View Full Version : Why use Bubble king skimmers
epicurus84
08/12/2015, 08:56 AM
The title is quite self explanatory.
Why are bubble king skimmers in general seen as the best around.
I started with a BBK mini 180, and it has been running without any problems for the last 6 years.
However i guess many people also have this with other skimmers. How come these skimmers perform so well?
Masoch
08/12/2015, 09:13 AM
Just a theory ...
The design of cheap skimmer bodies has gone up markedly over the last decade. Two brands: SeaClone and Prism. After a quick vinegar wash, a Bubble Magus will skim well. After a few months? Not so much since the pumps and impellers are horribly made -- my experience, and that of many others, is that the impellers have a limited lifespan (for me, about 6 or 7 months) as do the pumps (9 months to a year). And there's virtually no support from (I can't help myself) BM.
It's not really the quality of the skimmer body you're buying with BK ... it's the pump and impeller. And, while it's straightforward to mass produce cheap, quality skimmer bodies, pumps are a different matter.
slief
08/12/2015, 11:01 AM
At the heart of every great skimmer is the pump. BK pumps and their impellers have long been coveted. Then there is the skimmer body build and design. From a build standpoint, I have had many different brands of skimmers over the years. Many of which showed signs of crazing in the acrylic due to cheap materials. This is not something you will see in a BK skimmer. They use very high quality materials. The owner of the company is much akin to a mad scientist who is an engineer by trade and they put a lot of effort into their designs and build quality. Everything is made in Germany and they CNC their own parts in house as well. This gives them the ability to test a lot of variations to come up with what works best for each skimmer size but like I said, it all starts with the pump and impeller and the Red Dragon pumps have always been among the top performers and have proven to be very reliable.
On that note, I am also involved with Royal Exclusiv US so some may see me as biased but long before that affiliation, I was a Bubble King user and still am. That said, I will support any good product out there whether it's Life Reef, MRC, Deltec, Ecotech or what ever. I support what I know is made well and works well and in my experience, the BK's are as good as they get within their class of skimmer and will compete well against any skimmer out there in large part due to quality and design.
boxfishpooalot
08/12/2015, 02:07 PM
While the pump is important for stability and reliability, the best skimmer ive ever had was a 6 foot tall airstone skimmer. Just one wood airstone and a tall skimmer pvc body. I made it myself. Out the top would come out the thickest dirtiest foam ive seen. Why? Contact time. An air bubble needs to be in the water a long time in order to get coated in organics.
That said, smaller air bubbles mean they stay in the water longer. Thus they get coated well. BK skimmers must have an impeller that effectively shreds air into ultra tiny bubbles or they wouldnt skim well for their height. Compare this to a plastic impeller. This is probably why putting a mesh wheel worked well for some over their impellers, it created smaller bubbles/ more contact time.
The third factor is turbulence. Too much and bubbles collide into larger ones, decreasing contact time.
vBulletin® v3.8.4, Copyright ©2000-2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.