Octopus Extreme 200 - I Meshed the Needle Wheel

So after spending a couple hours trying unsuccessfully to get the mesh put together correctly on my Octopus Extreme 200, I decided to try something different.

I bought my Extreme 200 about six months ago after being only moderately happy with my Aqua C EV180. The Extreme was definitely an upgrade, but still not what I had hoped. I was considering spending the money for a Bubble King to be done with it when I stopped by a local store where a friend of mine was just setting up the new Octopus Hurricone. The amount of air in the chamber was amazing and the skimmer was just kicking out skimmate. The chamber was milky white with bubbles, my Extreme 200 was nowhere close to that. I decided that before I went and spent a ton of money on a new skimmer, I'd try to up the air/bubble output of mine.

I sent an email to Coral Vue to ask about using the pump from the HurriCone on my Extreme. They responded that I'd need to stop it down somewhat and that I should try the mesh mod before even spending the money on a new pump. They sent me what I needed to do it, but I couldn't get it to work. I'm not sure if I didn't cut the mesh close enough or what, but the pump wasn't pushing enough. After fiddling with it for a couple hours I decided to take the little bit of mesh I had left and put it on the needle impeller. I tied it down with 30lb test fishing line and trimmed it extra close to make sure nothing was hanging off the end. I put it all back together and was amazed at the difference in bubble output. Immediately the skimmer begain producing tremendous amounts of bubbles.

I need to let it run for a few days, but right now I'm quite happy.

 

I just did the mesh mod to my octopus extreme 160, it was pulling 18 scfm and now its pulling 30 scfm and producing skimmate faster. Your mesh mod should look something like this. If you want a professionally done mesh mod you can order it at Reefspecialty.com

It takes a few tries to get the mesh mod right. There are threads dedicated to mesh modding the octopus skimmer

Here is the reefcentral link to it, there are over 120 pages worth of posts you can look through to fine tune your Octopus Extreme 200.

Reef Central Online Community - Octo Extreme Skimmer KO Club