very frustrated with bubble king skimmer HELP!!!

[bmooney31]

I've had a bubble king mini 180 on my frag system for about 4 months, and I'm not happy with it at all. I still cant get this thing dialed in. its seems very touchy. I think I have it right and it will produce skimate slowly and then I'll check it in the morning and its over flowing. Then I empty and it will produce about a inch of skimate over two days then out of nowwhere is overflowing again. I've moved it deeper in the water in Sump so now it's in 8" of water. I cant figure out how it can go from nothing to completly full in 8 hours. Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm about to put this thing up for sale i'm so ******.

 

[Troylee]

if i remember correctly bk recommends a water depth of 11" that might be your problem.....are you dosing anything??? some additives will make it overflow...

 

[bmooney31]

Only dosing 2 part. Maybe I need to move it down lower.

 

[jonzee2006]

You said that you moved it where was it before? It should be in you first chamber where the water level tends to stay more stable. Also what kind of pump are you using on it? I had a similar problem with my Buble Magus so I got a pump that allows me to adjust the flow and that gave me 2 points to get it dialed in.

 

[bmooney31]

I moved it from 6" down to 10" Here is a picture of my setup

 

[uchin]

using a auto top off?

 

[Troylee]

I think the others nailed your
Problem... You need a steady water level in your sump and by looking at the baffles you don't have that... Invest in a ato if you don't already have one and or change your sump out...

 

[bmooney31]

well the water levels in that chamber always stay constant. Im thinking that my bioload isnt high enough to run that skimmer. I have a small blue tang and a small clown and a bunch of sps frags. Im thinking im gonna go fish shopping this weekend. However, i dont know if thats gonna be good for the SPS what do you guys think?

 

[bmooney31]

dont know if you can tell by the picture but there is another baffle on the right where the return pump is

 

[Gondore]

I am pretty sure I know what your issue is. I have that exact same skimmer and you have to clean out the air silencer. It pulls apart. I am guessing it's clogged up and causing your issues.

 

[bmooney31]

please explain what the air silencer is please. is that the tall thing I adjust the water level with. should I have to clean it out after 5 months?

 

[cparka23]

The silencer is the barrel that should be connected to the end of the air hose. it works like the muffler on a car. From your photo, the air tubing seems to be going up and to the right? It should be connected to the top of the pipe from photos I've seen.

edit: Actually, the photo on socaltropicalfishoutlet shows it going into the stand pipe. But from there it does connect to the upper part.

When the air tubing is partially clogged, you get a lower height of bubbles in your skimmer. What Gondore is saying is that you've adjusted your skimmer to compensate. So whenever your air tubing unclogs itself, the bubble level goes up and floods your cup.

 

[Gondore]

The silencer is the barrel that should be connected to the end of the air hose. it works like the muffler on a car. From your photo, the air tubing seems to be going up and to the right? It should be connected to the top of the pipe from photos I've seen.

edit: Actually, the photo on socaltropicalfishoutlet shows it going into the stand pipe. But from there it does connect to the upper part.

When the air tubing is partially clogged, you get a lower height of bubbles in your skimmer. What Gondore is saying is that you've adjusted your skimmer to compensate. So whenever your air tubing unclogs itself, the bubble level goes up and floods your cup.

If you look at the image above the air silencer is the cyclinder shaped piece on the top of the pipe. You need to pull this off and then pry the top white piece off. It's very possible it could have gotten plugged in 5 months. I had this issue on my BK 180. When I first purchased it the skimmer ran like a dream. After about a year though it wouldn't maintain it's water level. It kept overflowing the cup. I took the entire skimmer apart several times (except for the air silencer) and couldn't find a thing wrong. I was about ready to sell the skimmer out of frusturation when I thought about the air silencer. After taking apart the air silencer I found all kinds of salt creep in there. Once I cleaned that out the skimmer ran like new!