Essence 130 Reef Octo dial in

[Natedogg1978]

New to skimmers and reefing. Picked up a Reef Octo Essence 130 and have just turned it on.

With online forums and research, before even purchasing the skimmer, I purchased a Red Starfish skimmer stand from China (cheap).

I do not have an adjustable baffle in my sump, so having this stand is a blessing.

Ran the skimmer for a day without the cup plug so the water would just drain from the bottom of the cup (overflowing).

Realized i should utilize the adjustable legs on the Red Starfish skimmer stand and raise it higher in the water column putting it actually sitting in 5 inches of water and got the bubbles just to the inside of the neck and not water flowing constantly out of it.

Keeping an eye on it for the next few days, and hopefully i can dial it in. Thankfully though for not having a baffle to adjust the water height, the adjustable stand is saving me a lot of apprehension in knowing how to properly get it going.

I’m so glad I am a member of the Reef 2Reef forum to learn and share valuable information.

 

[Peace River]

I have several Reef Octopus skimmers running including the 130. With any skimmer it is not uncommon to take up to two weeks to begin to settle in. While I really like the small footprint, I have found the 130 to be a little bit more finicky than the others to dial in. It sounds like you are on the right track. Once my skimmer was settled in it is now in about 8 inches of water and I am able to make small tweaks with the red dial.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

That is a good skimmer WWC uses it on one of their display tanks.

 

[gabrieltackitt]

I have a 130 in operation now. Mine overflowed no matter what I did for the first few weeks, I just let it, then once it was broken in 8” seems to be the sweet spot for depth, I do skim slightly wet with it, I feel like anytime I try to not skim as wet it gets really finicky so I just leave it where I have it now.

All in all I feel like it’s a great little skimmer for the price.