Bubble King Mini Users

ok well i had the 160 and sold it, not that it wasnt a good skimmer but alot of skimmers out there for alot less money that will do as good of a job if not better, back to my vertex's and extra $400 in my pocket for other stuff
 
so what is the verdict bk mini good or bad? I have a 120 heavy bio load sps tank which model should i go with a mini or the larger one?
 
No issues with my 180 Mini. Only tricky part is adjusting foam production. Have had it for 1 year. NO PROBLEMS
 
Definitely not worth the money. In the past few years or so there's been plenty of other brands of skimmers you can get that will perform just as well... And when these other brands fail, the customer service will blow the doors away in comparison to what type of service you'll get when things go wrong with a bubble king.
 
I have had a bk 180 on my 75gallon tank for since april. It is silent, well built, and easy to clean. That being said, i am dissapointed in the amount of skimmate it produces. I think the pump may be under powered for the skimmer. I get a light to medium dark green skimmate, about an inch collected in the cup in about a weeks time. Stock list includes 4" hippo tang, flame angel, royal gramma, clown, purple fire fish, bangai cardinal. I dose vodka and mb 7 and the tank is spotlessly clean, so maybe it's just pulling everything out? Before adding a cuc I did get a build up of algae on the LR, but with 18 turbo's and 8 hermits, I have zero algae or cyno. Lighting is 4 t5 on icecap and 2 vho super actinic. Also run gfo and carbon. Not sure if another skimmer would pull more skimmate or not....
 
A BK Mini 160 on a 45G SPS Tank is way overkill, even with a high bioload. I would buy a SRO-1000/SWC-160 and save yourself a lot of money. JMO
 
birdman1979 said:
I have had a bk 180 on my 75gallon tank for since april. It is silent, well built, and easy to clean. That being said, i am dissapointed in the amount of skimmate it produces. I think the pump may be under powered for the skimmer. I get a light to medium dark green skimmate, about an inch collected in the cup in about a weeks time. Stock list includes 4" hippo tang, flame angel, royal gramma, clown, purple fire fish, bangai cardinal. I dose vodka and mb 7 and the tank is spotlessly clean, so maybe it's just pulling everything out? Before adding a cuc I did get a build up of algae on the LR, but with 18 turbo's and 8 hermits, I have zero algae or cyno. Lighting is 4 t5 on icecap and 2 vho super actinic. Also run gfo and carbon. Not sure if another skimmer would pull more skimmate or not....
Click to expand...

Is yours a first or second generation BK? Your amount of fish is quite similar to mine, except my hippo is full grown and my tank is a 120. It sounds like the vodka is helping a lot. Perhaps you have a good sump/refugium and good setup of natural filtration that has your water cleaner. Your skimmer is pretty big for your tank too. Out of the years I've ran my bk180, the only time I noticed its performance dwindling was when there was a very slow formation of a sponge right inside the air intake near the volute of my skimmer, when I took it apart, cleaned it, it then worked like brand new again. The very slow cut-off of air the sponge was causing was something I wasn't noticing over the course of months until I took it apart.
 
Well back to the BK mini- I am in the market to get a very good skimmer with a dead silent pump if possible. I do not expect to shell out small money and do not mind spending to get what i want. So if the BK 180 or 200mini has issues. What else are the options for a excellent skimmer that is virtually silent?
 
You could look at the ATB 840 V2.0. It has very good reviews, and is pretty silent.
Much people prefer the ATB over the BK.
 
jdthomas24 said:
Well back to the BK mini- I am in the market to get a very good skimmer with a dead silent pump if possible. I do not expect to shell out small money and do not mind spending to get what i want. So if the BK 180 or 200mini has issues. What else are the options for a excellent skimmer that is virtually silent?
Click to expand...

I don't know about having issues... I've had mine for two years now and the one time I had an inquiry (wanted to get a spare impeller and bearing set), it was hardly a problem.

For the record, I still have a spare impeller lying around yet to see the light of day. I cleaned the pump with the stock impeller yesterday and after a quick vinegar bath, it hardly looked like it had been used at all.

FYI, I went to my local dealer, he's always on top of things :D

Personally, I'd say go for it. I have two BK's right now (three if you count the Alpha I ran and recently gave to my nephew) and they have all been flawless. Proline was great helping me understand the inner workings of the product and how to get the most out of it.

HTH
 
I have one. Had to replace the RD 6-7 yrs in. It was awful but Jeremy at premium aquatics shipped me a loaner and after 2 months my pump arrived and it's kicking butt big time. So yes BK service is almost non existent and the parts still come from Europe. By camel and ship then bicycle but I think it was less than 400 bucks for sure. There are too many advantages with it. It's powerful and uses less electric, it's quiet and has a very small footprint and is super easy to clean. My GF cleans it for me when I travel. I love it. It's like the girl in HS who was clearly bad for me. She got in trouble all the time.
My mother hated her she cheated on me but was so smokin' hot and good where she needed to be good and even when she was bad she was good I couldn't break up w her!
 
Hi Rod

You have a very nice setup. I do have the 1st gen of the BK 160 mini. It has one of the smallest footprint ever. I used on my ~ 45 g SPS plus medium load fish. It dose really well for me and was happy with my purchase. I now have a 150 g tank and I also run the BK 160 mini with heavy load on it. My skimmer has been running for more than 4 + years now and still going. IMO, Their is no fail proof skimmers. eventually they all will break down (law of physic).

Note, You do need to have a stable level of water in your sump. It'll not work with water going up and down.

Best
 
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