The correct operation of Octopus skimmers

Tomoko Schum

New member
Hi y'all,

I don't know how many of you knows how to operate an Octopus skimmer correctly. I just found out that I've running mine incorrectly over a year :fun5:

This is how I came to find out about it.

I just bought a new gate valve (just like the one on the brand new Octopus Cone skimmer) to replace the original wedge valve in my Octopus Extreme 200 skimmer. The gate valve does not require any modification since it comes from Octopus/Coralvue.

While I was testing the operation of the gate valve, I noticed that the water level hardly came up above the black ring on the body of the skimmer. So I asked CoralVue about this and got the following response (they are very quick in responding to any of my questions :thumbsup: :

"Your inner water level should never be any higher than that black transition coupling from the body to the cups neck. Your water level will rise in a few days when the oils dissipated. The less head pressure on the pump the more air it will be able to pull and less wattage it will utilize. Too many users have their water level way too high which effects the overall performance."

I am quite guilty of running the inner water level above the black coupling. :spin2: I wish that Octopus included an operation instruction in their package. My skimmer came with assembly instruction but not operating manual.

In any event, I am running it in a correct way now.
 
I discovered that I have to keep the throat of my skimmer very clean to run it in the "correct" way.

After I clean the collection cup, the foam will run up to the top of the collection cup really fast. It's fun to watch. However, as the throat gets dirty, the speed slows down so much that I have to raise the water level up to push the foam over the top. Since my stand is relatively short and my sump is tall, I cannot take out my skimmer cup very easily. So cleaning it everyday is kinda difficult :(. I don't have enough head room to install an automatic cleaner, either, with the way my skimmer is set up (on a stand inside the sump to keep it in 8" of water.)
 
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