Optimum water depth.

[Ishy]

Hi, I'm about to take delivery of a Bubble King double cone 200 with RD3 Speedy. The specs say this will work with water depths from 130-250mm.
Is there an optimum depth or will anywhere in this range do. Thank's.

[xabo]

8"-8.5"

[Ishy]

Originally Posted by xabo

8"-8.5"

Thank's, my sump depth is 9" so I'll make a stand for it.

[xabo]

9" inches will work also.......it's my understanding that your bio load will be a determining factor.

[xabo]

There's some good reading here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2546139

[slief]

I’d probably recommend closer to 9”. That way you don’t need to close the wedge pipe as much. Ideally, you want to avoid closing the wedge more than 50% and a starting depth of 9” should prevent that. I’d hold off on building a stand and see how it runs. You should start with a pump speed between 28-32w. You want to get the line where bubbles turn to foam to the white collar where the cup attaches to the body. That’s would be your driest skim setting. If you have a really light load relative to the skimmer size then you might need to bring the line where bubbles turn to foam up into the neck to gain better consistency.

[Ishy]

Thank you very much. I'll let you know how it works out. Do I start at 30 watts?

[slief]

Originally Posted by Ishy

Thank you very much. I'll let you know how it works out. Do I start at 30 watts?

The sweet spot will likely be between 28-32 watts. If you have a heavier fish load, starting at 28 would be good. A lighter load, 30-32 watts. It really doesn’t matter much where you start. You’re going to use the speed to get the most dense foam you can and the best setting varies tank to tank depending on the load and amount of dissolved organics. As such, experiment a little bit but don’t think that higher speeds is better. Sometimes less is more. Contact time and stability is more important than high flow and insane amounts of air. You want bubbles rising smooth and slow instead of fast and furious. You want a nice pillow like foam head instead of bubbles bursting at the surface so experiment a bit to find what works best for your system and ultimately produces the best stanky skimmate possible while doing so consistently. Finding the best balance between pump speed and the level where bubbles turn to foam is what the fine tuning will be about. Also keep in mind that the skimmer will take a week or more to fully break in so final tuning will ultimately be made once the skimmer is fully broken in.

[Ishy]

Thank's again for the help.