slief
RC Sponsor
I assume you meant 16cm of water and not 160cm?? Obviously that is kind of low which is why you have to have the wedge pipe closed so much which isn't ideal.
That said, you know the old saying... It's not the size that counts but it's how you use it?? :lolspin:
Air draw is kind of for bragging rights. It's not the total air draw that's as important as it is the size of the bubbles and the contact time. You could increase the air draw by opening the wedge pipe up and increasing the pumps power but that won't produce the best results as you have already seen. The original ATB's came with a fixed flow pump with no adjustable volute to control the airflow. You got what you got and the end result is a larger bubble. The original Red Dragon pumps that were included with the previous generation skimmers included an adjustable volute to compensate for the fixed pump RPM. The adjustable volute allowed you to adjust the air flow into the pumps to create finer bubbles to achieve better results. Sure you could open the volute up and get more air into the skimmer but that wouldn't produce the best foam or balance inside the skimmer. The end result was a better skimmer pump even though many of the ATB's shared the same Askoll block.
If you could have put a Red Dragon 1 on an ATB, you would have much better control over the tuning of the skimmer. Same goes with the RD3 vs the Chinese based DC pumps that come on the current ATB's. They allow for only 6 or so steps in pump speed control with only 2 or 3 of them being really usable before the power falls off and the skimmer production falls flat. The RD3 allows 2 steps per watt which gives much finer control. If you had that kind of control over an ATB, you might be really surprised to see that the lower power settings work much better than the higher ones. Unfortunately, you don't get that kind of control with that pump. Like the DC based ATB pumps, the new RD3 pumps tie the air mixture into the pumps RPM. The RD3 uses a very custom impeller that is designed to produce very fine bubble at any RPM. You can inject more than double the air into the skimmer (compared to the 840 pump) but that won't produce the best results because you are forcing more water and air through the skimmer which creates more turbulence and also decreases contact time by increasing the power/flow. So there is a point of diminishing returns in terms of pump speed.
It's all about balance, bubble size and contact time. The RD3 strikes a great balance of all of those factors by giving you very finite control compared to other DC pump based skimmers while also providing great air draw and very very fine bubbles but again, it's not how much air you can draw that's important. It's what you do with that air that is what makes or breaks a great skimmer. I think you will find the proof is in the pudding or in this case, in the skimmate.
Having said that, I run a Supermarin 250 which is obviously a bigger skimmer than yours. I run my pump at 37 watts for best results but my skimmer is also in 8.5" of water. If your water level was higher as it should be, I'd recommend a lower pump speed of around 27-30 watts for best performance. That would increase your contact time a bit more and not decrease your airflow as much as you might expect. Also, that brings up a question. What are you using to measure your air draw? You can't just calculate air draw based on the max a pump puts out vs it's wattage as you decrease the power. Either way, like I said, air flow/SCFH/LPH is more for bragging rights than it is for judging a skimmers performance. It's all about the bubble size and contact time. In the case of the Bubble King, the contact time is greater and the bubble size is smaller which makes more efficient use of the bubbles. This will translate into better skimmate production and a more efficient skimmer even if the LPH draw is marginally less.
As a side note, Royal Exclusiv is now a forum sponsor at Reef Central and we have a dedicated for here for all things Royal Exclusiv and Bubble King. I obviously still monitor this thread but feel free to post any questions you may have in our new forum.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=745
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