Octopus Extreme 200 skimmer

[Melonbob]

First Impressions:

Build quality is excellent, acrylic is clean cut, bonded properly where its supposed to, no warping and nice and thick. The Sicce pump to my ears is very quiet, in fact it's right behind me on the floor and the only thing I hear is my Aqua C Remora pro about 10 feet away. Skims like a MOFO, although I'm getting less and less now as it's been sitting in a cycling tank for over a month. Its been through several stop/starts, and hasn't failed to start or needed bumping once yet. the only complaint so far is the o-ring that holds the collection cup on is TIGHT. I mean you cannot take the cup off easily with or without o-ring lube. I ended up getting rid of the o-ring altogether, and it doesn't leak and hasn't affected performance. I would definately recommend this product as the best bang for your buck skimmer right now!

 

[Melonbob]

 

[midniit]

hey, thinking of getting one of these bad boys for my self...how is it working now that you have had it running a few months? I have looked and this and the recirc version of this skimmer. Have you done the mesh mod?

Mike

 

[stevekellner]

How much maintenance do these require.

 

[Melonbob]

I'm a low mainteance kind of guy, so I stuck with the pinwheel. Really, I couldn't ask for more. The collection cup is 10" diameter and I easily fill it half to 2/3 in one week, and that dark green horrendous smelling crud. I emptied last night, so I'll take some pics next friday.

The only thing I did notice is I was kind of disappointed for quite awhile, it seemed it didn't live up to expectations, and was almost impossible to adjust. the smallest movement either had it overflowing, or not skimming at all. I went on RC and they told me to make sure is was in around 8" of water, and make sure the outlet is not completely submerged. Apparantly, this causes too much backpressure and the skimmer isn't happy. So I removed the downpipe on the outlet, and turned the elbow so it was breaking the surface. The difference was instantaneous! Skims like nothing I've seen now, and am 100% happy!

Since I've done that, the only maintenance I do is to clean the cup once a week.....(:

 

[BigH55]

I have one to and love it. I get a wood looking at that thing.