What new skimmer?

Clavius78 · 05/11/2020, 08:09 AM

I have a 500ltr reef with mixed SPS, LPS and clams. Medium stocked with fish. I run it a bit old-school with as low nutrients as possible. It's just what me and my corals are used to I guess. So, a skimmer, automatic zeovit reactor and algae reactor. Bot NO3 and PO4 aren't really detectable with normal test kits. Everything looks quite good, and it has been doing well for years now.

...But, I want to improve. I want more room in my sump to create some space for frags. I want less maintenance. (Replacing zeovit rocks, cleaning less pumps, cleaning the algae reactor, etc.) And less running pumps, less energy consumption and noise, is always nice.

So, I would like to replace my current Chinese Coral Box Cloud 9 skimmer with a Bubble King Mini 200 from Royal Exclusive. I haven't been all that impressed with the Cloud 9. It's very fragile. I'm very careful with my stuff, but I still managed to break several of it's parts during normal maintenance. My wishful thinking is the latter will outperform the Cloud 9 so well, that I can get rid of the zeovit system and algae reactor and run an ULNS with just the giant skimmer. I heard various users of the BBK200 needing to add NO3 and PO4, because otherwise the water would become to devoid of DOC's!

When I look at the specifications of the BBK though, it seems like it's not that much better at all. Is this just a case of exaggerated specs on the Chinese side?

What do you guys think? Will this work? Or am I just desperate for a new toy? I am know to do that... I don't supposes there's anybody here that has experience with both skimmers?

05/11/2020, 08:09 AM	#1
Clavius78 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 60	What new skimmer? I have a 500ltr reef with mixed SPS, LPS and clams. Medium stocked with fish. I run it a bit old-school with as low nutrients as possible. It's just what me and my corals are used to I guess. So, a skimmer, automatic zeovit reactor and algae reactor. Bot NO3 and PO4 aren't really detectable with normal test kits. Everything looks quite good, and it has been doing well for years now. ...But, I want to improve. I want more room in my sump to create some space for frags. I want less maintenance. (Replacing zeovit rocks, cleaning less pumps, cleaning the algae reactor, etc.) And less running pumps, less energy consumption and noise, is always nice. So, I would like to replace my current Chinese Coral Box Cloud 9 skimmer with a Bubble King Mini 200 from Royal Exclusive. I haven't been all that impressed with the Cloud 9. It's very fragile. I'm very careful with my stuff, but I still managed to break several of it's parts during normal maintenance. My wishful thinking is the latter will outperform the Cloud 9 so well, that I can get rid of the zeovit system and algae reactor and run an ULNS with just the giant skimmer. I heard various users of the BBK200 needing to add NO3 and PO4, because otherwise the water would become to devoid of DOC's! When I look at the specifications of the BBK though, it seems like it's not that much better at all. Is this just a case of exaggerated specs on the Chinese side? What do you guys think? Will this work? Or am I just desperate for a new toy? I am know to do that... I don't supposes there's anybody here that has experience with both skimmers?