Bubble magus refuses to work correctly

[Mattc123]

Hey everyone! So I'm having some issues with my very expensive skimmer I'd like to resolve lol. I've had it about 4 months now and it's caked in biofilm on the inside finally but it refuses to stay dialed in correctly. I was recently gone a few days and came back to it flooding my room by over skimming and draining into the external container. So after I thought I fixed it I tried again last night and within an hour my room was flooded again in the short time I was outside! I just can't seem to get it dialed in correctly and I'm thinking I may just not have enough stock and lack of organics possibly? I have 2 clowns, a watchman goby, a pistol shrimp, a BTA that's hanging on for dear life, and miscellaneous snails and crabs. I feed them twice a day, once with an automatic feeder with flakes, and once most of the time later in the day with half a cube of mysis. I also throw in a 1/4 of shrimp for the pistol shrimp occasionally and it gets sucked right into the den.

 

[mike550]

@Mattc123 I have a Curve 7 and here are a couple of suggestions. First off — what is the size of your tank and what are your levels? You might not need to run a skimmer yet. Second, are you dosing or adding anything to your tank? For example, my skimmer can get a bit more active when I replace my filter fleece. I’m guessing there’s a coating or something on the fleece that changes the water for a brief time. Finally, check out the videos on how to set up your skimmer in terms of water depth and air mix. I have my skimmer set so the bubbles barely reach the neck of the skimmer body just where the skimmer basket connects to it

 

[WestMI-Reefer]

I use the curve 5.
Can you set the dial to max 2-3 without it overflowing?
I have mine in 5 inches of water and performance was spotty until i moved it up, where do you keep yours?
mine took months to break in properly but now it never overflows

 

[Mattc123]

@Mattc123 I have a Curve 7 and here are a couple of suggestions. First off — what is the size of your tank and what are your levels? You might not need to run a skimmer yet. Second, are you dosing or adding anything to your tank? For example, my skimmer can get a bit more active when I replace my filter fleece. I’m guessing there’s a coating or something on the fleece that changes the water for a brief time. Finally, check out the videos on how to set up your skimmer in terms of water depth and air mix. I have my skimmer set so the bubbles barely reach the neck of the skimmer body just where the skimmer basket connects to it

I have a 90 gallon sorry totally left that out! I'm not dosing anything right now other than regular water changes. My skimmate just seems so thin compared to the videos I've watched

 

[Mattc123]

I use the curve 5.
Can you set the dial to max 2-3 without it overflowing?
I have mine in 5 inches of water and performance was spotty until i moved it up, where do you keep yours?
mine took months to break in properly but now it never overflows

I can set it all the way up to 1 then it starts to overflow. I have it in the recommended 10.5 inches. Do you think I should cut that down?

 

[WestMI-Reefer]

I can set it all the way up to 1 then it starts to overflow. I have it in the recommended 10.5 inches. Do you think I should cut that down?

Yes, mine was a nightmare at that depth.
Try moving it up to find the sweet spot, the recommended 10.5 is way too much.

 

[LordofCinder]

For my curve 5, the sweet spot is 6" of water

 

[Mattc123]

Yes, mine was a nightmare at that depth.
Try moving it up to find the sweet spot, the recommended 10.5 is way too much.

Ok I'll try that what number is yours at?

 

[Mattc123]

For my curve 5, the sweet spot is 6" of water

What number is yours on?

 

[WestMI-Reefer]

Ok I'll try that what number is yours at?

Mines set to max 2-3. In 5 inches depth.

 

[LordofCinder]

What number is yours on?

its at like 2-2.5
Its a slow skim, I empty it out once a week ( and the cup is a third full), dark green stinky stuff

 

[Mattc123]

its at like 2-2.5
Its a slow skim, I empty it out once a week ( and the cup is a third full), dark green stinky stuff

I just moved mine up to about 6" of water and even all the way on min it doesn't overflow. Nothing I do seems to fix this and just makes it worse lol and I hate how "min" is actually max air and vice versa

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

OP,

A few variables here that shouldn't be overlooked. Sounds like your bioload is low and its not going to skim out dark mud yet, but that's not what concerns me at the moment.

Does the water level in the section that you have the skimmer in fluctuate? Or is the skimmer rock solid at 10.5 inches? For example if you have it dialed in at 10.5 and it fluctuates to 11 then you're going to over flow. The skimmer body needs to be in an area with steady water levels.

What sort of foods are you feeding, there are some foods that will make the skimmer go crazy. Does the flooding correspond with feeding?

Same with chemicals but you've already ruled those out.

To circle back, the low bioload may force you to dial in your water level inside the skimmer way too high, and that can make it extremely hard to dial in. If all the previous concerns don't apply to you, try lowering the inside water level of the skimmer to the lowest point. Also a tangent point to this is to double check your salinity with other devices to ensure its not low.

Many times we blame the equipment when it's our lack of understanding within the environment it's running.

As you progress in this hobby your troubleshooting skills are going to get better.

Lastly get a float switch on the skimmer locker so that it can tell the skimmer to shut off whenbit fills up.

 

[Mattc123]

OP,

A few variables here that shouldn't be overlooked. Sounds like your bioload is low and its not going to skim out dark mud yet, but that's not what concerns me at the moment.

Does the water level in the section that you have the skimmer in fluctuate? Or is the skimmer rock solid at 10.5 inches? For example if you have it dialed in at 10.5 and it fluctuates to 11 then you're going to over flow. The skimmer body needs to be in an area with steady water levels.

What sort of foods are you feeding, there are some foods that will make the skimmer go crazy. Does the flooding correspond with feeding?

Same with chemicals but you've already ruled those out.

To circle back, the low bioload may force you to dial in your water level inside the skimmer way too high, and that can make it extremely hard to dial in. If all the previous concerns don't apply to you, try lowering the inside water level of the skimmer to the lowest point. Also a tangent point to this is to double check your salinity with other devices to ensure its not low.

Many times we blame the equipment when it's our lack of understanding within the environment it's running.

As you progress in this hobby your troubleshooting skills are going to get better.

Lastly get a float switch on the skimmer locker so that it can tell the skimmer to shut off whenbit fills up.

Thank you for the in-depth response. The water level is rock solid at 10.5 and does not fluctuate at all. I'm feeding flake food and half a cube of mysis per day. Feeding doesn't seem to make much of a difference that I can notice I don't think. Annoyingly the level doesn't go below 8 so I have to lift the skimmer as high as I can right now until I get some egg crate. Also My salinity is at 1.024 and I'm slowly working my way to 1.025. I'm really thinking it may be the bioload

 

[Mattc123]

OP,

A few variables here that shouldn't be overlooked. Sounds like your bioload is low and its not going to skim out dark mud yet, but that's not what concerns me at the moment.

Does the water level in the section that you have the skimmer in fluctuate? Or is the skimmer rock solid at 10.5 inches? For example if you have it dialed in at 10.5 and it fluctuates to 11 then you're going to over flow. The skimmer body needs to be in an area with steady water levels.

What sort of foods are you feeding, there are some foods that will make the skimmer go crazy. Does the flooding correspond with feeding?

Same with chemicals but you've already ruled those out.

To circle back, the low bioload may force you to dial in your water level inside the skimmer way too high, and that can make it extremely hard to dial in. If all the previous concerns don't apply to you, try lowering the inside water level of the skimmer to the lowest point. Also a tangent point to this is to double check your salinity with other devices to ensure its not low.

Many times we blame the equipment when it's our lack of understanding within the environment it's running.

As you progress in this hobby your troubleshooting skills are going to get better.

Lastly get a float switch on the skimmer locker so that it can tell the skimmer to shut off whenbit fills up.

That float switch suggestion is awesome as well thank you!

 

[Mattc123]

I gave up for now and left it in about 8" of water with the skim halfway up the cup and we'll see if it thickens up by later today. That's one thing I've noticed is the longer I don't touch it the better it starts to work but I can only do that for so long. Ugh‍

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Do you have any sort of feed cycle for the main return pump?

the longer I don't touch it the better it starts to work but I can only do that for so long.

Why do you have to touch it? Or was that a joke.. haha

No need to have skimmate envy hehe. It'll come.

In the mean, time since we know you're not going to be producing gallons of skimmate. I would suggest removing the skimmate locker, that way if it continues to overflow while figuring out the settings, at least it overflows into your sump and not your floor.

 

[Mattc123]

Do you have any sort of feed cycle for the main return pump?

Why do you have to touch it? Or was that a joke.. haha

No need to have skimmate envy hehe. It'll come.

In the mean, time since we know you're not going to be producing gallons of skimmate. I would suggest removing the skimmate locker, that way if it continues to overflow while figuring out the settings, at least it overflows into your sump and not your floor.

I have a feed cycle for the powerhead but not the return pump as right now I have a regular non DC pump. I also have to move the skimmer to get to my filter sock annoyingly enough but that's what I did bc I was sick of water on the floor!