Thoughts on Octopus Recirc 110 skimmer?

[Blazer88]

Anyone here running one of these? I have been thinking of upgrading from my current Superskimmer 220 and I'm pretty limited on space, I need something that can run externally. I thought these were popular a little while ago but I can't seem to find much now.

 

[DonW]

I had the internal for three months as a second skimmer the body pretty much fell apart. I didnt bother to try to warranty it. I'd be afraid to run such a cheaply built skimmer external.

Don

 

[Blazer88]

Well, that's not what I wanted to hear, lol. Which model did you have? People said the same thing about a Superskimmer (about running it externally) two years ago and I guess I've been lucky so far. I thought people really liked the Octopus skimmers.

 

[DonW]

Well, that's not what I wanted to hear, lol. Which model did you have? People said the same thing about a Superskimmer (about running it externally) two years ago and I guess I've been lucky so far. I thought people really liked the Octopus skimmers.

IIRC it was like a nw200, does that sound right.

Don

 

[mungus]

I have the 200 recirc on my 75g. I had problems with it not skimming much in the beginning. Then I did the mesh wheel mod and bored out the restrictive 90 on the output. It's now a real poop shooter. I've been running the thing externally for months without any problems.

 

[Blazer88]

Was the mesh wheel mod easy enough?

 

[mungus]

Yeah it was very easy. You cut three squares of mesh a bit larger than your impeller, cut the hole in the middle to slide it on to the shaft, sew it on with some firewire fishing line, (the standard line doesn't hold up as well) and trim the mesh to the same size as the impeller. There is a pick of how it looks in this thread. http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20457&page=2

I didn't really care about my impeller because I knew I would never want to go back to the original so I broke off the first set of needles with a needle nose pliers. It was a lot easier than trying pry off the first set.

 

[IAP Brian]

both Mario @ Ocean Reef Aquatics and Eric @ The Shark Reef are running one externally. PM them and see what they say.

 

[Blazer88]

Well, I just paid $180 for a used (for a month) recirc 110. Mungus, where did you get the mesh from? I will want to do this mod when it shows up.

 

[Blazer88]

It looks like there are a few people on ebay who sell small sections of Enkamat which I purchased. Now I just gotta do the venturi mod and I should be set.

 

[mungus]

Sorry I didn't check back sooner, I had some that I would have sent you. Mavgi hooked me up pretty fat.

 

[Blazer88]

No problem at all man, the mesh was like $5 shipped. Did you mod your venturi? I would want make sure it's leak proof since I'll be using this externally.

 

[Blazer88]

I got the skimmer up and running last night. I did the mesh wheel mod and slightly modified the venturi (just bored out the hole with a drill bit). I'm really impressed with the amount of tiny bubbles in the chamber but I'm yet to get any skimmate. I'm thinking it may take a few days to break in since the previous owner did an amazing job of cleaning it, it looked brand new when I hooked it all up. So I'll just wait and see how it goes.

 

[mungus]

Rick I bored out the venturi also. I figured it was working pretty good the way it was so I didn't want to mess with it. It took about a week for mine to break in initally and about 4 days for the mesh. You should see an increase in the amount of air it is pulling over the next few days as the mesh breaks in. Once it gets going post some pics!!

 

[davidabrown66]

I just bought the DNW-200, and bought the mesh and fishing line. I'm waiting for delivery on Monday, and will start my mods then. I hope I can find the mods now that I'm finally ready.

-David

 

[Blazer88]

I found out that the larger model will actually fit into my stand, which I didn't think it would when I ordered the 110. I may actually sell this one for the larger model. But I'm happy with them so far, the build quality is great, it's easy to adjust, and very stable. The mesh mod seems to be working very well and I may order a dwyer to check how much air it's pulling.

 

[davidabrown66]

My DNW-200 arrived on Friday, and immediately did the mesh mod, changed the gasket to a #18, and bored out the venturi hole. I didn't pre-wash with vinegar or anything, and after the second day it's starting to produce foam.

The amount and size of the micro-bubbles on these things is amazing! The bubbles look as if someone opened a new 5 gallon bottle of tonic water... and it looks like this all the time!

I'll post some pics once it's broken in. I'm really glad I made the purchase.

 

[Blazer88]

Yep, the mesh makes a huge difference. Here's a picture of the bubbles in reference to a nail tip:

 

[davidabrown66]

That's exacty what I'm getting...very impressive!

Yep, the mesh makes a huge difference. Here's a picture of the bubbles in reference to a nail tip: