China made skimmer - Bubble Magus-BM150

[wayner]

Mine's not up and running yet, but I would assume it's by turning the Blue stand pipe., you should be able to adjust the water level inside the skimmer by just turning the pipe, this will open and close off the water inlet at the bottom.

[geeluk]

Yes, the water level is adjusted by the standpipe. The pipe is cut at an angle and the level is adjusted by turning the pipe. According to the instructions, the skimmer is supposed to sit in a water level of 27-30 cms. The water level in my sump was higher so I have mine sitting on egg crate.

Overall the skimmer is running very well. It is very quiet and produces a nice wet skim. It is sensitive to feedings, the bubble level drops down for a little while during feeds. I think this is the case for most skimmers anyway.

Hey Wayner let us know how your 100 runs.

[whosinpower]

I ordered the Bubble Magus 160. Price was very reasonable and it is external recirculating. It took a couple weeks to arrive via shipping, but was well packed with a double box.

This skimmer uses an Aqua Bee pump. I installed it this weekend, after a bit of creative thinking how it would fit. Ultimately I did not want to drill the sump, so I have it sitting beside the stand running external.

I flooded the cup once - in a newbie error getting the water level correct, but once it was adjusted and left alone, it began skimming about 4 hours after install. I have to say the skimmer appears to be very solid and well built. The pump fired right up with no issues whatsoever.

I'll let you all know in a couple of weeks how the performance is after it is fully broken in. Thus far, it seems to be skimming well, although skimming wet - I'll leave it as is for awhile.

Because it is beside the stand, sound was a big concern for me. This skimmer is very very quiet. The fans on the constellation light fixture are louder.

[mseepman]

Any new updates?

[AJ_77]

Originally Posted by wayner

Mine's not up and running yet

Wayne, it's got to be up and running by now!
How is it for you?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Talked to Geeluk (original poster) recently & he's still extremely pleased with his BM skimmer.

[wayner]

Hi Alan, are you back, it's not up yet, I'm slow, I need a sump, a pretty simple one, to house the skimmer, return pump, heater, a baffle or 2 for microbubbles, and a hole drilled for a float valve, which LFS can do this in a short period of time, any suggestions.

[mseepman]

bump...any more info guys?

[whosinpower]

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.

[untamed]

How do you get at the pump in this skimmer? It looks like you have to reach to the bottom of the skimmer and pull the pump up through the neck of the skimmer?