kien's 150g Room Divider Mixed Reef & Stuff

[kien]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

WOW very very impressive Kien.

thanks :-)

Originally Posted by asmodeus

No shortage of money in MR reefer's house

Check it!



So this is what I'll be using to handle the extra bio load. What we have here is a Bubble Magus 220CS. Thanks Kevin! (@Red Coral Aquariums). Above is how it came, unassembled.

Equipped with the EHEIM 1260 pump.



The skimmer cup is massive !



And here she is fully assembled. The instructions were interesting to say the least. I think my broken-english reading skills have gotten quite good now.





I will definitely be using this outlet to feed my ghetto external-hang-on skimmer collection cup.



And a very handy adjustment dial with markings!



And everyone loves a top-down shot right?

[mseepman]

Looking good! Nice skimmer! Are you going to run this with your other skimmer or all by itself?

[kien]

Originally Posted by mseepman

Looking good! Nice skimmer! Are you going to run this with your other skimmer or all by itself?

All by itself. It is rated for 315-450g so I should be good to go :-)

[kien]

So after all that, here's what I ended up with.



I'm having a bit of a conflict with the low rock pile to the right. I really want to turf it but its the only cave structure I have for fish to hide and I think that's pretty important in the long run, so I may have to keep it. And yes, those are SPS pieces that I kept from the 104.72 lagoon. They were crowding the 150g reef so I threw them into the FOWLR.

Here are a few of the inhabitants.







There are a few others but I'll save them for later

This weekend I hope to skin the stand and set up the automatic water change.

[Argentiner]

Setup looks great Kien. Great pics and explanations of everything too. Both tanks are amazing. Looks like you are wearing scrubs in the one pic. Work at a hospital?

[andestang]

He he, thats what I was going to ask as my wife is an RN

Originally Posted by Argentiner

Setup looks great Kien. Great pics and explanations of everything too. Both tanks are amazing. Looks like you are wearing scrubs in the one pic. Work at a hospital?

[Carmen]

Looking Incredible Kien! I think the rockscape is very neat! A stellar build, as if we would expect anything but from you!

[kien]

So for the last few months I have noticed that my skimmer (Bubble Magus 220CS) hasn't quite been performing up to par. I've noticed that I just haven't been getting much in the collection cup, no mater what I do (wet skim, dry skim). I've tried adjusting the level of the water in the skimmer kneck/cup. I've even given the skimmer a thorough take-apart and vinagar bath. Another thing that is really aggrivating me is the fact that my skimmer seems to be ejecting a lot of micro bubbles out of it. Nothing has changed in the tank so I have no idea what could be causing this. I don't think it's the level of water that it is in because that hasn't changed in 5 years and I specifically designed the sump with the correct water height in mind for this skimmer.



Anyway, I'm getting quite frustrated with it and am about to toss it into the recycling bin. I can't think of much that can go wrong with a skimmer other than a faulty pump/needle wheel? Which baffles me because clearly the needle wheel is functioning because it is generating a lot of bubbles and they are entering the skimmer column. For some reason a lot of these microbubbles seem to be escaping the skimmer (out of the outlet).

I'm pretty much ready to buy a new skimmer but I haven't kept up with skimmers for 5 years now so I don't really know what's out there. Suggestions? Or does someone have an idea of what to investigate to repair my skimmer? I thought about maybe tryingn to replace the needle wheel itself, or maybe the whole pump, but it seems to me like both are doing their job? So if I replace those components and find that the skimmer still sucks goat nads, well, then that's money wasted.

Oh, and the pump that it uses is an Eheim 1260 with a needle wheel impeller.

[WarDog]

I see a poll coming!

[FishingGoalie]

Originally Posted by kien

So for the last few months I have noticed that my skimmer (Bubble Magus 220CS) hasn't quite been performing up to par. I've noticed that I just haven't been getting much in the collection cup, no mater what I do (wet skim, dry skim). I've tried adjusting the level of the water in the skimmer kneck/cup. I've even given the skimmer a thorough take-apart and vinagar bath. Another thing that is really aggrivating me is the fact that my skimmer seems to be ejecting a lot of micro bubbles out of it. Nothing has changed in the tank so I have no idea what could be causing this. I don't think it's the level of water that it is in because that hasn't changed in 5 years and I specifically designed the sump with the correct water height in mind for this skimmer.



Anyway, I'm getting quite frustrated with it and am about to toss it into the recycling bin. I can't think of much that can go wrong with a skimmer other than a faulty pump/needle wheel? Which baffles me because clearly the needle wheel is functioning because it is generating a lot of bubbles and they are entering the skimmer column. For some reason a lot of these microbubbles seem to be escaping the skimmer (out of the outlet).

I'm pretty much ready to buy a new skimmer but I haven't kept up with skimmers for 5 years now so I don't really know what's out there. Suggestions? Or does someone have an idea of what to investigate to repair my skimmer? I thought about maybe tryingn to replace the needle wheel itself, or maybe the whole pump, but it seems to me like both are doing their job? So if I replace those components and find that the skimmer still sucks goat nads, well, then that's money wasted.

Im absolutely LOVING my Vertex Omega 150. The build quality is Fan freeking tastic. I love the fact that the collection cup screws on so when opening it it doesn't get stuck and when it finally gives it doesn't go everywhere. I did have to build it up a couple inches but its still good. I think Wais had a bunch when i was last there. It even looks good.