Bubble King Skimmer Club

hi Jeremy
my friend have the Bubble King Deluxe Internal 300 and he looking co change the impeller of the pump. i wonder how much it cost .
or he will change new pump. how much it cost for the new pump. can you send me the link of the new pump. if you can
thanks a lot
 
Ive been running my BK 160 on my 60g tank/20g sump for about 5 months. This is all the skimmate I am pulling each week id say approx a cups worth. Its dark tea to light coffee colored and smells really bad like rotten eggs much worse than other skimmate I have experienced.

Given my bioload of 6 BTAs, 3 green chromis, two clowns, a large starry blenny, a large yellow tang, a mandarin and an assortment of shrimp and other inverts I feel like I should be getting more. The folks here are the experts so im hoping someone can tell me if this seems about right or if maybe I need to do some more tweaking.

I clean the cup and the neck every Sunday, this does seem to improve performance a bit. I have it submerged to in exactly 20cm cm which is what the instructions say is ideal. I don't however use the grease on the cup that is mentioned in the instructions because to be honest Id never really heard of that before and I felt the instruction were a bit unclear on what type of grease is to be used and exactly where. I have my water level adjustment set at a little over 3/4 the max of what the adjustment allows.

Any thoughts?

 
Bubble King Skimmer Club

@Schnitzelreef,

is it possible to switch out the skimmer and shoot a picture from the outlet from the small siliconhose ? Possibly the silicone hose is kinked. The hose must go in the hole, without kink.. you can turn the nozzle in the RD3 Pump, and the white T-outlet, so set the hose linear without strong curve....

hope it helps..

best regards .. Klaus


Tried adjusting the line and turning the nozzle on the pump and there's still water coming from the wedge pipe.

Can anyone explain why this is happening?

Also why is the pictures on premium aquatics different then the skimmer I received.

3a9yjeqa.jpg


VS

yhuze9y4.jpg


It seems like if the silencer wasn't attached to the top of the wedge pipe, there wouldn't be anywhere for water to come out. Just like the picture of the double cone on premium aquatics website, that seems correct. My skimmer is like the original vertex alpha, and it seems flawed. Is there a way to change the wedge pipe to the style from premium aquatics website??
 
The photos we have up were of the prototype, all of the production models have the tube inside the wedge pipe to keep the noise down. I don't believe you can change, but I can check into it for you. If you still have water coming out then the tube is not positioned correctly inside the wedge pipe.
 
The photos we have up were of the prototype, all of the production models have the tube inside the wedge pipe to keep the noise down. I don't believe you can change, but I can check into it for you. If you still have water coming out then the tube is not positioned correctly inside the wedge pipe.


Thanks, i appreciate it. I'd rather have air intake noise then the constant water trickling in my sump. It's so annoying.
 
not an expert

not an expert

Ive been running my BK 160 on my 60g tank/20g sump for about 5 months. This is all the skimmate I am pulling each week id say approx a cups worth. Its dark tea to light coffee colored and smells really bad like rotten eggs much worse than other skimmate I have experienced.

Given my bioload of 6 BTAs, 3 green chromis, two clowns, a large starry blenny, a large yellow tang, a mandarin and an assortment of shrimp and other inverts I feel like I should be getting more. The folks here are the experts so im hoping someone can tell me if this seems about right or if maybe I need to do some more tweaking.

I clean the cup and the neck every Sunday, this does seem to improve performance a bit. I have it submerged to in exactly 20cm cm which is what the instructions say is ideal. I don't however use the grease on the cup that is mentioned in the instructions because to be honest Id never really heard of that before and I felt the instruction were a bit unclear on what type of grease is to be used and exactly where. I have my water level adjustment set at a little over 3/4 the max of what the adjustment allows.

Any thoughts?


I will take a swing at it. First the I believe that your skimmer is too powerful for a 60 gallon tank I have heard that they work best on a 90 gallon tank. Second is seems that you have your skimmer turned very high note the bubbles 1'' below the neck, I would lower the internal height of the bubbles to water level causing the bubbles to rise more.
You do not have that many fish I get a little nervous when the doctor wants me to fill a specimen cup and I am much larger than the cup some of your fish could swim in your skimmer cup, so I think it is working exactly how your skimmer should work, you just do not have the big of a bio load. HTH
 
I agree with the above. I think it's performing spot on for your size tank, bioload, and the height that the water level is set at. I would personally raise the water level inside the skimmer to where that distinct line is right at the position where the collection cup sits on the body. This will have you skimming just a bit more wet. You won't get as much buildup inside the neck itself, but you'll get a bit more skimmate in the cup.
 
Bubble King Skimmer Club

Looks like I got a lemon bubble king!!. It Doesn't matter what I do, water sprays from where the air hose enters the wedge pipe.
6u4y8u9y.jpg


I really can't believe that a $1400 skimmer would have ANY problems. Seems like the design is wrong on this skimmer. Maybe the cone design isn't correct or the pump isn't the right size...But something doesn't seem right.
My problems so far...
-Foam production SUCKS! It's been 3 weeks, and I thought by now it would be broken in and I would be getting thick nasty skimmate. Guess I was wrong. Maybe I need to wait a couple more weeks, but so far I cannot dial in this skimmer. It's either too little, where I get zero skimmate. Or it's too much, and the skimmate is very light colored.

-water trickling out of the wedge pipe. This is very annoying, I spent a lot of time and money making sure that my sump was silent. Now all I hear is water trickling..sounds like someone is peeing in my sump. I've asked Jeremy and Klaus and neither had a solution that fixed my problem.

-the threaded collection cup leaks. After cleaning my collection cup for the second time, I put everything back together and there was water leaking from the threads. I unscrewed it, and re tightened everything and there is still a little bit of water coming out. I tried cleaning the o ring and making sure it was all aligned, and it still leaks. I'm thinking maybe I just need to tighten it a lot harder, but then getting it off is really hard. Especially IF it ever gets full skimmate. Again, this design seems flawed. My reef octopus had a simple press in collection cup that never leaked once, and it was very simple to take on and off. On the double cone skimmer, the drain hose for the collection cup hits the ozone adapter when unscrewing it....who thought of that?? So u need two hands in there, one to unscrew it and one to hold the hose from getting caught every time it comes around.

After reading this, I'm sure you might think this is my first skimmer, and I'm new to the hobby...but that is not the case. This is not my first skimmer, I've been in the hobby for 5+ years, and have had close to 10 different skimmers. My last skimmer was a super reef octopus xp3000, and that skimmer kicked butt...Best skimmer I've ever owned. Ya it's Chinese, but it worked great and was very easy to adjust. I was gunna buy another SRO skimmer, buy they stopped making the xp5000.

If anybody has a bubble king and has had similar issues, and found a fix...PLEASE let me know what you did to fix it. I have the skimmer sitting in 9" of water right now. I'm wondering if I should try raising it or lowering it to get thicker skimmate? The pump is running at 40w..maybe I need to turn it up or down? Any ideas?

There is so much hype out there that bubble king is the BEST....but after my experience, they seem sub par to the Chinese reef octopus or ATB. Ya the acrylic is shiny and nice, but that doesn't do much in terms of removing fish poo!

Anyways. If I can't get this figured out, my skimmer will be up for sale and I'll be buying an ATB or I'll try to find a used super reef octopus.
 
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Bubble King Skimmer Club

Just for a comparison, my buddy started his 300g tank about a week before me and we both got our skimmers at the same time. Here is a pic of his ATB after a week
hanyqa5a.jpg


He only has 10 chromis so far in his tank. I have 6 tangs and wrasses and clowns etc etc.

I started thinking maybe my water was too clean and that it's still a new tank blah blah blah. That's BS. Once I saw my buddies pic of his ATB, I knew something wasn't right with my skimmer. :/
 
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Bubble King Skimmer Club

Looks like I got a lemon bubble king!!. It Doesn't matter what I do, water sprays from where the air hose enters the wedge pipe.
6u4y8u9y.jpg


I really can't believe that a $1400 skimmer would have ANY problems. Seems like the design is wrong on this skimmer. Maybe the cone design isn't correct or the pump isn't the right size...But something doesn't seem right.
My problems so far...
-Foam production SUCKS! It's been 3 weeks, and I thought by now it would be broken in and I would be getting thick nasty skimmate. Guess I was wrong. Maybe I need to wait a couple more weeks, but so far I cannot dial in this skimmer. It's either too little, where I get zero skimmate. Or it's too much, and the skimmate is very light colored.

-water trickling out of the wedge pipe. This is very annoying, I spent a lot of time and money making sure that my sump was silent. Now all I hear is water trickling..sounds like someone is peeing in my sump. I've asked Jeremy and Klaus and neither had a solution that fixed my problem.

-the threaded collection cup leaks. After cleaning my collection cup for the second time, I put everything back together and there was water leaking from the threads. I unscrewed it, and re tightened everything and there is still a little bit of water coming out. I tried cleaning the o ring and making sure it was all aligned, and it still leaks. I'm thinking maybe I just need to tighten it a lot harder, but then getting it off is really hard. Especially IF it ever gets full skimmate. Again, this design seems flawed. My reef octopus had a simple press in collection cup that never leaked once, and it was very simple to take on and off. On the double cone skimmer, the drain hose for the collection cup hits the ozone adapter when unscrewing it....who thought of that?? So u need two hands in there, one to unscrew it and one to hold the hose from getting caught every time it comes around.

After reading this, I'm sure you might think this is my first skimmer, and I'm new to the hobby...but that is not the case. This is not my first skimmer, I've been in the hobby for 5+ years, and have had close to 10 different skimmers. My last skimmer was a super reef octopus xp3000, and that skimmer kicked butt...Best skimmer I've ever owned. Ya it's Chinese, but it worked great and was very easy to adjust. I was gunna buy another SRO skimmer, buy they stopped making the xp5000.

If anybody has a bubble king and has had similar issues, and found a fix...PLEASE let me know what you did to fix it. I have the skimmer sitting in 9" of water right now. I'm wondering if I should try raising it or lowering it to get thicker skimmate? The pump is running at 40w..maybe I need to turn it up or down? Any ideas?

There is so much hype out there that bubble king is the BEST....but after my experience, they seem sub par to the Chinese reef octopus or ATB. Ya the acrylic is shiny and nice, but that doesn't do much in terms of removing fish poo!

Anyways. If I can't get this figured out, my skimmer will be up for sale and I'll be buying an ATB or I'll try to find a used super reef octopus.


What model bubble king is that? I thought they use red dragon pumps

Is the exit of skimmer close to the wall of the sump?
 
Besides lighting, I think skimmers are one of the most complicated pieces of equipment in the hobby. So many factors come into play for producing good skimmate. If your skimmer is sitting in 9" of water, I would start with raising the skimmer up to 8" and lower the motor watts to 30-35. Then slowly go up from there. But I'm no expert, I'm sure Jeremy/Klaus will chime in here next week.
 
Besides lighting, I think skimmers are one of the most complicated pieces of equipment in the hobby. So many factors come into play for producing good skimmate. If your skimmer is sitting in 9" of water, I would start with raising the skimmer up to 8" and lower the motor watts to 30-35. Then slowly go up from there. But I'm no expert, I'm sure Jeremy/Klaus will chime in here next week.


What's your reason for raising the skimmer and lowering the watts? You think it will foam better?
 
How close is your outlet to the side of the sump? From the one picture it's looks very close. If it is, the water won't be able to flow out of the body freely and would back up in the pipe and dribble out the small hole. A possibility?
 
How close is your outlet to the side of the sump? From the one picture it's looks very close. If it is, the water won't be able to flow out of the body freely and would back up in the pipe and dribble out the small hole. A possibility?


Agree, I would keep the exit at least 2" from any object.
 
How bout just sending the skimmer back and have them give you a new one Let them play with fix it and re sell it. Klaus's new shop open next week in Florida.
 
How close is your outlet to the side of the sump? From the one picture it's looks very close. If it is, the water won't be able to flow out of the body freely and would back up in the pipe and dribble out the small hole. A possibility?


I actually thought the same thing, but when I moved it nothing changed.

A starting point to tune your skimmer. Also I would wait 1hr before making any other adjustments. Can you post some better pictures? Water height on the neck?


yje3evu8.jpg


That was right after I cleaned the collection cup, and turned it back on.

Agree, I would keep the exit at least 2" from any object.


Ya when i adjust it, I usually wait a day to see how it acts. I know skimmers can take a long time to respond to a change.
 
How bout just sending the skimmer back and have them give you a new one Let them play with fix it and re sell it. Klaus's new shop open next week in Florida.


Ya if they offered to let me return it and upgrade to the Supermarin, I think I would def do it. I wanted a cone skimmer, because I was so happy with the performance from my SRO XP3000. But if this skimmer design isn't correct, I would much rather have the Supermarin, which I know is a proven design. I don't wanna be the guinea pig testing some new skimmer that doesn't work correctly.
 
Hi,

please turn the white T-Pices a little bit more to the Pump... The T-Pices are not glued, it´s only clamped.... And turn the nozzle, counterclockwise a little bit more to the skimmer.. the nozzle is not glued, it´s fixed with a silicone O ring and clamped,..... the red teat is at about 2 clock, turning back on in about 10 clock. If water comes out at the entrance of the Red Pipe, is the silicone hose is too tight. Please make the hoses softer... Hope it´s helps...

best regards .. Klaus
 
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