Reef Octopus Skimmer Noisy

[Nasabeau]

hello everyone. I bought a Reef Octopus Classic 90 HOB skimmer second hand and am having a bit of a conundrum. the pump is fairly noisy. I have two sponges under the arms of the skimmer and another sponge between the skimmer and the tank to keep it level (the lip on my tank doesn't let the skimmer sit right with the levelling screws. the skimmer isn't touching the wall, it is making direct contact with sponges only. the sponges helped and made it so there aren't more vibrations in the actual tank (before I could feel the skimmer vibrations on the front glass. that can't be great for fish) but the pump itself is still producing more noise than the rest of my tank combined. is this normal, or is something wrong with the skimmer? is there anything I can do to dampen the noise? I read that sometimes they can be noisy the first couple of weeks, is that still true second hand? it isn't collecting yet (it was a tiny bit before I had to mess with it today) and I am running it wide open to let it acclimate, so that might have something to do with it. it does get louder and quieter from time to time. any knowledge in this area would be helpful, I am not even entirely sure how to dial in the skimmer once it's acclimated, its mostly their for aeration and pH control, I don't really have a problem with detritus or nitrogen right now.

 

[fishguy242]

hi, would check pump for anything lodged or wrong with impeller,2nd prob removed all it needed to already,good skimmers,adjust your cup half way across hole in chamber ,is a good reference point

 

[Nasabeau]

hi, would check pump for anything lodged or wrong with impeller

I made sure when assembling it that the impeller was in tact and nothing is lodged. I also feel like it would be a lot louder than it is. right now it is "mildly annoying" not "death rattles from a bison"

2nd prob removed all it needed to already,good skimmers,adjust your cup half way across hole in chamber ,is a good reference point

Trying to figure out what this means is going to give me a stroke, could you explain it like I'm 5?

 

[fishguy242]

hi,saying most likely removed all the garbage ,that was available at the moment,
and finally when making last adjustment on cup,line up bottom of cup edge with the hole in body under tightening screw about half way across hole hope that helps

 

[Nasabeau]

hi,saying most likely removed all the garbage ,that was available at the moment,
and finally when making last adjustment on cup,line up bottom of cup edge with the hole in body under tightening screw about half way across hole hope that helps

There is not a tightening screw for the collection cup on my skimmer, and I cannot find a hole where one is supposed to be in either the cup or the body... am I missing something? the collection cup sits in the hole in the body with an O ring. seems to be friction fit. the flow adjustment is a piece of PCV sticking up out of the outflow arm.

 

[fishguy242]

can you post pic?i am picturing classic hob 100 to 2000,

 

[fishguy242]

i see ,talking different style octo hob,once broken in set water level just below top of body ,let foam rise through tube on cup

 

[Nasabeau]

i see ,talking different style octo hob,once broken in set water level just below top of body ,let foam rise through tube on cup

This is the type I have. a little different than the 100-2000. mine didn't have the sponges, airline, or silencer, I used some tubing from a siphon kit that was the same diameter and made an air silencer out of a urine specimen cup (unused of course XD, I work in healthcare and had some lying around) and cut up a filter sponge to make the sponge rings, but otherwise its exactly as pictured.
Edit: side question, how do I know when it is broken in?

 

[zuri]

according to the vid online there is supposed to be two brakets. remove the sponges the its normal for hob's skimmers to be noisy as they break in i ran the 1000 for almost 6 years an now run the nano version.

also you can cut the lines or order new ones from coral vue to get the brackets to fit i cut mine

 

[Nasabeau]

according to the vid online there is supposed to be two brakets. remove the sponges the its normal for hob's skimmers to be noisy as they break in i ran the 1000 for almost 6 years an now run the nano version.

also you can cut the lines or order new ones from coral vue to get the brackets to fit i cut mine

there are brackets and I have the screws, I do not see the point however in trying to fenagle them to fit the tank since the skimmer is level and secure the way I have it, and would interfere with my top if I made the brackets longer to fit. also adding the screws creates a point of contact with the tank so I would get more noise. right now it only contacts the tank with a sponge in between which cuts vibrations and noise a lot from before I put the sponges there. I don't want to remove the sponges on the outlet (if that's what you're referring too) because without them it throws a ton of bubbles into the tank. right now it seems all the noise is coming from the pump itself and has actually gone down significantly over the past day or two, so maybe it's just break in.

 

[zuri]

the thing is mine would vibrate like crazy when it wasnt hugging the tank properly even if one the screws on the back wasn't exactly the same as the other so you may just have to wait an see if it gets better after it breaks in.

 

[Nasabeau]

the thing is mine would vibrate like crazy when it wasnt hugging the tank properly even if one the screws on the back wasn't exactly the same as the other so you may just have to wait an see if it gets better after it breaks in.

maybe. I suppose that would be worth considering. the main problem with using the mounting screws is I'd have to lower the brackets below the lip, which would pull the tubes forward and interfere with my top, making it so it wouldn't fit anymore unless I took it to a glass cutter to get it custom cut and that gets expensive quick. if it doesn't get better I will keep this in mind though

 

[nashvillian]

@Nasabeau I applied a piece of Velcro tape to the bottom of the cylinder where it touches the aquarium to adsorb the vibrations. Cuts down on noise quite significantly. Also, pull the air silencer cap as far as it can go before falling out, seems to cut down the intake noise.

 

[Nasabeau]

@Nasabeau I applied a piece of Velcro tape to the bottom of the cylinder where it touches the aquarium to adsorb the vibrations. Cuts down on noise quite significantly. Also, pull the air silencer cap as far as it can go before falling out, seems to cut down the intake noise.

yeah, what I ended up doing was putting a cut up piece of filter sponge at the bottom where it contacts the tank, and that took it down a lot. couple more pieces under each arm where it's hanging and then letting it run for a while all worked out to where now it runs pretty quiet