Reef Octopus 300 mod?

flounder · Dec 15, 2011

Hello,
I am sure that there have been plenty of thoughts and threads about modding octopus skimmers. If you're bored with this....move on, but if you modding and helping a guy out....please respond.
I have the following skimmer: Reef Octopus TDNW 300 Recirculating Protein Skimmer 12" dia. 3 Pumps.

I'm not happy with it. I see some bubble blaster pumps online and envy them. I am not sure if they can be used as my feed pump. Those BB pumps are mostly for making tons of bubbles and not much else. I'd need it to also lift the water a couple of feet out of my sump and into my skimmer. (As it is a external)

Doing some research about the rc pumps on my skimmer: 240L/H, 8.4SCFH per pump....3x8.4~25 SCFH. I see that a bubble blaster 5000 does about 72SCFH and the 1000 does 140SCFH.....

See any worth in my messing around with it? Or just suck it up and save for another skimmer.
~250 total gallons (7 fish, but want many many more)

Thanks,
Flounder

revhtree · Dec 16, 2011

Welcome to R2R!

Bump for someone who might can help.

flounder · Dec 16, 2011

Thanks.
I have tried to contact coralvue, but have not received any response.

swannyson7 · Dec 16, 2011

You should be able to use the bubble blasters for the recirculating pumps, but I think that three would be excessive. FWIW, even if you bought three of the BBY1000 pumps, it might be more than the body/neck of the skimmer could handle and might cause a problem with overflowing. Also, the cost of the bubble blaster pumps would almost be enough to buy a new skimmer. You could probably get away with only replacing one of the recirc pumps with a larger BB like the HY-5000, to increase the froth without breaking the bank. You may also want to look into whether or not upgaded pinwheels are available for your pumps. I know the old Octo skimmers used Sicce pumps which have pinwheels available (Reef filtration pinwheel & red demon pinwheel), but I believe the newer ones use different pumps. HTH

flounder · Dec 16, 2011

I dont know if I can swap out my old pumps for the bubble blaster. (any size) or if the easier thing would be to use it as a feed pump.
They do have newer impellers that would "help"

, 8.4SCFH

75%;

increase.

[TD="bgcolor: #dcdcdc"] OTP-2000 [/TD]

[TD="bgcolor: #fafad2"] (OLD) 14.75SCFH (NEW)
[/TD]

[TD="bgcolor: #fafad2"][/TD]

But a bubble blaster 5000 is 72 SCFH and would be HUGE!

Thanks

**Skimmer ran me $700, and I'd rather mod it before trying to sell it for $300.....(which is about what its worth 5 years later)

swannyson7 · Dec 16, 2011

You should be able to swap out the pump without a problem as long as the pump itself would fit. The BB pump comes with a few different sized fittings to make it compatible with various skimmers and worst case scenario, you could just use some plumbing parts from the hardware store. However, the BB pumps are quite large. I have a BBY3000 on my skimmer and it's about 3"x3"x5".... so you might have to run a couple inches of PVC to get clearance from the other pumps. The bubble blaster pumps are not made to be used for feed pumps, so I'd advise against that application. While I'm sure they'd have the capabilities to do so, most of bubbles produced would break as they made their way into the skimmer and it would pretty much defeat the purpose.