all in place.
 
thats a good idea, I can't count how many times o stabebd myself with the needle while needing a 3rd and th hand to hold it all together :)
 
Learn something new every day, huh. :lol: After 5 mins of trying to hold and thread I was like screw this... zip.. zip 2 on everything in place. Time to sew.
 
:lol::lol: A key part was left out apparently... I just did your regular old loop the 2 pieces and pull. Did that 3 times. Then I added a drop of superglue to each knot.


Use 2 zip ties to hold the mesh in place then go around and fish line sew it. Makes life a lot easier.







<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10542336#post10542336 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wharfrat48
What kind of knots are you tying the fishing line with? I tried for about an hours and couldn't get my knots to hold.
Click to expand...
 
same here...just a couple grammy knots. No superglue for me! Held up for 6 months before the pump died (pump failure was not knot related :))
 
lol.. well.. went down last night before bed to find my skimmer overflowing in the sump (go sumps ;)). checked the air meter and it was pulling 21scfh. uh oh.. first thought was to check the wattage cause something's got to be wrong..

went to pull the cup off to dump it and shocked the **** out of me. not a nice tingle either, it was a solid jolt. unplug everything, check on the fishies, all ok. used the darwinian touch test method as i plugged everything back in, one at a time. my refug pump didn't start up at all and nothing else shocked me so i'm gonna blame that for now..

however, the otp-3000 was pulling 100w when i plugged it back in so checked the nw and sure enough it was rubbing on the volute cover. trimmed it down a bit and now i'm back down to 15 scfh @ 70w.

so the highest at this point is 21scfh @ 100w but i like the 15scfh @ 55w i was getting earlier with 2 layers of pf4.

jctewks - pf was 59.9 when i measured 21scfh @ 100w..
 
59.9 is the frequency the electric is coming into the house at. PF will be something like .50 or .61..you know a decimal then 2 numbers. If you push the Hz/PF button twice it will tell you PF.
 
porthios, what return pump are you using? I really hope it is the return pump that was shocking you, not the OTP.

I hope that my 2 meltdowns were freak accidents and don't happen to others. I still believe in these pumps as good contenders for low dollar high LPM pumps for small/mid size skimmers.
 
Jeff even if these pumps are POS's the skimmer itself after a pump upgrade still comes in under what everything else in its class is going for. Sure it sucks to have to upgrade. But what fun is it to not be able to make something better? :D
 
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