Hello Everyone!
I came across the need for a new skimmer recently and I settled on the Ultra Reef Borei UKB-120. While I was researching I saw that there wasn't a whole lot of information out on this skimmer so I decided that I'd do a review. I plan on doing an initial review and then periodic reviews after.
Some basic information that may help as a reference.
-I ordered from Bulk Reef Supply
-The tank it is going on is a 38 gallon with a Eshopps AR-100 sump
-My hands on experience with skimmers lies mostly with Reef Octopus Regal line of skimmers. I have owned a Tunze DOC 4910, Royal Exclusive Double Cone 180 and RedSea RSK300 but would say I have little running experience with them. So I can only compare quality.
So here are my initial impressions:
The box I received was a standard cardboard box with almost no branding on it. Only the packing tape gave away what was inside, reading Ultra Reef. The box was packed decently well with thick foam though it was just cheap styrofoam. That being said, nothing was broken or out of place within the box. All in all, the unboxing experience wasn't over the top and didn't necessarily scream big name brand. Which is perfectly fine, I mean its the product inside the box that matters anyways.
Upon first handling of the skimmer.. Phew.. Its a work of art. Straight up comparable to the Royal Exclusive in material quality. I consider my RO Regal skimmers nice pieces of kit. But its difficult to even compare this skimmer to those, the quality is just on another level. The one thing I did notice in terms of quality were just a few edges here and there had fuzzies of PVC that were not cleaned up. The edges I noticed this were the edges of the gray tubes of the air silencer. It just looks like where they beveled the edges it left a little material behind. The only other area I noticed this was on the inside of the skimmer cup lid where the lid is rounded to direct the foam head into the cup. Simply running my finger nail over those edges cleaned it right up to a perfect edge and I didn't notice them anywhere else on the skimmer.
For the skimmer itself, it came mostly assembled as shown below. The only piece that needed to be attached was the air silencer.
The booklet the skimmer came with didn't really have any assembly instructions, but they did contain a very well detailed exploded view with a parts diagram. Assembly was super easy anyways so I don't feel like specific assembly instructions are necessary. Assembly consisted of removing the top from the air silencer, putting the titanium screw through the hole, and tightening the screw to the collar of the skimmer. Then simply sliding the included tubing (pre cut to length) over the two nipples. The final assembly looks like such.
Disassembly is a breeze. Since everything has these wonderful blue industrial "O-ring" type seals the parts are held together snuggly while still being easy enough (completely tool-less also!) to pull apart for cleaning. Plus, pretty much every piece comes completely apart for easier cleaning. Here are a few pictures of everything disassembled.
While researching this skimmer, I looked at every video and review I could, again there wasn't much, but I noticed my skimmer had several differences compared to other's and even the pictures you'll see online from the retailers. So I just want to outline these differences.
The first difference is the branding on the skimmer. In all the pictures Ultra Reef has their logo down the body of the skimmer. Mine does not, but you can see there is instead a small rectangular sticker with the make and model of the skimmer.
The second and largest difference is the air silencer. Here is a picture straight from BRS' website.
You can see there is a clear acrylic tube that slides onto the nipple of the venturi. My skimmer had a completely difference design, which I think is a much better design overall. I did watch an unboxing of the skimmer on youtube by "seadreams" where the host commented that the way the silencer attached to the skimmer cause it to seem flimsy. I believe the design change was to address this issue. This is a close up of the air silencer design that I received.
Overall the new silencer seems easier to keep clean since its no longer a clear tube, but it also just seems much easier to clean in general. Both ends of the silencer are threaded for easy disassembly for cleaning.
Also as stated above, the new silencer attached with a single titanium screw. The air inlet hole is drilled opposite of the hole the screw goes through which allows a screw driver to pass through to secure the screw. You can also see that one side of the silencer is concave to fit nicely to the neck of the skimmer body as well as is flat on the inside for the screw to sit nicely against.
I also see this design being very easy for to hook up a C02 scrubber to, where the old design seemed like it would be difficult.
The one function having the silencer tethered to the body of the skimmer does affect, is the water height adjustment. This skimmer is unique in which the whole body twists to adjust the water height inside the skimmer. The old silencer design had no affect on this function. The neck of the skimmer is compeltely removeable from the body, allowing you to "clock" the location of the silencer. Now, depending on where you have the silencer "clocked" in relation to the venturi, the line to the venturi will be routed differently. Not only this, since the whole body rotates, this routing can changed. I believe this is why they included a push to connect 90* elbow onto the venturi nipple. I played around with this for a bit and came across what I think is the best way to set this up. If you setup the silence so the water height adjustment is equally split between fully open and fully closed in relationship to the venturi, the venturi line will rotate as you adjust. I'm sure you can set this up to however you see fit, I'm just sharing my experience here. See fully open and fully closed positions below.
First moments in use:
Silent. Totally silent. No hum, no air sucking, no bubbling. I do notice some micro bubbles making their way up to the display, but I'm sure after break in they will disappear. I'll bring that up in my first check in with this skimmer.
After an hour of overflowing the skimmer cup, (keep in mind, new tank, and no fish yet) the skimmer has already formed a steady foam head. Though it shows no brown coloring, its stable and gently popping in the neck. I currently have the water adjustment all the way open, and the pump on power level 1.
End Summary and thoughts:
This skimmer is a work of art. The quality is top notch and I'm very happy with the design of it. I am missing the adjustment locking screw which locks the water heigh adjustment in place to keep if from accidentally moving once you dial it in. I'm going to reach out to BRS and see if I can get the screw sent to me. For now, it doesn't affect the overall function of the skimmer. It holds its setting fine from what I can tell. The screw would be located in the upper hole in the photo below.
So far, I can certainly say I'd recommend this skimmer. I plan on checking in a week from now to see how it performs. I hope to outline a few key things then.
How fast will it actually start producing skim-mate?
Will the micro bubbles go away?
Will it stay silent?
How often will I need to adjust it as it continues to break in?
I came across the need for a new skimmer recently and I settled on the Ultra Reef Borei UKB-120. While I was researching I saw that there wasn't a whole lot of information out on this skimmer so I decided that I'd do a review. I plan on doing an initial review and then periodic reviews after.
Some basic information that may help as a reference.
-I ordered from Bulk Reef Supply
-The tank it is going on is a 38 gallon with a Eshopps AR-100 sump
-My hands on experience with skimmers lies mostly with Reef Octopus Regal line of skimmers. I have owned a Tunze DOC 4910, Royal Exclusive Double Cone 180 and RedSea RSK300 but would say I have little running experience with them. So I can only compare quality.
So here are my initial impressions:
The box I received was a standard cardboard box with almost no branding on it. Only the packing tape gave away what was inside, reading Ultra Reef. The box was packed decently well with thick foam though it was just cheap styrofoam. That being said, nothing was broken or out of place within the box. All in all, the unboxing experience wasn't over the top and didn't necessarily scream big name brand. Which is perfectly fine, I mean its the product inside the box that matters anyways.
Upon first handling of the skimmer.. Phew.. Its a work of art. Straight up comparable to the Royal Exclusive in material quality. I consider my RO Regal skimmers nice pieces of kit. But its difficult to even compare this skimmer to those, the quality is just on another level. The one thing I did notice in terms of quality were just a few edges here and there had fuzzies of PVC that were not cleaned up. The edges I noticed this were the edges of the gray tubes of the air silencer. It just looks like where they beveled the edges it left a little material behind. The only other area I noticed this was on the inside of the skimmer cup lid where the lid is rounded to direct the foam head into the cup. Simply running my finger nail over those edges cleaned it right up to a perfect edge and I didn't notice them anywhere else on the skimmer.
For the skimmer itself, it came mostly assembled as shown below. The only piece that needed to be attached was the air silencer.
The booklet the skimmer came with didn't really have any assembly instructions, but they did contain a very well detailed exploded view with a parts diagram. Assembly was super easy anyways so I don't feel like specific assembly instructions are necessary. Assembly consisted of removing the top from the air silencer, putting the titanium screw through the hole, and tightening the screw to the collar of the skimmer. Then simply sliding the included tubing (pre cut to length) over the two nipples. The final assembly looks like such.
Disassembly is a breeze. Since everything has these wonderful blue industrial "O-ring" type seals the parts are held together snuggly while still being easy enough (completely tool-less also!) to pull apart for cleaning. Plus, pretty much every piece comes completely apart for easier cleaning. Here are a few pictures of everything disassembled.
While researching this skimmer, I looked at every video and review I could, again there wasn't much, but I noticed my skimmer had several differences compared to other's and even the pictures you'll see online from the retailers. So I just want to outline these differences.
The first difference is the branding on the skimmer. In all the pictures Ultra Reef has their logo down the body of the skimmer. Mine does not, but you can see there is instead a small rectangular sticker with the make and model of the skimmer.
The second and largest difference is the air silencer. Here is a picture straight from BRS' website.
You can see there is a clear acrylic tube that slides onto the nipple of the venturi. My skimmer had a completely difference design, which I think is a much better design overall. I did watch an unboxing of the skimmer on youtube by "seadreams" where the host commented that the way the silencer attached to the skimmer cause it to seem flimsy. I believe the design change was to address this issue. This is a close up of the air silencer design that I received.
Overall the new silencer seems easier to keep clean since its no longer a clear tube, but it also just seems much easier to clean in general. Both ends of the silencer are threaded for easy disassembly for cleaning.
Also as stated above, the new silencer attached with a single titanium screw. The air inlet hole is drilled opposite of the hole the screw goes through which allows a screw driver to pass through to secure the screw. You can also see that one side of the silencer is concave to fit nicely to the neck of the skimmer body as well as is flat on the inside for the screw to sit nicely against.
I also see this design being very easy for to hook up a C02 scrubber to, where the old design seemed like it would be difficult.
The one function having the silencer tethered to the body of the skimmer does affect, is the water height adjustment. This skimmer is unique in which the whole body twists to adjust the water height inside the skimmer. The old silencer design had no affect on this function. The neck of the skimmer is compeltely removeable from the body, allowing you to "clock" the location of the silencer. Now, depending on where you have the silencer "clocked" in relation to the venturi, the line to the venturi will be routed differently. Not only this, since the whole body rotates, this routing can changed. I believe this is why they included a push to connect 90* elbow onto the venturi nipple. I played around with this for a bit and came across what I think is the best way to set this up. If you setup the silence so the water height adjustment is equally split between fully open and fully closed in relationship to the venturi, the venturi line will rotate as you adjust. I'm sure you can set this up to however you see fit, I'm just sharing my experience here. See fully open and fully closed positions below.
First moments in use:
Silent. Totally silent. No hum, no air sucking, no bubbling. I do notice some micro bubbles making their way up to the display, but I'm sure after break in they will disappear. I'll bring that up in my first check in with this skimmer.
After an hour of overflowing the skimmer cup, (keep in mind, new tank, and no fish yet) the skimmer has already formed a steady foam head. Though it shows no brown coloring, its stable and gently popping in the neck. I currently have the water adjustment all the way open, and the pump on power level 1.
End Summary and thoughts:
This skimmer is a work of art. The quality is top notch and I'm very happy with the design of it. I am missing the adjustment locking screw which locks the water heigh adjustment in place to keep if from accidentally moving once you dial it in. I'm going to reach out to BRS and see if I can get the screw sent to me. For now, it doesn't affect the overall function of the skimmer. It holds its setting fine from what I can tell. The screw would be located in the upper hole in the photo below.
So far, I can certainly say I'd recommend this skimmer. I plan on checking in a week from now to see how it performs. I hope to outline a few key things then.
How fast will it actually start producing skim-mate?
Will the micro bubbles go away?
Will it stay silent?
How often will I need to adjust it as it continues to break in?
.
