Bubble King Setup, Tuning and trouble shooting thread. Post your questions here!

[biecacka]

Redid my rockwork, and put some rocks in my sump. When do I this I raised my skimmer back up to 9.5 inches of water. It was in 10.75, in doing so I have adjusted the water level and speed of the skimmer, it's working hard. I am running it a bit wet as the 25 or so fish I have in my tank aren't enough of a load for it. It's a beast!

Corey

 

[hedehodo]

my dc150 after 6 days of run. Volute in 3 turns and vedge pipe fully open in 18.5cm sump depth.

Is it good?

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[slief]

my dc150 after 6 days of run. Volute in 3 turns and vedge pipe fully open in 18.5cm sump depth.

Is it good?

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Looks great to me.. Still breaking in too.

 

[biecacka]

Scott what do you think of 33 speed on my pump for the dc200. I raised it back to the recommended depth but in doing so had to close the wedge and run the pump hard. Is it ok or should I run it deeper. It gets a nice foamy head but doesn't pull a ton. Not a lot to pull right now with only 25 fish in there and over half are smaller fish.

Corey

 

[urbaneks]

Scott what do you think of 33 speed on my pump for the dc200. I raised it back to the recommended depth but in doing so had to close the wedge and run the pump hard. Is it ok or should I run it deeper. It gets a nice foamy head but doesn't pull a ton. Not a lot to pull right now with only 25 fish in there and over half are smaller fish.

Corey

Realize I'm not Scott but I'm curious as to what your phosphates and nitrates are at? Perhaps there is just not much to skim.

 

[slief]

Scott what do you think of 33 speed on my pump for the dc200. I raised it back to the recommended depth but in doing so had to close the wedge and run the pump hard. Is it ok or should I run it deeper. It gets a nice foamy head but doesn't pull a ton. Not a lot to pull right now with only 25 fish in there and over half are smaller fish.

Corey

33 isn't going to hurt anything. The idea is to pull consistent skim. If you run it deeper, you would accomplish the same thing and be able to run it at a lower speed but that's up to you. I personally prefer the slower speed in large part because you can accomplish the same results and save some power and you also gain more contact time while creating more dense foam. That said, 33 isn't far off from what I consider optimum for that skimmer so if it's working, then I wouldn't worry about it. If you had a heavier load, then the lower speed would work likely better but given your load, you just need to find a setting that give you the results you like and let it do it's thing.

 

[teebone110]

It might help to see a picture but if you want to raise the level of the bubbles, you can either increase the sump depth or close the wedge pipe some. The ideal sump depth is relative to the load in the system, salinity and other factors. If your SM200 has the RD3 pump, the ideal speed for the pump is between 28 and 32 watts. You want to adjust the speed to get the most dense/thickest foam possible. If you have the standard Red Dragon pump, closing the nozzle on the pump will decrease the amount of air into the skimmer and increase the amount of water. This will raise the water level in the skimmer. Opening increase air and decreases the water flow which lowers the water level.

We have a dedicated Royal Exclusiv for here and there is a setup and tuning thread with lots of info. I would suggest reading through it as it will give you a lot of insight into fine tuning your skimmer. It would also be a good place to post a picture of the foam level inside your skimmer.

Here is a link to that thread.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2546139

Okay, here are a few pictures that might help along with some background about my system

..and my question is that it appears that only the top half of skimmer body has bubbles. I can see inside the there are bubbles being pushed from the base within the inside chamber through the bubble plate.


This is the area I am asking about- can you see that there are only bubble in the top half- is this normal?

Sorry about my dirty sump and skimmer compartment





I just wanted confirmation that I have it running optimally from the pros on this thread

210 gallon SPS system
65 gallon sump
Biopellets
refugium with macro algae

Skimmer = SuperMarin 200 with Red Dragon Pump
Water level about 8.5"
Volute open about 1 turn

Water level


Skimmer


Cup with 1 week of skim mate





All cleaned up so you can see where I keep the foam level

 

[slief]

Your skimmer looks like it's performing well. If you want to raise the level in the skimmer, you can close the wedge pipe a little bit or raise the sump level a tiny bit. 1/4" increase in the sump level will make a big difference in the level inside the skimmer.

 

[teebone110]

Your skimmer looks like it's performing well. If you want to raise the level in the skimmer, you can close the wedge pipe a little bit or raise the sump level a tiny bit. 1/4" increase in the sump level will make a big difference in the level inside the skimmer.

Thanks for your help, I would assume that these minor adjustments may make minor improvements based on preference. I will continue to play with it and see how things evolve. Much appreciated

 

[slief]

Thanks for your help, I would assume that these minor adjustments may make minor improvements based on preference. I will continue to play with it and see how things evolve. Much appreciated

Yep.. Take notes if you need to.. Raising the level will increase the skimmate production but you are removing more water in doing so. You just nee to find a setting that produces the best skim (for your liking). Consistency is the key.

 

[danrobberg]

I added about 12 lbs cured live rock to my tank yesterday. I used some puddy to aquascape, about a whole tube. Don't remember what the brand was but it is the reddish purple kind. A few hours after adding the rock I did a 15 percent water change. When I do water changes I usually turn the skimmer off for a few hours. When I went to turn it back on it overflowed as I expected due to the puddy. 24 hours later I still have the valute wide open and the rd3 50 watt pump as low as it will go and the bubbles go pretty high up the neck. My main concern is the amount of bubbles coming out the valute that then enter my main tank. I've tried closing the valute but that raises the water level in the skimmer and it overflows. Should I just leave it off for another day?

 

[slief]

I added about 12 lbs cured live rock to my tank yesterday. I used some puddy to aquascape, about a whole tube. Don't remember what the brand was but it is the reddish purple kind. A few hours after adding the rock I did a 15 percent water change. When I do water changes I usually turn the skimmer off for a few hours. When I went to turn it back on it overflowed as I expected due to the puddy. 24 hours later I still have the valute wide open and the rd3 50 watt pump as low as it will go and the bubbles go pretty high up the neck. My main concern is the amount of bubbles coming out the valute that then enter my main tank. I've tried closing the valute but that raises the water level in the skimmer and it overflows. Should I just leave it off for another day?

Epoxy or what ever you used has stuff in it that causes skimmers to go nuts. I would leave the skimmer on and let it remove the stuff from the water. In fact, I would extend the collection cup drain line and route it into a 5 gallon bucket and let it drain into the bucket and replace the water in the tank with new water as needed. That will insure that you are removing the stuff that is causing the skimmer to go crazy. I'd guess 5 gallons of skim should get you back to a workable setting with your skimmer. If you can route your ATO line to your mixing tank or a container with salt water, that will make keeping your sump level cosnsistent much easier while you wet skim the stuff out.

I woudn't worry about the microbubbles. While they may be annoying, they won't hurt anything and once the skimmer removes what even is in your system driving it nuts, you can restore the skimmer settings back to normal and the bubbles will subside.

 

[danrobberg]

Thanks Scott. I was just surprised that it is lasting this long. I've never had the skimmer go nuts like this for more than about 12 hours after using the epoxy. It is my first time using this epoxy though.

 

[ClownsRCoo]

Hey Scott, can I get some help dialing in my DC200? My tank is pretty lightly stocked right now which I know is going to be hard to achieve a consistent skim mate. I have it sitting in about 8" of water, pump running on 31w and we'd get closed 2 notches from wide open.

I'm limited on how high I want to keep my water level due to my sump being a little undersized for my tank so I don't want to go much higher than that for drain capacity purposes.

It's pulling lightly tea colored skin and only about an inch per week. I don't mind running it wetter now than I will when I'm fully stocked just to get it working for now.

That's the reason I have combined the partially closed wedge pipe with the higher watt setting of the pump. It doesn't seem to be making much difference though.

Any suggestions?

 

[slief]

Hey Scott, can I get some help dialing in my DC200? My tank is pretty lightly stocked right now which I know is going to be hard to achieve a consistent skim mate. I have it sitting in about 8" of water, pump running on 31w and we'd get closed 2 notches from wide open.

I'm limited on how high I want to keep my water level due to my sump being a little undersized for my tank so I don't want to go much higher than that for drain capacity purposes.

It's pulling lightly tea colored skin and only about an inch per week. I don't mind running it wetter now than I will when I'm fully stocked just to get it working for now.

That's the reason I have combined the partially closed wedge pipe with the higher watt setting of the pump. It doesn't seem to be making much difference though.

Any suggestions?

A light load on a relatively new tank isn't going to produce much skim. An inch a week sounds about what I would expect. The skimmer will remove what is there to remove. In the absence of enough dissolve organics, there won't be much skim and it won't be very dark. As such, I wouldn't worry about the amount in your cup. It sounds like it's working ok. What do you have in the way of fish right now anyway?

 

[ClownsRCoo]

Yellow tang, 2 clowns, black cap basselet, wrasse, 4 shrimp, 2 star fish


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[slief]

Yellow tang, 2 clowns, black cap basselet, wrasse, 4 shrimp, 2 star fish


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That is nothing... You have a total of 5 fish which isn't going to generate any appreciable amount of dissolved organics let alone skimmate. I'm surprised you're getting an inch a week at this point. The only reason you are getting that much is because you are skimming wet which is why it's tea colored. Until you really get your load increased, that skimmer will starve for DOC's.

 

[ClownsRCoo]

I know it's nothing right now but it like to run it really really wet to get a decent amount of lightly color skim for now until my load goes way up.

But just so I have the tuning part down since I've never had a skimmer that you can adjust the pump wattage, does increasing the pump speed do the same basic thing as closing the wedge pipe or raising your sump water level? Seems like the wedge pipe and sump level would have the same effect but raising the pump speed would increase water level inside skimmer and air amount


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[slief]

I know it's nothing right now but it like to run it really really wet to get a decent amount of lightly color skim for now until my load goes way up.

But just so I have the tuning part down since I've never had a skimmer that you can adjust the pump wattage, does increasing the pump speed do the same basic thing as closing the wedge pipe or raising your sump water level? Seems like the wedge pipe and sump level would have the same effect but raising the pump speed would increase water level inside skimmer and air amount


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Increasing the pump speed sends more water into the skimmer body. This decrease contact time, increases the bubble size and makes the bubbles tend to burst at the surface instead of generating good foam. Ideally you want to set the pump speed so that you are getting the most dense foam possible and then use the water level in the sump and or close the wedge pipe to increase the foam level inside the skimmers neck. By increasing the pump speed, it will raise the water level up but you will tend to get more water removal and less dissolved organic removal. Again, the idea is to use the pump speed to achieve the most dense foam that fills the neck as much as possible. If your not making foam, you're not removing as much of the DOC's as you can or you just don't have enough DOC's to generate a good foam head. In you case, that will be an issue no matter what but the slower pump speed (between 28 & 32 watts) will be the best setting for a 200 sized skimmer. You just need to use the pumps speed to find what works best for your load.

 

[kodo28]

Hi Scott,

Can you advise on the following,

139 gallon LPS system (Reefer XL525)
Skimmer Mini Bubble King 200 VS13 with RD3 Mini Speedy
Actual sump water level is 10.8" (27.5cm) and skimmer on a stand-plate to bring skimmer water level to 8" (22cm).
In order to raise the water level at the waterlevel limite in the skimmer body, I need to close the wedge pipe at 80-85%. it is normal to close that much in order to bring the waterlevel at the limite line ?
I've tried to run at full 50w but also at 30w but no real changes.
Skimmer is running since two months now and the tank population 12 fishes 6 shrimps. Before the 200 RD3 , I had the Mini180 on the 450L Reefer with a sump waterlevel of 24cm and on a stand-plate to bring skimmer water level also to 8" (22cm) but wedge pipe was only closed at half way only.

Any suggestions?

Cheers