HOB Reef Octopus BH1400 Help

Hey everyone, this is my first ever skimmer purchase. I have a few questions and need some assistance. First off, I bought this used skimmer for $50 and it is in good shape still. Although, there is no silencer. I'm not that sure what the silencer does, does it determine the amount of air flow, this causing more bubbles/less bubbles? How would I adjust my skimmer if I dont have it? Also, how do you "break in" a skimmer? Do I just plug in the pump qnd allow it to go by itself or block the air intake? Also, after cleaning the skimmer, I filled it up with water and plugged it in to see how it works. There were small bubbles coming from the pump and then just stopped. How do I fix this? Help would be really appreciated. Thank you!

 

you need to fill it up in order to get the intake to start working. You then hold the air hose shut which "primes" it. Once it starts making bubbles, the silencer just basically plugs the end (I think). You break it in by letting it run and adjusting the cup up and down until you find its position that gives you bubbles up the neck and just spilling (not constant) over the neck and into the cup.

As far as the stopping, it may have been because you didn't hold the hose closed long enough. I just had to do this earlier today....I held it closed and then let go a couple of short times to get it running. HTH!

 

Thanks for the reply. So what I did was I turned on the pump along with allowing water from the sink going into the intake. Then I turned off the sink and noticed that then weren't any water being pulled into the pump? I then took off the pump and turned it on in a bucket and it works just fine. Idk why water isn't being sucked inside? Help anyone?!

 

I think if you follow what I said, it should work......sometimes it can take a little bit of holding the hose and you need to fill it to a certain level also. I'm not sure if yours is like mine but I fill it to the point where the one side spills into the other....?

I sure hope your skimmer is like mine....lol...I'm sorry I didn't verify that DOH!

 

Thanks oldfishkeeper. Yeah I tried the whole "plug the air tube" thing. The main thing is idk why the intake isn't sucking in water? I pulled the white box chamber off it and held my hand against the tube, there isn't a strong sucking pressure at all. But right when i plug in my pump it sucks all the water in the white box inside then stops sucking?

 

If its like mine look at the intake. mine had a surface skimmer intake is that was set to high it wouldn't suck water very good.

 

What does yours look like? And I just noticed that my titles wrong. I have the BH1000**** not a BH1400, don't think that even exists lol.

 

I have the BH1000 so they are the same.

 

Alright. I soaked all the parts, the body, and the pump in vinegar last night. Im going to clean it off and hopefully it'll work

 

let me know and I'll see if I can help.