Bubble Magus or Reefmat?

[Scottiemac]

I had a disaster with my Bubble Magus filter roller last night. The roll retrieval roll came out and somehow managed to spread the walls of the unit apart just far enough that the rod for the supply rod was too short.

Frustrated with the unit, I made an emergency purchase of a Reefmat, figuring I'd just manually feed the Bubble Magus until it arrived.

After some additional fiddling, the BM roller snapped into place and everything was hunky-dory with it.

Contacted Saltwater Aquarium to cancel the order, but they're so busy right now that they shipped the Reefmat without seeing the cancellation request. SW Aquarium sent me a return label, but now I'm wondering.

By all accounts, the Reefmat is better than the Bubble Magus. I'm wondering if I should just let the BM roll finish up and then use the Reefmat. On the other hand, that $400 return could be useful.

What's everyone think?

PS: I know "disaster" was a bit strong of a description, but it got your attention, right?

 

[disaster999]

I mean if the bubble magus works now and its working well, I dont see why you need to keep the reefmat unless it has some feature, color scheme, branding issue, etc that you particularly want over the bubble magus.

Like you said its $400. Only you know if your budget allows for it or not.

 

[exnisstech]

Post #5 in the thread below @Lbrdsoxfan speaks highly of the bubble magus rollers. $400 can buy something useful

Manual fleece roller?

Do any of you know if someone makes a manual fleece roller for a larger tank? I've seen them for smaller aio but not for larger tanks. I love the idea of a fleece roller but do want the automation not to mention upfront cost. I dislike the automation more than the cost really. I don't really...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Wave Whisperer]

I own the Bubble Magus ARF-G2 Large and currently using it in my 130gal. So far I'm loving it a lot. Apart from it being a PITA to fine tune (my skimmer would overflow when the fleece advances raising my sump level), but once you get it fine tuned, it's working like a charm.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a BM fanboy. I've been eyeing the ReefMat 1200 as well, but I don't have much wiggle room in my budget for such a luxury. To me if works, why change it. And at around $4-ish for an (OEM) roll of 50mtrs replacement roll, the cost factor is a no brainer for me for the added convenience of not swapping out socks.

Like others has mentioned, if your budget allows, the ReefMat is a drool worthy piece of equipment. If not, the BM is just as useful as the other fleece rollers in the market at the moment. Heck, $400 can get you lots of corals!

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Post #5 in the thread below @Lbrdsoxfan speaks highly of the bubble magus rollers. $400 can buy something useful

Manual fleece roller?

Do any of you know if someone makes a manual fleece roller for a larger tank? I've seen them for smaller aio but not for larger tanks. I love the idea of a fleece roller but do want the automation not to mention upfront cost. I dislike the automation more than the cost really. I don't really...

www.reef2reef.com

I'm a long time user of the BM filter rollers, have a few in service in different sizes (small & medium). I've played with a reefmat 500 (loan from LFS) and I wasn't overly impressed. I'm also not into the redsea ecosystem (taken that as you will). I have a 1st gen klir roller in my junk pile, one of the BM rollers for spare parts, and Ive sold a aquamaxx roller and a theiling roller. Rollers are my experimentation thing, lol.

To the OP, I had the same issue with a gen 1 BM roller, cheepish acrylic is to blame. I'm the adventurous type, I just made the notches slightly deeper and the roller holder does a better job of keeping it together.

For 100-150$ and now the ability to buy CHEAP felt refills through Ali express, the BM rollers are a screaming deal.

I also grabbed one of these during black friday to fiddle with. Ill let everyone know how it goes.

Its literally a cheaper clone of a BM roller

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

I'm a long time user of the BM filter rollers, have a few in service in different sizes (small & medium). I've played with a reefmat 500 (loan from LFS) and I wasn't overly impressed. I'm also not into the redsea ecosystem (taken that as you will). I have a 1st gen klir roller in my junk pile, one of the BM rollers for spare parts, and Ive sold a aquamaxx roller and a theiling roller. Rollers are my experimentation thing, lol.

To the OP, I had the same issue with a gen 1 BM roller, cheepish acrylic is to blame. I'm the adventurous type, I just made the notches slightly deeper and the roller holder does a better job of keeping it together.

For 100-150$ and now the ability to buy CHEAP felt refills through Ali express, the BM rollers are a screaming deal.

I also grabbed one of these during black friday to fiddle with. Ill let everyone know how it goes.

Its literally a cheaper clone of a BM roller

I'm doing a 40 breeder build and could not decide on which, the theiling compact or the BM gen 2 small, The BM looks easier to work with in my sump. so that's what I'm getting

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

I'm doing a 40 breeder build and could not decide on which, the theiling compact or the BM gen 2 small, The BM looks easier to work with in my sump. so that's what I'm getting

The theiling is great when you just want to set it in a sump, the footprint is massive imho and lack of height adjustability on the roller is a issue to me.

The BM rollers do the job with relatively no fuss, or why did I spend so much in it factor either.