octopus skimmer help

[Darth]

so I bought an octopus bh-1000 2 weeks ago everything was fine skimmer was working like a champ, now I just noticed there are no bubbles in the bubble chamber, thinking something was clogged I took it apart and cleaned it, put it back on and nothing there seems like there is only small amounts of water movement. I opened and closed the air valve, and nothing it seems like the pump is not pumping what it should I can see a tiny vortex, and it just spittles up bubbles, but nothing to what it was or should be. Any suggestions?

[gemmate]

so I bought an octopus bh-1000 2 weeks ago everything was fine skimmer was working like a champ, now I just noticed there are no bubbles in the bubble chamber, thinking something was clogged I took it apart and cleaned it, put it back on and nothing there seems like there is only small amounts of water movement. I opened and closed the air valve, and nothing it seems like the pump is not pumping what it should I can see a tiny vortex, and it just spittles up bubbles, but nothing to what it was or should be. Any suggestions?

If I understand right it is normal behaviour as the skimmer originally was working hard to remove all waste of the water. After it became cleaner it reduced production of bubles and extracted waste. Is it producing more bubles aafter feeding periods?

[Darth]

its not producing anything, its almost as if the pump is barely working. There is little to no movement at all

[FocusFin]

its not producing anything, its almost as if the pump is barely working. There is little to no movement at all

I had the same thing happen with my Octopus. The pinwheel/magnet gets dislodged and stops spinning. You have to reassemble it and make sure that the pinwheel is properly seated inside the pump. The shaft needs to be firmly pushed down so that there is no slack between the skimmer wheel and the motor cover. Try running it in a bucket of water rather than on the skimmer itself so that you can take it apart easily to make adjustments. Once it's running again put it back on the skimmer.

This worked for me I hope it helps.

[JetJumper]

I have seen some pumps be airlocked as well.  Try manually blowing into the Airline hose and see if it starts up. 

[Darth]

so as it turns out after taking the whole thing apart and going on what everyone said tried blowing in the air hose, nothing, plugging unplugging, blowing as I plugged nothing, took the pump apart, and found what looked to be a piece of silicone that was pulled off the moulding that was on the tank (this was an external moulding that was put on for decoration, not part of the tank) after getting the whole pump apart and getting out the foreign object put the pump back together and then prayed for no leaks......viola skimmer is running like a champ again, bad thing is I just got it set to where there were no micro bubbles after about a week or so, and now they are so now it's back to tinkering and fine tuning.

But all in all thanks for all the advice everyone you guys rock!

[JetJumper]

Glad you got it sorted out!