Bubble King Skimmer Club

[jsousa]

Nice. 2 skimmers huh.

BTW, dumb question. Are you using Ozone? Trying to figure out exactly how to connect it.

I'm assuming this is how it is setup on the skimmer side and the tube from the Ozone generator connects to the top. Does that sound right?

If anyone has a pic of their Ozone setup i'd love to check it out if you could post it.

Also, how are folks removing the excess Ozone with this skimmer?

 

[craigvh]

That's how I have my ozone tube hooked up bit I'm not using ozone. You'll love this skimmer!

 

[slief]

Nice. 2 skimmers huh.

BTW, dumb question. Are you using Ozone? Trying to figure out exactly how to connect it.

I'm assuming this is how it is setup on the skimmer side and the tube from the Ozone generator connects to the top. Does that sound right?

If anyone has a pic of their Ozone setup i'd love to check it out if you could post it.

Also, how are folks removing the excess Ozone with this skimmer?

You have it setup correct. If your not using ozone, keep the port on the top side of the brace plugged. Personally, I am not a fan of running ozone though the skimmer. There is usually always some excess ozone that escapes though the lid and you need to have all the skimmer effluent run through carbon. It's kind of difficult to insure that excess ozone isn't escaping from the air in the effluent as well as the water and through the skimmer lid. Ideally you could have carbon on the skimmer lid so that ozonated air coming the vents on the lid is filtered through carbon as well. With several holes on the lid, that requires some creativity. Instead of using the skimmer for ozone injection, I much prefer using a dedicated ozone reactor that then drains into a carbon reactor to strip excess ozone. The dedicated reactor does a much better job of removing excess ozone while also creating better and more controllable contact time for improved ozine efficiency. Also, using lignite carbon is best as it does the best job in stripping excess ozone from the water and air.

If you decide to run ozone though your skimmer, keep in mind that if you smell ozone in the air, that is not a good thing. Not only is it very unhealthy, it will also damage plastics around the tank. Be sure to use ozone safe tubing like the tygon stuff for the ozone generator. If you smell ozone, then you either aren't filtering it properly or you are generating too much ozone so back off on the generator. That brings up another point.. Make sure you get a generator that you can adjust because it doesn't take much ozone a constant rate. I use an Ozotech Poseidon 200mg unit and never ran it past 50%. With a reactor, you can run much slower water flow which increases contact time and decreases the amount a ozone needed which is always a good thing. Running it though a skimmer, you have higher water flow. This decreases the efficiency of the ozone by decreasing the contact time. You also end up with more excess ozone escaping into the water column and air.

Lastly, before you go down the ozone path, give the skimmer a chance to break in and catch up with your system. You might just find that your ORP levels improve as a result a well designed and efficient skimmer to the point that you really don't need ozone. ORP levels between 300 and 400 are very good numbers. My ORP is generally around 345 without the use of ozone despite my heavily stocked and heavily fed tank. I attribute much of that to my skimmer although my UV filter also plays a bit of a role in that. A good UV filter will oxidize organics which can increase ORP too. Because of my consistently good ORP levels, I don't bother to run my ozone reactor anymore although I do have it ready to go should I ever need it.

 

[jsousa]

Thanks for the info. I have the Ozotech Poseiden as well. Can you recommend an Ozone reactor to use with that unit? I think your point about running it thru the skimmer makes sense.

BTW, I would love to see this skimmer get ORP at optimal levels. That would be amazing and definitely worth trying. I've never seen that happen with my EuroReef RS250.

 

[slief]

Thanks for the info. I have the Ozotech Poseiden as well. Can you recommend an Ozone reactor to use with that unit? I think your point about running it thru the skimmer makes sense.

BTW, I would love to see this skimmer get ORP at optimal levels. That would be amazing and definitely worth trying. I've never seen that happen with my EuroReef RS250.

LOL. This aint your old Euro Reef. I suspect you will see an improvement in your ORP in the not so distant future. How much depends greatly on your existing ORP, how much waste you have in system and the efficiency of your bacterial filtration and the amount of dissolved o2 in your water. Give it a month and see what happens but I expect you will be impressed.

As for the Ozone reactor, I use an Avast Mutiny and I'm not particularly crazy about it. If I had to do it again, I'd probably go with the CoralVue one. It looks to be well built and well thought out. I'd still use a 2nd reactor filled with lignite carbon running with downward flow to fiter excess ozone the effluent.

 

[jsousa]

Thanks Scott. I was looking at the CoralVue as well. Luckily, I actually have an unused NextReef MR1 I could use for the post reactor carbon filtering. Thanks so much for your help.

 

[boogie01]

I have a 200 deluxe on a 280g.....but new tank on way 400g I have in mind the 250 supermarin and 300 deluxe....could you suggest one over the other?

 

[slief]

I have a 200 deluxe on a 280g.....but new tank on way 400g I have in mind the 250 supermarin and 300 deluxe....could you suggest one over the other?

I'd lean towards the Supermarin 250. You could do a Deluxe 300 but they are fairly under rated and unless your fish stock plans are really heavy, I'd be afraid it wouldn't be as consistent where as the SM250 would work terrific unless you had really light stock load plans in which case I would lean towards the Supermarin 200.

 

[boogie01]

With the rd3 is it still a good dry skim skimmer I always heard supermarin do wet better but I prefer dry

 

[slief]

With the rd3 is it still a good dry skim skimmer I always heard supermarin do wet better but I prefer dry

The Supermarin is better suited for wet skimming than the Deluxe but it will still dry skim. If dry skimming is your goal then the Deluxe 300 would be the better choice. Personally, I like the wetter skim because I like knowing I'm removing as much of the dissolved organics as possible and I also like seeing the consistent dark skimmate production that my supermarin 250 produces. Having said that, I drool over the deluxe 300's every time I see them. I really like the new Deluxe 300's and they are kind of one of the best kept secrets among the current line of Bubble Kings. Sadly they are under marketed here in the US and are a great skimmer and it happens that we have dozens of them in stock in Ft. Myers because nobody really knows anything about them. They did reduce the neck diameter on the latest generation to make them more efficient on smaller displays and they now include a single RD3 60w pump instead of the dual pumps on the older versions. As such, they are much more efficient and even quieter. I don't even want to get started on this subject because there is a side of me that would really want to run one on my tank.. :lol:

 

[boogie01]

Well I went w the 300 deluxe........got it in.....not going to lie tho I instantly regretted the decision as soon as I saw the pump.....maybe I'm too ocd but I bought the rd3 return pumps to match.....and well they dont.....funny they went back to the older looking style pumps on their flagship product.highly disappointed I didn't notice that before I got it.

 

[slief]

Well I went w the 300 deluxe........got it in.....not going to lie tho I instantly regretted the decision as soon as I saw the pump.....maybe I'm too ocd but I bought the rd3 return pumps to match.....and well they dont.....funny they went back to the older looking style pumps on their flagship product.highly disappointed I didn't notice that before I got it.

I'm sorry your dissapinted & also very surprised. That is one of the best skimmers you could have bought. I'm confused when you say older style pumps... These are the latest & greatest RD3 pumps for that skimmer. The 60 watt RD3 skimmer pump that replaces the dual pump setup for that skimmer has a much larger needle wheel impeller & uses a custom volute, a brand new RD3 block designed specifically for the big skimmers & a special controller for that pump. There is nothing "old style" about the new 60w RD3 skimmer pump. It's a new pump design from the ground up in every sense. If you're talking about the white volute, this new pump replaces two red dragons. To get the needed airflow from the single pump, it needed a much larger impeller & a custom CNC machined volute to match. This pump can be used as an upgrade for existing Deluxe 300 owners with the older Red Dragons so that too was taken into consideration as far as the output location on the new pumps volute. I suspect that once you get that thing setup, you will absolutely love that skimmer.

http://royalexclusiv.com/Skimmer/Sk...xe-300-internal-with-RD3-Speedy-VS15::37.html

 

[clorox]

For those of you that use a Vertex Vectra neck cleaner with your BK skimmer, what is the frequency and duration you have your wiper turn on?
I am using it controlled with my Apex and I have it run for 5 minutes every 3 hours. It works well, but I was curious what schedule others use.

 

[UWUALineman]

For those of you that use a Vertex Vectra neck cleaner with your BK skimmer, what is the frequency and duration you have your wiper turn on?
I am using it controlled with my Apex and I have it run for 5 minutes every 3 hours. It works well, but I was curious what schedule others use.

1 minute 1x a day. I have a light bio load.

 

[slief]

For those of you that use a Vertex Vectra neck cleaner with your BK skimmer, what is the frequency and duration you have your wiper turn on?
I am using it controlled with my Apex and I have it run for 5 minutes every 3 hours. It works well, but I was curious what schedule others use.

That is absolutely insane and way way too much! Once a day for minute should be plenty to keep the neck perfectly clean. If it's not (which I doubt it wouldn't be), than twice a day for one minute each but anymore than that and you will kill your motor sooner than later and just plain silly. I have a number of friends with Vertex Vectra's and once a day for 60 seconds is all any of them need.

While I don't have a Vertex Vectra, my AquaDriver SkimClean neck cleaner runs once a day for a total of 15 seconds and my neck is always clean. I have a heavy load. I've been running my Aquadriver that way for 5 years which includes the time with my Alpha 300 before my current skimmer. My Supermarin is always producing a lot of skimmate and once a day is plenty. My motor spins faster than the Vectra which is why my much short run time but there is really no need to clean more than once a day.

 

[clorox]

Ah, that's good to know! Thank you! It's my first neck cleaner and I had no idea where the sweet spot is. I'll modify my apex program today. I'll post pictures in the official thread this week.

 

[slief]

Ah, that's good to know! Thank you! It's my first neck cleaner and I had no idea where the sweet spot is. I'll modify my apex program today. I'll post pictures in the official thread this week.

You will love having a neck cleaner! Just no reason to abuse it though! It's good to allow some slime build up between cleanings anyway as it helps keep the neck slick so the foam can slide up it easily without bursting bubbles. Plus, like I said, you neck cleaners motor will last much longer too. Once a day and a handful of full turns of the motor is all it takes.
:beer:

 

[clorox]

That's why I love this hobby... You never stop learning. Thank you again Scott.

 

[clorox]

That's why I love this hobby... You never stop learning. Thank you again Scott.

 

[vikz]

hi guys

just bought a double cone 200 with RD3 speedy for my 180G reef and was after some advice. Thanks to Slief and JeremeyB who gave me some great advice last xmas,......yeah guys took me 12 months to make up my mind.....hahahaha

Skimmer has finally broken in and now im fine tuning it. Currently wedge pipe is open ~25% and sat in 160cm of water, cannot have it deeper as recommended because it will not fit.

I have found that running it on 32w or 34w produces the most stable foam head. Any more power and the foam collapses, any less and the wedge pipe is closed nearly all the way.

This works out to be an air draw of 960lph @32w or 1020lph @34w.

Coincidentally this is exactly the same settings as I used on my excellent ATB 840 with DC pump (Nano B here in the UK). I ran that at wedge pipe 50% open and ~1020lph air draw.

I am a little confused, since this skimmer is larger and theoretically more powerful, how comes in order to generate a stable head of foam it requires exactly the same amount of air or very similar settings. I thought it would use more air and water because the skimmer body is much bigger.

Would be interested to know the answer from somebody much more experienced.