Anyone have the Bubble Magus Roller Filter?

ReefHog

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Here's a screen shot from the video as to how I oriented the slack side. I actually did this by accident because I took it all apart and forgot, but I've been running it like that for months and I prefer it

VJRVO4s.jpg
I run mine like the picture and have had zero issues. I am still on my first roll though. I've looked extensively at pictures of this roller filter and half the pics show the cloth inside the first roller and half show the cloth outside the first roller. I believe this is the proper way to prevent snags.
 

Rendgrish

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Mines been working great- the filter rolls are lasting two months still. My flow is lower, I'm just on a 75, so I can't comment about that.
 
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Mine is still kicking, no problems. I noticed they just came out with both a larger and smaller version, so there are three total now. Mine is about 14 months old and I've probably been through eight or nine rolls.
 

DEWreefing

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Mine is still kicking, no problems. I noticed they just came out with both a larger and smaller version, so there are three total now. Mine is about 14 months old and I've probably been through eight or nine rolls.
Wow 8 or 9 rolls. I'm a year and a half in and I think I'm at 5 with a vary heavy fish load. I have notice the new rolls they have out do not last as long.
 

enorl76

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Since the fleece being used is 20 micron(?) that would be a very small hole and you theoretically could run a lot of flow through it but have to run a lot more fleece replacements.

I'm considering the largest one, supposedly 1500gph max flow, since the surface area is a lot bigger than the smaller one. IMO, BM should have two options for the micron size, the smaller and a larger one at like 100 or 150 micron.

TBH, filter socks are so much work... unless you get like 20 of them and do the cleaning of all of them all at once.
 

DEWreefing

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Since the fleece being used is 20 micron(?) that would be a very small hole and you theoretically could run a lot of flow through it but have to run a lot more fleece replacements.

I'm considering the largest one, supposedly 1500gph max flow, since the surface area is a lot bigger than the smaller one. IMO, BM should have two options for the micron size, the smaller and a larger one at like 100 or 150 micron.

TBH, filter socks are so much work... unless you get like 20 of them and do the cleaning of all of them all at once.

Haha that's why I bought a box of 50 at the whole seller's last time I was there.
 

Warren_Jakarta

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Any more updates?
I have an update too - came back from 5 weeks and overpaid for the first available same day Clarisea the next day - life is now good.
The BM supply roll had unravelled into the sump, skimmer was overflowing every 6 hours and meanwhile the wife was reporting everything fine (since only a few corals had died).
Nitrates went from 20 to 200 and the salinity was 1.021sg from all the topping-up by the time I walked in from the airport.
3 weeks of 30% water changes every 4 days and things are (almost) normal. ***.
 

enorl76

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I got my Bubble Magus large ARF installed and running.

Only a small issue with the install... the elbow pipe seems to be metric, and doesnt exactly matchup to 1-1/4" PVC. So I took the supplied black flex pipe, and heated it and it gradually fit over a 1-1/4" PVC piece of pipe and that made it then work on the short piece of (metric?) PVC pipe into that elbow.

Man this thing is great. I hear the occasional whir from the motor indicating it advanced the fleece roll, maybe like once every 2-3 hours. So much easier than constantly replacing the filter socks!

Of note, the in-sump width of the large is 15-3/4" with that elbow sticking out the side, which didnt fit my diy sump's 29g aquarium, so I had to remove the filter sock baffle and turn the BM sideways.
 

slayertx

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Not to necro a thread but wanted to give a solid review after running this thing for the better part of a year.

Gph definitely effects fleece usage mainly because of the micron size. I swapped out pumps from a 500gph dc pump to a 2100 gph dc pump and I can not run the pump above level 2 with out tearing through a roll in a week.

Theses things grow algea and bacteria like crazy if your sump light hits them at all. kinda making a auto roller turf scrubber.

the motors and floats seem to work good.

It is best paired in a system with a bean style main drain as on a durso it's quite gurgly and the slits on the inside point down not letting air escape. Once on a siphon drain it's pretty dead quite besides the motor.

I am personally going to look for a wider micron fleece as I need to run a high flow gph and this thing is not keeping up. I fear even if I swaped to the large it just wouldn't be enough
 
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Potatohead

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Not sure if you noticed but they recently introduced two new sizes. The original roller filter is now the medium size.

Mine is still working great. My only complaint is I think they changed paper or something at some point because some rolls stay really white and last 2-3 weeks and some get really brown and last 6-7. I have been working with someone (there's another thread about it) on sourcing a different type of paper and I will give that a try too. If all the BM rolls were the 6-7 week type I would have no problem with that. I run about 350-400 gph through mine.
 

enorl76

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Mine is still working great. My only complaint is I think they changed paper or something at some point because some rolls stay really white and last 2-3 weeks and some get really brown and last 6-7. [snip] If all the BM rolls were the 6-7 week type I would have no problem with that.

Its funny you mention that, I’ve literally had the exact same experience... the first roll with the machine, lasted about 1.3 months. The second roll lasted about 3 weeks. The third roll is lasting 1.3 months. Lol

Keep me in mind when you source another material. I’d be interested in joining you to keep expectations of roll longevity.
 
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Potatohead

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Its funny you mention that, I’ve literally had the exact same experience... the first roll with the machine, lasted about 1.3 months. The second roll lasted about 3 weeks. The third roll is lasting 1.3 months. Lol

Keep me in mind when you source another material. I’d be interested in joining you to keep expectations of roll longevity.

I actually have some in my possession but I am waiting for this BM roll to now run out. This is a "good" one, really brown and going to last a solid 6 weeks or more. The previous one lasted 15 days, I have no doubt they changed roll suppliers or something at some point.
 

Cory

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Just got mine a few days ago. Im impressed. So far so good.

I also had the float switch not glued. But there is a spot to tighten it down with a nylon screw. That works. Otherwise it can just sit there and still works unattatched.

Also keep the unit out of the water as that will create weight and pressure to push through the filter paper and will last longer.

Anyone thought of buying polyester felt from the fabric store to use as filter paper?
 
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