Bubble magus curve 5 issues,

[e1v4n]

Hey guys i have a rather new red sea max e 170 with a 45 liter sump. The tank is just under 2 months old, its got 3 clown fishes, one algae blenny, one cleaner wrasse. i did use carbon couple of weeks back but now i dont.
i use a filter sock prior to the bubble magus. i got around 3kgs siporax bio filter in the sump.

i feed around 3-5 times a day, and i dose red sea a+b for my corals daily. for now i dont spot feed any of the corals.
My nitrates are climbing to 10 and over (hard to read test) and my po4 is declining about 0.02 ppm every second day so i dose that, keeping it at 0.04 -0.08

Bubble magus took about 16 days to break in, it did work better the first few weeks when it broke in, but now it is working ocassionaly, i just did a clean of the cup and the neck of the skimmer and this is how it looks now. it barely pushes the bubbles up the neck, i know that does happen when you clean it. but mine seems to at like this more then working properly.

do i have a small bioload in my tank?
thing is the nitrates are steadily climbing and i cant figure out why. i dont think im over feeding but i could be wrong, i make sure that the fishes grab all the food thats given, i also feed for 3-5 minutes, just in smaller portions.

bubble magus sits at just under 9 inches of water, and from what i know that is the perfect height for it.

any ideas?

 

[aggrofish]

are you adjusted all the way or can you get the bubbles higher? I have a curve 5 I only clean a portion of the neck at a time not the whole thing. Seems like it needs a slime coat.

 

[dedragon]

isnt it supposed to have a rubber/silicone plug for the hole?https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/curve-9-protein-skimmer-bubble-magus/

 

[dedragon]

Curve 5 Protein Skimmer

The Bubble Magus Curve Series are budget-friendly skimmers with a simple and proven wine-glass body design for effective foam collection and a quiet, efficient needle-wheel pump that delivers lots of fine bubbles. Curve skimmers also have very compact footprints for sumps with tight spaces and...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

better pics on brs

 

[dedragon]

it probably fell out during cleaning

 

[Garf]

Hey guys i have a rather new red sea max e 170 with a 45 liter sump. The tank is just under 2 months old, its got 3 clown fishes, one algae blenny, one cleaner wrasse. i did use carbon couple of weeks back but now i dont.
i use a filter sock prior to the bubble magus. i got around 3kgs siporax bio filter in the sump.

i feed around 3-5 times a day, and i dose red sea a+b for my corals daily. for now i dont spot feed any of the corals.
My nitrates are climbing to 10 and over (hard to read test) and my po4 is declining about 0.02 ppm every second day so i dose that, keeping it at 0.04 -0.08

Bubble magus took about 16 days to break in, it did work better the first few weeks when it broke in, but now it is working ocassionaly, i just did a clean of the cup and the neck of the skimmer and this is how it looks now. it barely pushes the bubbles up the neck, i know that does happen when you clean it. but mine seems to at like this more then working properly.

do i have a small bioload in my tank?
thing is the nitrates are steadily climbing and i cant figure out why. i dont think im over feeding but i could be wrong, i make sure that the fishes grab all the food thats given, i also feed for 3-5 minutes, just in smaller portions.

bubble magus sits at just under 9 inches of water, and from what i know that is the perfect height for it.

any ideas?

Have you tried messing with the valve? Set it to min (I think) and the level should go up. Can’t see yours in the pic but mine has a red turny thing

 

[homer1475]

That hole is where the venturi into the motor block goes.

Disassemble, turn the motor around so the hole is facing the input to the motor, There should a piece that sticks into the hole(the venturi), and into the motor block. This where the airline gets plugged into also.

Edit:
Look at the BRS pics @dedragon posted.

NVM thought that was the elite. The regular curve 5 has a plug that should be in that hole. It's there so you can flip the motor for different installs. In the pics on BRS it's a large red plug.

 

[e1v4n]

are you adjusted all the way or can you get the bubbles higher? I have a curve 5 I only clean a portion of the neck at a time not the whole thing. Seems like it needs a slime coat.

I have it at max or level 3 at the knob, if i adjust it lower it rarely skims. I should of taken a photo of how it looked before i cleaned it. I clean the cup clean and then i wipe the inside neck about half finger way down and that's it.

 

[e1v4n]

That hole is where the venturi into the motor block goes.

Disassemble, turn the motor around so the hole is facing the input to the motor, There should a piece that sticks into the hole(the venturi), and into the motor block. This where the airline gets plugged into also.

Edit:
Look at the BRS pics @dedragon posted.

NVM thought that was the elite. The regular curve 5 has a plug that should be in that hole. It's there so you can flip the motor for different installs. In the pics on BRS it's a large red plug.

Yeah must be the elite one

 

[e1v4n]

Have you tried messing with the valve? Set it to min (I think) and the level should go up. Can’t see yours in the pic but mine has a red turny thing

It rarely skims, if it's not on 3 or max.. so the lower the number the higher the bubbles go?

 

[Garf]

Yeah must be the elite one

Well, I don’t think it will work with a bloody big hole at the bottom, gonna look at mine now.

Edit - unfortunately my version is mounted underneath, not actually in the skimmer body.

Another edit - appears this is yours, as you can see, with a bung;
Did you not keep the instructions?

 

[aggrofish]

It rarely skims, if it's not on 3 or max.. so the lower the number the higher the bubbles go?

max produces the least bubbles at the lowest height. turning it clockwise should raise the bubbles in the cylinder. Yours might be different though as I have the S DC model

 

[e1v4n]

Well, I don’t think it will work with a bloody big hole at the bottom, gonna look at mine now.

Edit - unfortunately my version is mounted underneath, not actually in the skimmer body.

Another edit - appears this is yours, as you can see, with a bung;
Did you not keep the instructions?

Oh darn, i gotta go check the box it came with.. i was confused with 2 holes but i thought it was just to chose the pump side

 

[homer1475]

It is to choose the pump side, but your supposed to block the other hole with the bung.

 

[aggrofish]

Well, I don’t think it will work with a bloody big hole at the bottom, gonna look at mine now.

Edit - unfortunately my version is mounted underneath, not actually in the skimmer body.

Another edit - appears this is yours, as you can see, with a bung;
Did you not keep the instructions?

Forced me to look at mine. I dont have an extra hole just the one

 

[e1v4n]

Guys you are a god sent! Thank you very much! I did find the plug and the bubbles are going up! Now it's almost overflowing

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

I have the same model, and honestly…I hate it. Had I not won it, I would be super po’ed. I ended up having to put mine on a bunch of bio bricks to raise it up high then tune it to bring the water up. Literally my water intake is JUST below the surface in my sump. Sucks that everytime I go into feed mode, I have to clean my cup or it will overflow and put all the nastiest back in my water

 

[e1v4n]

I have the same model, and honestly…I hate it. Had I not won it, I would be super po’ed. I ended up having to put mine on a bunch of bio bricks to raise it up high then tune it to bring the water up. Literally my water intake is JUST below the surface in my sump. Sucks that everytime I go into feed mode, I have to clean my cup or it will overflow and put all the nastiest back in my water

Darn that doesn't sound good, i hope I'm more lucky then. All i heard about the bubble magus c 5 was good stuff, that is why I bought it. I think it will work good now..will feed tomorrow and see if that overflows it

 

[homer1475]

I have the curve 5 elite myself. The only difference is I don't have the extra hole, and mine has a sicce pump, instead of the rok that comes standard on the bubble magus line.

I honestly love mine! Works like a champ, and pulls some very nasty dark green skim. I have mine in 9" of water on an 80G cube with 30G sump(85 gallons total system volume), heavy bioload with 10 fish.

 

[madlos123]

I have the bubble magus curve 7. It works very well once tuned. If your crafty you can make a diy skimmer controller. Its basically a DIY ATO + delay timer. This got a float switch in the cup and another float switch in the sump. If your water level rises and trigger either/or float switch it will turn off the skimmer.
Delay timer just sets it so the skimmer only turns on after 5 min when the power is back on.
Thus preventing overflowing/dumping your skimmate back to your sump
Heres my video I made.

My setting:
Water height 11 inch
Knob on Max setting

Once a week cup cleaning
Once a month I clean the venturi air intake with vinegar to remove precipitation build up.

90 gallon
Feeding 3 cubes a day.

7 blue green chromis
2 firefish
2 royal gramma
1 banggai cardinal

Mind you these blue green chromis are 2.5 inch to 3 inchers.

5 month old tank

Heres 1 week of skimmate.