All was going well with my new build. Filled my reefer nano on Thursday and all good. Even managed to adjust the infamous drain valve with no problems and near silent flow. And then I came to the skimmer, a bubble magus 3.5. Aaaaaaaaaagggghh! It’s driving me crazy and regardless of break in period, I’m convinced it’s faulty.
Sitting in 8 inches of water and whatever I do, foam just pours out the top. When I select max (with water outlet fully closed), foam drops for a second or two, micro bubbles stream out of bottom of water outlet tube, and foam starts to pour out the cup again.
Interestingly I put in a bucket to try and see what is going on and I managed to get it to behave as it should....water level was controllable and foam just breaking into bottom of cup. Looked perfect. Put it back in sump, on top of tupperware to replicate water depth of bucket and foam party starts again. Put it back in bucket and couldn’t get it to behave again. Eventually I lifted it until water level in bucket was only half covering the horizontal section of water outlet, and it returned to behaving properly. Transferred it back to sump and again, tried to match level of bucket, but nothing but masses of foam again. I haven’t been able to get it to ‘look normal’ again. Will try and upload a video to illustrate what it’s doing, if I can figure out how!
The pump outlet doesn’t seem particularly secure when slotted into the base of skimmer. Not sure if this is significant or not. Only way to try and slow flow of foam is by squeezing and thus closing the end of air inlet tube, when removing the silencer.
Would really appreciate your advice. I know there is nothing to skim in my tank at the moment, other than some live rock, and break in period can last up to 3 weeks, but after 24 hours, no sign of foam reduction and sump just swamped in the dang stuff! Sometimes it’s even coming out of the top of the water output tube.
Pumps a little noisier than I was expecting too. Maybe just vibration, but noticeably louder than my TMC Reef 4000 return pump.
Many thanks.
Sitting in 8 inches of water and whatever I do, foam just pours out the top. When I select max (with water outlet fully closed), foam drops for a second or two, micro bubbles stream out of bottom of water outlet tube, and foam starts to pour out the cup again.
Interestingly I put in a bucket to try and see what is going on and I managed to get it to behave as it should....water level was controllable and foam just breaking into bottom of cup. Looked perfect. Put it back in sump, on top of tupperware to replicate water depth of bucket and foam party starts again. Put it back in bucket and couldn’t get it to behave again. Eventually I lifted it until water level in bucket was only half covering the horizontal section of water outlet, and it returned to behaving properly. Transferred it back to sump and again, tried to match level of bucket, but nothing but masses of foam again. I haven’t been able to get it to ‘look normal’ again. Will try and upload a video to illustrate what it’s doing, if I can figure out how!
The pump outlet doesn’t seem particularly secure when slotted into the base of skimmer. Not sure if this is significant or not. Only way to try and slow flow of foam is by squeezing and thus closing the end of air inlet tube, when removing the silencer.
Would really appreciate your advice. I know there is nothing to skim in my tank at the moment, other than some live rock, and break in period can last up to 3 weeks, but after 24 hours, no sign of foam reduction and sump just swamped in the dang stuff! Sometimes it’s even coming out of the top of the water output tube.
Pumps a little noisier than I was expecting too. Maybe just vibration, but noticeably louder than my TMC Reef 4000 return pump.
Many thanks.
