Thanks Larry, I put a sock on each input of the sump a couple of days after I put it online. I picked up the ext 160 2nd hand, it's only 5 months old and paid less than half of a new one, the guy was upgrading to a 180 from a 90. Do you think it would be a good idea to remove the foam in the overflow or should I just leave it in there.I used both, at different times, and like Innovator said, you must keep them clean. Right now I don't have any type of mechanical filtration.
It can take up to 2 weeks or more for the skimmer to break in. It took my Octo almost 3 weeks before it was churning out some heavy gunk.
Great idea, thanks CA. I think I'll work on that one, the socks are doing a great job but are a little bit of a pain.I took some eggcrate and cut it to sit in the sump up against my first baffle (looks like a T). I bought some of the bulk filter stuff from the lfs and attached it to the eggcrate to catch the large stuff as it heads for the baffle. I made 3 of them. I just pull one out and plop another in and rotate them (cleaning the ones I pulled out where I get time).
I probably swap them every 2 weeks or so.
Also keep my macro where is supposed to be