Bubble King Skimmer Club

[Jim_S]

Well, I'm looking at the ATB externals and have my mind made up that I will be getting one as soon as I can; however, I've always wanted a BK. They've just been out of my budget/what I want to spend. If I could get a good price on an 250 ext, I'd jump on it in a heartbeat.

[kenargo]

I wish they where in stock somewhere (BK 300 Internal); it appears my membership card has been back ordered for about 3 weeks

[jnb]

just found this thread
I have had a BK mini 160 running in my 137 gallon system since mid Sept and love it - I have had a Euro, tunze nano, HS 1260, Elos. While they were all ok - I had troubles with them all.

This 160, wow

I NEVER have to fiddle with adjustments fine tuning it everyday like I felt compelled to do with the others,
it uses less electric,
makes less heat,
makes less noise,
is internal so overflows are not going to ruin the carpet, etc, although it has never overflowed - even with funky feedings which caused my other skimmers to overflow
it comes back into operation soon after feedings if it goes down at all
I have never cleaned the motor, nor the air intake
you could not ask for easier cup cleaning
What else is there - oh yea, it makes more skimate than any other I have owned
I am not lying, and I don't work as a salesman for any reef product
I don't care how long it took to break in which started after a day and a half and was done perhaps 2 weeks later. You can not compare how long skimmers take to break in because of the variety of materials used, how they clean it at the factory, etc.
Part of the magic for me is that I believe it is perfectly sized for my tank - I do have it tamed down a little with its internal level adjustment (the only adjustment it has)
That's my testimonial and I am stickin with it

it handles both tanks

[Graf-X]

Im in... thinking SM 200 or 250. PM sent.

Originally posted by TOO FLY
Sheesh, I'll organize the group buy.

I need a show of hands in this thread and for you each to PM me:

1. Your city/town, state and zip code

2. What model you want. Please narrow it down to two.

Keep in mind that many BK dealers will give free shipping. It may be the case that free shipping will be cheaper than a group buy discount plus shipping. But we'll see.

I assume we're all paying via credit card? It'll probably be easier if we indivdually call in our shipping and credit card info. to the dealer once we hash out the basics.

Paul

[cbui2]

you can count me in TOO FLY, ygpm

[tbone28]

Bart, are you serious?

[cbui2]

yeah

[sjames]

well, i may have the fisrt BK problem. And on a friday of course.

I woke up this morning and wondered why my actinics were not on, I go down cellar and see the GFCI is tripped. I ponder for a second why that may have happened, reset it and go to work.

Come home this evening and wonder why the tank looks cloudy?

Go back down cellar, glance up at my ACIII and see my pH is reading 3.5. hmm, another head scratcher. I also notice my ORP is down over 100 from normal, and my temp reading 2 degrees over my set limit.

(the bad part is I dosed kalk all day cause the ph probe was horked so my real PH was 8.65.) :eeek: (the tank is cloudy from a precip event from the high pH I would assume)

well to make a long story a little shorter, it appears the red dragon pump is leaking electricity into the water all the sudden. It still seems to work fine, but I cant get any accurate probe readings while the pump is running.

[tbone28]

Bart - which one are you getting? Running 2 skimmers or selling the Deltec?

sjames - Sorry to hear that. Is their a way to pinpoint that the pump is causing the leak? You know what? Post your issue on the Proline forum. Chris checks at night sometimes.

[sjames]

Originally posted by tbone28
Bart - which one are you getting?

sjames - Sorry to hear that. Is their a way to pinpoint that the pump is causing the leak? You know what? Post your issue on the Proline forum. Chris checks at night sometimes.

the pump is the only thing in the sump with the probes, and when its unplugged the probes return to normal readings.

Ill check the proline forum, thanks for the tip on that.

[tbone28]

good luck. he's asnwered my questions on the weekend before.

[kenettson1]

Here's my SM250

[tbone28]

HOLY SH*T, MIKE!!! It's getting better and better! How many days worth is that?? Does it smell as bad as it looks?

Are you running your skimmer at the same settings as before? Wetter?

That was the secret pic you were talking about, eh??

[kenettson1]

Well, that's a few days. It was wetter than it looked. After I sold most of my fish and put the rock back in I cranked up the skimmer and didn't check it for a couple days. Woops!

Turned out to be a good pic though, huh?

[Yinger]

how many turns is that on the water intake?

[tbone28]

yeah, that's amazing! I cleaned my cup the other day, and a clean neck makes such a difference. After I placed the cup back on the skimmer, the water level climbed the neck quickly. I turned it back down.

[cbui2]

already have 2 skimmers on my system, looking for another one to go into main sump.

[tbone28]

wow, Bart, you're going to beat Steve to the 3 skimmer club. He will be jealous of you . so you didn't answer me. which BK you goin for?

[kenettson1]

Originally posted by Yinger
how many turns is that on the water intake?

Les than one turn. I always adjust it with the wedge pipe.

[tbone28]

Yinger, both Mike and I followed the directions from the manual. We both closed the nozzle completely, then opened until the dots lined up the 1st time. It was also less then one turn for me.

[tbone28]

Question to the SM owners:

Is your wedge pipe marked anywhere as a reference point for adjusting? If you look at the pics from the manual, it looks like the Deluxe has a dot on the wedge pipe.

[kenettson1]

No, mine does not have a dot. The deluxe models, as I understand, do because you can set the wedge pipe and adjust with the telescoping pipes. With all the adjustment points you need somewhere to start.

[Yinger]

Originally posted by tbone28
Yinger, both Mike and I followed the directions from the manual. We both closed the nozzle completely, then opened until the dots lined up the 1st time. It was also less then one turn for me.

oh okay, I noticed that there are more bubbles in the chamber if I opened the intake up a little more. i set it to about 3 turns right now and its doing pretty well... but then again, my tank is way overstocked so the instructions say you can open it up a bit.

[tbone28]

Yinger, I've read from other BK owners (the Deluxe 400 owners), that they get more bubbles when the open it up more. I think they had issues with the pump, though. Hopefully, Steve (Jar*head) will chime in.

Creetin explained to me that the more you open the nozzle, the more water you will process (makes sense), but you may not take out some of the "harder to get" organics secondary to the volume of water moving through (also makes sense)

[kenettson1]

Originally posted by tbone28
yeah, that's amazing! I cleaned my cup the other day, and a clean neck makes such a difference. After I placed the cup back on the skimmer, the water level climbed the neck quickly. I turned it back down.

I think these skimmers are very sensative to a dirty neck. I think it has to do with it being wider because my deltec 851 would skim forever - maybe not quite as much but very consistant even with the dirty neck. It had a neck about half the size of the BK.