kien's 150g Room Divider Mixed Reef & Stuff

kien · #1 11-10-2014, 04:56 AM

Yes, it has arrived ! Or rather it arrived last Friday. And not a moment too soon. I was getting tired of doing 50% water changes..

This is the entire kit.

The instructions manual consisted of two printed pages. This diagram and another page with instructions.

It looks like pumps have gotten a lot smaller over the years. This pump (supposedly) pushes the same amount of volume as my busted Eheim 1262 that came with my Bubble Magus 220CS, but only half the footprint ! Amazing.

I was curious, so I yanked out the needle wheel to have a look.

The needles are fairly small compared to what I'm used to (the one that came with my Eheim). It definitely looks like it will slice and dice bubbles real good, but those needles do look fragile. I wonder how long they will last.

And here she is all assembled.

So there's this red cap sorta thingy (it's at the bottom of the above picture). I haven't quite figured out where it goes yet. I can't seem to find it on the instructions manual. If I had to guess, I would guess that it covers the hole at the top of the skimmer cups lid. There is a circular groove on the inside of the lid that seems to fit this red cap thingy, except that it is loose. There is no way it will stay in this groove without glue or silicone. Seems odd.

The intake.

And this right here would be why it is called the "Curve".

This wire holder is a really nice touch. My last skimmer didn't have one.

Another thing I really like about this new skimmer is the body fasteners. Check out these little doohickies !

Swing them open like so..

.. and voila!

The skimmer body lifts right off of the base plate! I love that!

It's quite a tight fit in my skimmer chamber so having that future means much much much much much easier removal of the skimmer for maintenance. Seriously, I put off skimmer maintenance on my last skimmer because it was such a pain to remove the skimmer.

And here is the new and shiny up against the old and busted.

The new one is slightly taller (maybe a couple of inches). Other than that, it's more or less the same skimmer but with a new pump and a few refinements. I actually like the cup lid on my old skimmer better so I decided to use it instead of the stock cap which has a hold in the middle of it.

Cruve 9 on the left with BM220CS lid. BM220CS on the right with Curve 9 lid.

Time for the vinegar bath.

While I was at it, I figured I mind as well clean up my biopellet reactor and top it up as well. Here's my setup out of water.

mmmm... pellets..

And finally, back on-line and back in action ! The Dynamic Duo!

MMmmmm... skimmmsss...