Reef Octopus Essence 130 ?’s

GoTakeANap · Jun 11, 2019

I currently have a Essence 130. It’s been running around 3 weeks. Im having a few problems with it.

1.getting crazy mircobubbles from the return of the skimmer and it’s running into the display. (Through a sponge filter)

2. I cannot get it set to where it will not run a dry dark skim. Light brown color. If I turn the dial down in numbers the skimmer goes crazy and fills collection cup in less than 30 mins with a really light brown color skim. Skimmer is sitting in 9” of water.

steelwrap · Jun 11, 2019

Same here. Following

wareagle · Jun 11, 2019

Mine took an extremely long time to break in, 6 weeks, and then I had to deal with the bubbles again after I cleaned it at the 4 month mark. I have mine in 7.75 inches of water. Lower number on the dial is a wet skim, I don't have a problem getting a dry or wet skim with mine. Mine takes a while to settle and stop shooting bubbles out after making an adjustment. I'm happy with the skimming and noise performance, but the thing is finicky. This was my first real skimmer so I can't tell you if all skimmers are like this or if it's something unique to this model.

GoTakeANap · Jun 12, 2019

wareagle said:
Mine took an extremely long time to break in, 6 weeks, and then I had to deal with the bubbles again after I cleaned it at the 4 month mark. I have mine in 7.75 inches of water. Lower number on the dial is a wet skim, I don't have a problem getting a dry or wet skim with mine. Mine takes a while to settle and stop shooting bubbles out after making an adjustment. I'm happy with the skimming and noise performance, but the thing is finicky. This was my first real skimmer so I can't tell you if all skimmers are like this or if it's something unique to this model.

Yea its very finicky. So the lower the number the wetter the skim will be? When I dial my skimmer in to pea sized bubbles it just fills the collection cup right up in no time. If i leave it on the 16 mark it gets a decent skim but still not getting a good foam. Its filling the cup everyday.

joec · Jun 12, 2019

It took mine several months to fully break in, now it's set and forget. I have not touched the setting in 3 months

If your cup is overflowing in 30 minutes, set the top of the bubbles so you can just see them at the top of the neck where the silencer is and just leave it be. Give it time, it works GREAT!!

9" is too deep. The reccomendation is 7-8". Mine is at 7.25"

wareagle · Jun 12, 2019

Yes, the dial controls how high the water is in the skimmer body, the water level is also controlled by the water depth. High water level =wet skim, low water level=dry skim. I just lloked over the instructions and they state 8.7" or 22 cm is the deepest water it can placed in.
16 is fully opened on the dial, that means it's letting more water out so you'll have a lower water level in the skimmer body. As you close the valve it's restricting the water going out and causing the water level to raise.
New filter socks can also have whatever is in fresh plastic that makes these things go crazy. You can either wait it out, or start doing water changes to get the plastics residue out of the water.
I routed the skimmer drain line to a bucket and filled the sump with new saltwater as the skimmer poured out water. I do the same thing after using chemiclean and any epoxy. It's probably the combination of all the new plastics that go into an aquarium that make these things take so long to break in. If you aquascaped with any epoxy putty it will also overflow.
I have a 80 gallon total system and I can tell you it takes about 3 gallons of skimmer cup water to stop over flowing after chemiclean and 5-6 after using epoxy.

GoTakeANap · Jun 14, 2019

wareagle said:
Yes, the dial controls how high the water is in the skimmer body, the water level is also controlled by the water depth. High water level =wet skim, low water level=dry skim. I just lloked over the instructions and they state 8.7" or 22 cm is the deepest water it can placed in.
16 is fully opened on the dial, that means it's letting more water out so you'll have a lower water level in the skimmer body. As you close the valve it's restricting the water going out and causing the water level to raise.
New filter socks can also have whatever is in fresh plastic that makes these things go crazy. You can either wait it out, or start doing water changes to get the plastics residue out of the water.
I routed the skimmer drain line to a bucket and filled the sump with new saltwater as the skimmer poured out water. I do the same thing after using chemiclean and any epoxy. It's probably the combination of all the new plastics that go into an aquarium that make these things take so long to break in. If you aquascaped with any epoxy putty it will also overflow.
I have a 80 gallon total system and I can tell you it takes about 3 gallons of skimmer cup water to stop over flowing after chemiclean and 5-6 after using epoxy.

Got it set. I used some putty to place a few frag plugs and it’s going crazy. Guess I’ll do a water change to remove plastics in the tank

Natedogg1978 · Jul 29, 2020

GoTakeANap said:
I currently have a Essence 130. It’s been running around 3 weeks. Im having a few problems with it.

1.getting crazy mircobubbles from the return of the skimmer and it’s running into the display. (Through a sponge filter)

2. I cannot get it set to where it will not run a dry dark skim. Light brown color. If I turn the dial down in numbers the skimmer goes crazy and fills collection cup in less than 30 mins with a really light brown color skim. Skimmer is sitting in 9” of water.

joec · Jul 30, 2020

These take a while to break in. It sounds like you have it sitting too deep. 7-8" is the recommendation. Most have it sitting closer to 7". Mine is in 7.25"

Keep the bubbles ( when not producing foam) in the neck at or a little below the red collar otherwise overflows become an issue

For better fine tuning, you can set the skimmer dial between the numbers. It doest have to be set set at the intervals on the dial. RO should get rid of the interval slots on the dial

Not sure why you're having microbubble issues??

Barnabie Mejia · Jul 30, 2020

I was having the same issue with mine. Monday mine was turned on for the first time, I took the skimmer cup off and let it run wide open. Last night I was wondering how long it would take to finally build up slime and break in because it was still overflowing like crazy. I put the cup on and continued to let it overflow. I did the first water change on the system (10 gallons) for some reason when I looked at the skimmer, it wasn't over flowing anymore! I think it still needs to a couple more days for a full break in...… but there is light at the end of the tunnel for you man.

for the record, this is my very first skimmer I have ever had on a tank....

Barnabie

Jeff Kohlmann · Jul 30, 2020

So many skimmer issues! Then I hear a YouTube blogger telling me “there is no break in... it’s all hogwash.” I can’t comment since I haven’t gotten mine yet.