The Bubble Magus skimmer clan

Seeing that nothing like this exist - I decided to create the thread

Now - everyone has seen the pics of mine....
I am now the PROUD owner of a Bubble Magus BM-260 skimmer.....!

 

This thread is useless without pic's. and more info.

 

OK - copied from my "new toy" thread:

 

And what "more info" do you want Shaun?
It has 2 x AquaBee 2000/I recirculating pumps...
When set to skim wet, it removes 25 litres of STINKING BROWN muck from my tank in a 24 hour period?

 

That is a lot of salt water being removed, have you been keeping an eye on your salinity?

 

Don't I KNOW IT!
Yes - I am - I topped up with fresh NSW!

My salinity stays in the bracket of 1.023 to 1.026 - I don't mind it fluctuating - it's much more natural that way.....

 

Not trying to sound stupid, but isn't the SG quite stable in the ocean?

 

NSW salinity

Hi lIghty - no - not at all. The salinity on/over the reefs is constantly changing - depending on the time of the year... the season.....

As Leslie mentioned - when there's a lot of rain, then the salinity in the seas are lower.... when there's very high heat, then the salinity is higher....
The salinity can also sometimes change during the day too....

 

In my tank, it happens over a period of a week..... (gradually up and down during a week).....

In the sea - this happens during the course of the month.... The upper layers of the sea (above the reefs) can change quite drastically during a rain storm.... so, within a few hours it can drop quite a bit....
The same goes for when the temperatures soar hugely during the day.... this is worse on shallow (or very shallow) reefs.....

Certain areas where there are a lot of rivers / river-mouths - the salinity is nearly always lower....

 

Many thanks Leslie.... I had a look at the Deltec AP902 - this BM-260 has a VERY VERY similar design.....
AWESOME! I am glad that I splashed out!

 

Yeah very nice skimmer.

 

I got my BM back today. Thanks Imraan/Imarine

 

Jaquesb you say 25 l in a day. Isnt that like overskimming. That also takes out alot of your trace elements. A skimmer only skims the amount of proteins in the water. As for salinity messing with the specific gravity not good in a closed system, it can stress fish and corals.

 

Hi Suhayl - I am now just FORCED To do a LOT more water changes - less quantity far more often!

No - my salinity changes in any case due to evaporation. I keep a limited salinity range: between 1.024 and 1.027.

As I said earlier on in this thread - even the sea has differing salinity - it NEVER stays 100% the same throughout the year/month/week....

So - no, my lifestock does not show ANY signs of stress due to this.... BTW: MY goal is to tune my skimmer down to 25 litres per week - not per day.
It was just set EXTREMELY wet in the beginning...

I have managed to set my BM-260 down already to 25 litres every 3 days or so....

But, it does, and will take some more time to get the perfect adjustment...

 

For interist sake what size tank you got. Mine is a 400 sps tank with 8 fish and heavely loaded with sps corals. My Aquamedic Turbofloter would fill 3/4 cup fll in 1 week. Would you say If you have low nitrates and phosphates in the tank the skimmer is working abd dont need a bigger 1. The ocean is very very stable so any change in temp and and salinity would be very slight

 

Hi Suhayl - I have a 2 metre tank - +-870 litres of water total volume....
I have 2 SPS corals, and about 10 soft-corals, and 5 LPS...
20 fish....

 

BTW: I have measured the change in the NSW of the following to be:
Salinity: between 1.022 and 1.026
Nitrates: between 20 and 30
Phosphates: between 0.05 and 1.5
Temp: between 19 degrees and 34 degrees

I do this when I SCUBA dive tropical reefs.... the nitrates/phosphates I measured when I dived Sodwana reefs....