Reef Octo 1000 leak problem

[OlPainless]

I upgraded to the Octo 1000 and i've had it for a couple weeks now, works great no problems. Came home yesterday and water had been slowly bubbling up between the catch bucket and the wall it sits in and leaking down the side. Cleaned up and made some adjustments to it and was working fine. Woke up this morning and it was leaking again in the same manner. Anyone had this problem before? The little rubber ring, I assume, is to help prevent this but it is not a seal. I could see it popping with the bubbles and there was salt splatter on the top of the intake and return tubes as well as the air line silencer.

 

[OlPainless]

bump

 

[Jekyl]

I don't have that Skimmer, but by the color it looks like you're skimming too wet. The collection should be dark and not really see through.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Few things, i found they work better and quieter if you turn the return inlet to the side. Second you should raise the collection cup until it's broken in and your getting darker skimmate.

 

[OlPainless]

I don't have that Skimmer, but by the color it looks like you're skimming too wet. The collection should be dark and not really see through.

Yup, I'm still learning the system. I've had it set where it slowly bubbles up and gets pretty dark only to all of a sudden fill up quickly. Then if I set it too high the bubbles don't even run up the catch tube.

 

[Jekyl]

Yup, I'm still learning the system. I've had it set where it slowly bubbles up and gets pretty dark only to all of a sudden fill up quickly. Then if I set it too high the bubbles don't even run up the catch tube.

You want it just barely sending bubbles over the top

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Yup, I'm still learning the system. I've had it set where it slowly bubbles up and gets pretty dark only to all of a sudden fill up quickly. Then if I set it too high the bubbles don't even run up the catch tube.

It's ok if the bubbles aren't running up right away

 

[OlPainless]

Few things, i found they work better and quieter if you turn the return inlet to the side. Second you should raise the collection cup until it's broken in and your getting darker skimmate.

Interesting on the return inlet, I'll give that a try. For whatever reason if I turn the system off and back on, the return side will fill all the way to the top and then come back down to the inlet. It gets my anxiety up thinking it is going to constantly overflow.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Interesting on the return inlet, I'll give that a try. For whatever reason if I turn the system off and back on, the return side will fill all the way to the top and then come back down to the inlet. It gets my anxiety up thinking it is going to constantly overflow.

Sounds like it's not draining correctly either then. So the part that's in the tank that catches the bubbles on the return side, try moving that lower. It'll help increase the flow of the drain.

 

[OlPainless]

Sounds like it's not draining correctly either then. So the part that's in the tank that catches the bubbles on the return side, try moving that lower. It'll help increase the flow of the drain.

I'll put all this to the test tonight and see how it does. Thank for the help! I assume if I have the catch bucket set higher it will eventually bubble up once it has more waste to deposit? Won't it flow back into the tank from the overflow hole?

 

[OlPainless]

@TheDragonsReef @Jekyl so I tried to get the return inlet to the side, just kept knocking it off and having to fish it off the bottom so I just left it off for now, my HUGE man hands don't work well in small spaces . Also raised the bucket up higher and that seemed to help with the water creeping up the thin gap where I had the leak issue, I can still see some water bubbling up the sides but only about half way. The skimmate wasn't really getting up the tube until later in the evening and I started to get a good slow bubbling up to the top. This morning no leakage and a very small amount of skimmate in the catch bucket, much darker color. I'll just need to keep an eye on everything as usual I guess. I also figured I had the little screw to hold the catch bucket in place a little to tight and it may have been making the gap a little wider by compressing the side of the catch bucket in just a hair.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

@TheDragonsReef @Jekyl so I tried to get the return inlet to the side, just kept knocking it off and having to fish it off the bottom so I just left it off for now, my HUGE man hands don't work well in small spaces . Also raised the bucket up higher and that seemed to help with the water creeping up the thin gap where I had the leak issue, I can still see some water bubbling up the sides but only about half way. The skimmate wasn't really getting up the tube until later in the evening and I started to get a good slow bubbling up to the top. This morning no leakage and a very small amount of skimmate in the catch bucket, much darker color. I'll just need to keep an eye on everything as usual I guess. I also figured I had the little screw to hold the catch bucket in place a little to tight and it may have been making the gap a little wider by compressing the side of the catch bucket in just a hair.

Glad to hear its working better

 

[OlPainless]

Slowly getting a nice dark skin mate now!

 

[Jekyl]

Slowly getting a nice dark skin mate now!

Looking much better. Can probably still dial it back even more.

 

[OlPainless]

Looking much better. Can probably still dial it back even more.

I noticed this morning that it had stopped filling to the catch tub and it wasn't even getting to the overfill hole. It was draining to quickly or not pumping enough water in so I put the elbow back in the drain side and it filled back up enough. Still tweaking...

 

[OlPainless]

New day new problem! The sponge and grate on the return side have popped out of place twice now changing the pressure in the unit. Anyway to keep this from happening beside glueing it down?

 

[OlPainless]

One problem on to another. Any idea how to secure the plate down with the sponge besides gluing it? It has popped up twice now and changes the pressure in the system.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

One problem on to another. Any idea how to secure the plate down with the sponge besides gluing it? It has popped up twice now and changes the pressure in the system.

I dont run that sponge. I found it clogging too fast and was a pain to kill everytime

 

[OlPainless]

I dont run that sponge. I found it clogging too fast and was a pain to kill everytime

It seemed to mess with the pressure in the system for me and the intake side of the system was running lower than normal. I dropped my catch bucket lower so it would still bubble up some skim so it is still functional. Just curious if that happened for you? Does your plate stay in place of did you take that out too?

 

[TheDragonsReef]

It seemed to mess with the pressure in the system for me and the intake side of the system was running lower than normal. I dropped my catch bucket lower so it would still bubble up some skim so it is still functional. Just curious if that happened for you? Does your plate stay in place of did you take that out too?

It's come out when i was installing one but never during operation. Its a huge pain to get back in place too so if it ever comes off i just leave it until the next cleaning. Its not a big deal imo. But i would remove the sponge