Diablo DC 3500s arrived, thoughts

I received my new skimmer pump a Diablo DC 3500s. This was an upgrade on a reef octopus NWB 150 that had fried the stock pump. The new pump required an adapter kit from coralvue which consisted of a fitting threaded on both the inside and outside, and a riser for the base of the skimmer. The pump sits slightly further away from the skimmer than stock. It still fits in the sump but did require some careful turning to find how it would fit. The pump draws 5-6 times more air than the old OTP2000 pump on the highest setting. I was concerned the stock gate valve (40mm) would be restrictive, but it is just fine. The initial start up was very quiet, a very slight whine is all that was noted. The controller gives the pump a slow rpm start keeping it from beating up the pump and impeller. The skimmer adjustment was Totally different from the stock pump, the bubbles VERY dense inside. I played with it for a while and overflowed the skimmer a few times. It needed to break in for about 24 hours before staying consistent. After trying a bunch of settings the most stable foam head for me worked at 2/3 power. Even at this setting it is far superior to the old pump. Its nice to have a feed hold but i found turning down the pump a couple clicks using the controller is better. Pressing feed hold causes the water to back flow up the venturi into the silencer. Turning the silencer upside down allowing it to drain back fixed this. It made me concerned about future calcium deposits rapidly building though, so i keep the pump running but slower. This also keeps the foam head sitting on top and not back in the tank. I will experiment more. All in all this has been a great upgrade. It comes with a 1 year warranty on everything and free unlimited tech support. If anything of note comes up I can post an update.

Nice! Glad to hear it’s working out.