wattsupdoc
New member
I have an Octopuss NW 200. The funnel neck job to be exact. Mine came with the Octo 3000 NW. I have had the skimmer for the better part of a year, 9-10 months I suppose. I ran it for the first month maybe two with the Octo 3000 mesh modded using enkamat. It skimmed on my moderately stocked 135 rather well. But I wasn't convinced I was getting the maximum out of it. So after reading soooo much about the mesh modded Sicce pumps, I broke down and ordered one. Right after I put it on line. I had start up issues with the MSX meshed enkamat so I Redid it myself. Either way though I could maybe pull 35 scfh on my Dwyers. ( I think I got it to pull 42 for a while but not very long, like maybe a day or two at a time.) Which is about the same as what I was pulling mesh modded with the octo 3000. Only with what seemed to be fewer start up issues with the Octo pump. Now the sicce Had other issues as well, a couple times I flooded the skimmer. Luckily mine is an in sump so the only issue was skimmate dumped back into the system. Still though not at all an acceptable issue. I presume this was from starting up in the opposite direction. Sure enough restarting the pump resolved the issue. dialing the skimmer in on the higher level was not acceptable either as it would rarely ever start this direction. So getting it to start as it was dialed in would take forever. Additionally accidental shut down would render it not skimming. While this may be better than flooding the skimmer, it still is not acceptable behavior as it was so difficult to start right. When the skimmer did skim, it skimmed pretty good, but would not consistently pull more than 22 scfh. The mesh modded Octo beat that with fewer issues. After running the Sicce pump for at least 6 months I decided to reinstall the Octo. 4 days I ago I put it back on line. Now though the impeller is just the plain old needle wheel that came stock on the skimmer. It has in fact since then outperformed the Sicce pump(with mesh no doubt) hands down. My reaction chamber immediately became completely filled with micro bubbles. The reaction in the chamber is gentler and more skimmate is produced daily. With no start up issues. Now my skimmer still has the gate valve mod as well as the stock venturi is slightly modded and a larger diameter air line installed. But this is the same airline as the Sicce was utilizing
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The pumps are fantastic, the DIY mesh jobs are the weak point. Picking up a quality PW is probably the best choice if you are not a DIY'er.
