Reef Octopus BH90 Hang on Protein Skimmer

This is a quality made skimmer that works great for euro-bracred tanks. I struggled trying several cheaper HOB skimmers to fit my Aqueon 90 gallon mixed reef euro-braced tank. I had to return several for not fitting or not working right. This unit from reef Octopus is in the pricy range but it is worth each penny; it is ruggedly made with quality acrylic and works quite silently. It fits the 1.5 inch rim (although I had to remove the adjusting screws, which does not alter function). It generates a large volume of microbubbles and quickly started producing a very decent volume of skimmate. It has a single regulation point by rotating the air intake pipe, so you can select how dry/wet your skimmate be. I strongly recommend it for those having the tricky issue of picking up a good HOB skimmer for a euro-braced reef tank.

I have this on a rimmed 75 gallon aquarium. Took a couple weeks to break in and I had to do some finagling to adjust the height of the skimmer but it works very well and is not obnoxiously loud or an eye sore on back of tank. This really does need to have a design to adjust for the intake and return tube heights and general skimmer height on back of tank or you will have to figure out a way to do it yourself. I had to raise mine about 3/4" to be really effective. A couple of odd spacer what-nots I dug around for in a junk drawer took care of that.

Great skimmer should outlast my fishes lives. Had to use hot glue to attach the air valve as it will not fit the white air inlet hose properly. Nor were there instructions to install this important part. I spent a month trying to knock down the out of control bubbles from over flowing the collection cup by pinching off this tube. Valve works great, even though it’s plastic. Should be stainless part when spending $300 on this unit!

This is the best skimmer I have ever used. I've had fish tanks for 10+ years. Pulls dark skim-mate out of tank all day long. Water quality has improved and so has testable nitrates. I always do 20% water change monthly and sometimes bi-weekly and still had algae problems. Not anymore. My coral is very healthy and continuing to grow. Collection cup is easy to clean. Much quieter then older model skimmers I have had in the past. The only negative is the instructions on assembly, however it is easy enough to figure out with out them.- used on a 90 gallon saltwater mixed reef tank-

Extremely vague instructions on how to tune the skimmer. For what I consider a premium price they could at least have some information on how to tune the skimmer correctly. There is nothing in the manual about tuning. There is very little about how to put it together. YouTube shows two white flexible tubes/hoses. My unit came with only one. My unit came with a white two-way valve and there’s no informational where to hook up that valve. Obviously it goes on the white tube, but no information on where to hook the white tube up or what to do with it when you do figure out where it goes. Do you want big bubbles little bubbles fast bubbles slow bubbles. There is nothing about it. Very sad as everyone says what a great unit it is.

Within 2 hours it recovered 1/4 cup, started cleaning/skimming immediately. Comes half assembled easy installation if you owned a skimmer before.(make sure you add waterPrior to plugging in) great cup design to dispense protein!

I think I must have been sent a unit made on a Friday afternoon, because I've had a couple of troubles with it. Firstly the impeller shaft was broken as delivered, which involved some back and forth with the Reef Octopus service department before I got a replacement. Then the pump's veloute attachment tabs broke, also requiring a replacement. Functionally, the skimmer works very well when it is at the top of its game. Unfortunately it requires frequent maintenance, in particular to clean out the impeller and the needle wheel, which tends to get clogged up with bits and pieces sucked in from the tank. Another maintenance item involves trying to clean the inside of the skimmer - which is almost impossible to do thoroughly because the channels and tubes are essentially inaccessible from the top and bottom of the device. On a couple of occasions the skimmer has overflowed - the worst nightmare of a HOB skimmer. This was because something obstructed the free flow of water through the exit tube system - perhaps some algae or something like that - after cleaning out, it worked well again. There is an adjustment for wet/dry skim - I leave it on the dry setting which effectively maximises the water flow through the skimmer. As for noise - I'd say this skimmer is marginally quieter than the BakPak skimmers I've used in the past, but it does tend to gurgle noticeably when in the wet skim setting. Some people have reported lots of bubbles escaping into their tank when using this skimmer - I've not experienced that problem.

This is hands down, the best HOB protein skimmer I've owned to date and I've been reef keeping since 2001. At first I was a little apprehensive because of the sheer size of the skimmer but once I got it fired up and broken in, it works like a charm. I had no idea, from my crystal clear water, that I had so much built up organic matter in the water column. The only bad thing I can say about this product is the micro bubbles it creates sometimes but thats due to several additions to the tank that are already expected, again a very minor problem. I love the option on the collection cup where you can install a tube to deliver excess skim mate to a larger vessel for easy export. The price is spot on for the quality you get for this skimmer. I highly recommend this product for anyone that is on the fence for a new skimmer, give this one a shot, you will not be disappointed.