My take on the BM160
I ordered the BM160 to run externally with a feed pump to supply.
Firstly - it was very well packed - double boxed with peanut packaging - and the skimmer itself is very solid, very well built.
I put it together - instructions are rather scant, but figured it out. Because of the way my sump is constructed, I opted to plumb it over the top of the sump instead of drilling. Made a mistake on the plumbing in that the return pipe going into the sump was too long and it ended up under the water line. I figured this would be a good way to keep it quiet and reduce microbubbles - however, this caused backpressure in the skimmer and I could not keep the water level stable within the skimmer.
After I figured this out and cut the pipe - it really began to rock and roll. This skimmer is just awesome. I have it running on a 90 gallon reeftank and I have to empty/clean the cup about every 4 days with dark/black chunky skimmate.
I would highly recommend it. It took about a week to fully break in. First few days skimmate was fairly light coloured - but now it is very dark. I could not put it under the stand as I had hoped, so unfortunately it sits beside the stand - and is very very quiet. It uses an AquaBee 2000(?) pump and have no issues with it not restarting.
For the price, I don't think you can go wrong with this skimmer. Build quality is superior to the german skimmer I had, half the price and far far more effective.
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