Bubble King Mini 180 Gen2 Question

[jefft321]

I have a Bubble King 180 Gen2, I have been running it for a few months. (I bought it used from someone so it's probably a little over a year old). The collection cup fills up slowly with light tea colored fluid vs dark thick skimmate. Is this typical of Bubble King skimmers? I have a Bubble Magus skimmer on my frag tank with less bio-load and it's pulling coffee colored liquid.
The Bubble King is in around 10" of water. What else can I do to adjust this? If I lower the height of the water in the skimmer I really don't get any accumilation in the collection cup, just accumilation on the neck of the skimmer.

 

[reeftivo]

where is the pump intake positioned? Next to the drain or away?

I had a 160 and it performed similar until I positioned the intake closer to the drain to receive the raw water right away. I also had better luck running mine at 9 inches than 10 with the wedge pipe closed to 1/2. Every system is different though so I'd try positioning the intake of the pump toward the drain first. A higher flow rate through the sump may help as well.

What size system is it on?

 

[reeftivo]

Mojo on the skimmer Q&A thread has run the 160 but I don't know if he's used the 180. You might want to direct your question to him since he's a bit of a skimmer junkie and has built them as well.

 

[dancewithethan]

Easy Fix

Easy Fix

I ran 160 and the Vertex 170 cone. All you really have to do is adjusting the water level pipe. Some owner likes wet skim Green --> brown ---> Solid. If you want brown/solid, than your water level at the neck need to go lower. Do a small adjust and observe. I run my green --> brown, less cleaning at the neck.

Good luck