what model reef octopus skimmer? nobody can answer for me :/

Mshort03 · Dec 23, 2019

ive been trying for a week to figure out what this old skimmer is. ive contacted coralvue about a pump replacement and im getting conflicting responses from them and all of my leads end in no answer from them. ive tried the support forum, email, and calling and cant get anywhere with them.

what i want is to find model of skimmer hopefully because i want a replacement pump. i have been using this skimmer internal for a year and now i need to plumb external. the front of the pump on it leaks slightly and is old so i want a new one. the pump is a otp3000. the skimmer cup is 8 inches. the base plate is attached to the skimmer body. carlos said on forum that varios 4 would work but didnt say if any adapters were needed when i asked. i tried ordering a aquatrance3000 as the coralvue website said was a replacement for that now discontinued pump, so i ordered and get email from them asking if it was external then said they dont make adapters for that skimmer? so one says yes one says no.. i just would like a straight answer to what model this skimmer is, and what pump i can get to replace the old otp3000. i dont care about the adjustability of dc for this one so thats why i looked at the aquatrance. at this point i just want a pump that works idc what it is. ive attached many pictures so hopefully someone can help me.

CoralVue_Marketing · Dec 23, 2019

Hi there! Sorry for the trouble with your skimmer. I am not actually a member of our support team, but I am able to log into our ticketing system to check on support matters.

It looks like we're trying to acquire the part for you but cautioned the outlook doesn't look promising. This was the latest response from our team that I see:

"Unfortunately, Reef Octopus no longer makes the parts to upgrade that skimmer to the AQ3000S pump. We have reached out to them to find out if they have any parts left or if they can make one but since it is December 23, they won't get back to us until after Christmas. We cannot promise that they will have the part available or that they will make it but we are doing what we can to track down and get the part. Sorry for the inconvenience and delay."

Hopefully RO comes back with good news! In the meantime, perhaps another R2R member/user of this skimmer here can offer some advice based on their experience with the unit.

Mshort03 · Dec 23, 2019

Jeff@CoralVue said:
Hi there! Sorry for the trouble with your skimmer. I am not actually a member of our support team, but I am able to log into our ticketing system to check on support matters.

It looks like we're trying to acquire the part for you but cautioned the outlook doesn't look promising. This was the latest response from our team that I see:

"Unfortunately, Reef Octopus no longer makes the parts to upgrade that skimmer to the AQ3000S pump. We have reached out to them to find out if they have any parts left or if they can make one but since it is December 23, they won't get back to us until after Christmas. We cannot promise that they will have the part available or that they will make it but we are doing what we can to track down and get the part. Sorry for the inconvenience and delay."

Hopefully RO comes back with good news! In the meantime, perhaps another R2R member/user of this skimmer here can offer some advice based on their experience with the unit.

thank you for getting back to me, if you read our conversation youll see he said the varios 4 would work and then we talked about finding the piece for the aquatrance.. so does the varios 4 need an adapter too or will that one just work? if so i can just buy that pump and save the trouble. orrrrr do i need this adapter regardless of pump, therefore, no matter what i have that "not promising" outlook in which case i need to look for a skimmer?

again, thank you for reaching out to me, hopefully i can clear that issue up and re order or cancel order before its shipped.

Mshort03 · Dec 23, 2019

also do you know model of skimmer? that answer always seems to get left out. thanks

Peace River · Dec 23, 2019

Mshort03 said:
also do you know model of skimmer? that answer always seems to get left out. thanks

It looks like that is the OTP-3000NW pump and the skimmer might be a NWB 200. I think Reef Octopus later upgraded that pump to the OTP-3000GT that was also used on the NWB200. Part of the confusion may be that there are two different models of OTP-3000 pumps. CoralVue has strong support that I have found to be helpful on many occasions so I would encourage you to be patient - Carlos and Jeff are knowledge, helpful, and genuinely good people.

Mshort03 · Dec 23, 2019

Peace River said:
It looks like that is the OTP-3000NW pump and the skimmer might be a NWB 200. I think Reef Octopus later upgraded that pump to the OTP-3000GT that was also used on the NWB200. Part of the confusion may be that there are two different models of OTP-3000 pumps. CoralVue has strong support that I have found to be helpful on many occasions so I would encourage you to be patient - Carlos and Jeff are knowledge, helpful, and genuinely good people.

thanks for the reply! yes i have dealt with them before and they were great all previous times. i just have gotten conflicting answers on wether any pump can be used as a replacement. if the varios would work without adapter im fine with that.

CoralVue_Marketing · Dec 23, 2019

Mshort03 said:
thank you for getting back to me, if you read our conversation youll see he said the varios 4 would work and then we talked about finding the piece for the aquatrance.. so does the varios 4 need an adapter too or will that one just work? if so i can just buy that pump and save the trouble. orrrrr do i need this adapter regardless of pump, therefore, no matter what i have that "not promising" outlook in which case i need to look for a skimmer?

again, thank you for reaching out to me, hopefully i can clear that issue up and re order or cancel order before its shipped.

I am told wanting to use it externally is what would make it incompatible, so I think they misspoke before. Sorry about that!

Mshort03 said:
also do you know model of skimmer? that answer always seems to get left out. thanks

It looks like a Classic to me, not sure which. Support is much more familiar with past products than I am! I joined the company in June so I'm most familiar with products we've released since I was hired.

Mshort03 · Dec 23, 2019

So through some more research I'm pretty sure it's a extreme200 skimmer. I saw an old coralvue thread where Carlos mentioned the diablo xs200 adapter. Does this seem like it may be correct? It's an external skimmer so I'm not trying to convert it or amything, I simply had it sitting internal with external plumbing.

Carlos@CoralVue · Dec 27, 2019

That is not an Extreme 200 skimmer. It is an old DNWB200 skimmer which is a predecessor of the current CLSC-200EXT skimmer. The issue is not the Aquatrance pump but the adapters that will make the pump work with that skimmer. Those are the adapters that we are trying to hunt down for you by contacting Reef Octopus. As I mentioned to you on the support portal, it is the holiday season so it is a little more challenging to get a response from the manufacturer quickly.

Mshort03 · Dec 27, 2019

Carlos@CoralVue said:
That is not an Extreme 200 skimmer. It is an old DNWB200 skimmer which is a predecessor of the current CLSC-200EXT skimmer. The issue is not the Aquatrance pump but the adapters that will make the pump work with that skimmer. Those are the adapters that we are trying to hunt down for you by contacting Reef Octopus. As I mentioned to you on the support portal, it is the holiday season so it is a little more challenging to get a response from the manufacturer quickly.

Thank you I appreciate all of the help! Hopefully they can find some adapters or some pump that will work for me, if not then looks like I need to start looking for a new skimmer:/ for now they have refunded for the pump until we (hopefully) find a solution!

thanks again