Bubble Magus Curve 5 not skimming?

bigdeeezyyyy · Apr 17, 2020

I have a bubble magus curve 5 skimmer with a 3D printed bubble plate mod which seems to not be skimming...

The skimmer is submerged in 10" of water and have fiddled with the adjustment from min to max and still nothing. Is there something i should check?

bigdeeezyyyy · Apr 20, 2020

Bump for some help! Checked airline and cleaned it as well eventhough it wasn't clogged...still the same

Fromhawaii · Apr 20, 2020

bigdeeezyyyy said:
Bump for some help! Checked airline and cleaned it as well eventhough it wasn't clogged...still the same

Could be your modded plate. I keep my curve 5 in 8inches of water. 10 may be too much.

kevin_e · Apr 20, 2020

How old is the tank? How old is the skimmer? Fish? Any pics?

bigdeeezyyyy · Apr 20, 2020

kevin_e said:
How old is the tank? How old is the skimmer? Fish? Any pics?

Tank is about 9 months old with 8 fishes. Skimmer was purchased used and put into this system about 2 months ago. It was skimming fine in the beginning then stopped skimming...it bubbles but feel like its not going up all the way. When blocking the airline with my finger, it doesn't overflow with water either...

vetteguy53081 · Apr 20, 2020

Remove pump and clean it. The impeller gets clogged with small snails and debris easily

kevin_e · Apr 20, 2020

bigdeeezyyyy said:
Tank is about 9 months old with 8 fishes. Skimmer was purchased used and put into this system about 2 months ago. It was skimming fine in the beginning then stopped skimming...it bubbles but feel like its not going up all the way. When blocking the airline with my finger, it doesn't overflow with water either...

Remove the air line and soak and or run RODI water through the air line. See if that helps.

bigdeeezyyyy · Apr 20, 2020

Fromhawaii said:
Could be your modded plate. I keep my curve 5 in 8inches of water. 10 may be too much.

The printed 3D plate was on there when I first used it which worked fine...I may try to put the stock one back on and see if the same...i took it out and cleaned out the impeller and bubble plate and there were some small snails stuck inside as @vetteguy53081 stated.

Will see if I can lower the water line a bit to see if it makes a difference.

LRT · Apr 20, 2020

bigdeeezyyyy said:
The printed 3D plate was on there when I first used it which worked fine...I may try to put the stock one back on and see if the same...i took it out and cleaned out the impeller and bubble plate and there were some small snails stuck inside as @vetteguy53081 stated.

Will see if I can lower the water line a bit to see if it makes a difference.

I'm running the curve 5.
Brand new it needs to be broken in on max with maybe an inch of water covering the intake.
I also have the mod.
I'd suggest putting manufacturers plate back on it and break it in as discussed.
I just barely started using the mod plate after 4 months.
This is a great Skimmer. Instructions kind of suck and I'm not sure who instructed people to set them so deep in res...
Get it up in the res no more than 1-2 inches over intake on max which is minimum intake....

Kammetal · Apr 20, 2020

It may just have nothing to skim mine does that after its skimmed a lot out

LRT · Apr 20, 2020

bigdeeezyyyy said:
I have a bubble magus curve 5 skimmer with a 3D printed bubble plate mod which seems to not be skimming...

The skimmer is submerged in 10" of water and have fiddled with the adjustment from min to max and still nothing. Is there something i should check?

Can you take a picture of bubbles in cone?

bigdeeezyyyy · Apr 30, 2020

LRT said:
I'm running the curve 5.
Brand new it needs to be broken in on max with maybe an inch of water covering the intake.
I also have the mod.
I'd suggest putting manufacturers plate back on it and break it in as discussed.
I just barely started using the mod plate after 4 months.
This is a great Skimmer. Instructions kind of suck and I'm not sure who instructed people to set them so deep in res...
Get it up in the res no more than 1-2 inches over intake on max which is minimum intake....

So i put the bubble plate back and it seemed like it didnt work the day of. But next day i started to see skimmate. Since its working, Im not touching it! LOL thanks all for the help!

LRT · Apr 30, 2020

bigdeeezyyyy said:
So i put the bubble plate back and it seemed like it didnt work the day of. But next day i started to see skimmate. Since its working, Im not touching it! LOL thanks all for the help!

No problem glad I could help. It drove me crazy trying to get it tuned in but once I did it's a great skimmer.
I have 5 inches from bottom of skimmer to water over top of intake.
After a couple months you should be able to put mod back in Skimmer and just turn up water flow in intake to around half way.

bigdeeezyyyy · Apr 30, 2020

LRT said:
No problem glad I could help. It drove me crazy trying to get it tuned in but once I did it's a great skimmer.
I have 5 inches from bottom of skimmer to water over top of intake.
After a couple months you should be able to put mod back in Skimmer and just turn up water flow in intake to around half way.

How is it skimming for you in only 5 inches of water?

jd371 · Apr 30, 2020

I have the same skimmer. What's this mod you guys are talking about?

LRT · Apr 30, 2020

bigdeeezyyyy said:
How is it skimming for you in only 5 inches of water?

Its skimming great I have my intake around halfway.
At first yours will most likely skim alot out and gradually decline as it removes all the impurities.
I'm filling a cup every couple weeks now.
I'll take pictures and post later for you.
With just the factory plate I had my water set at minimum intake at 5 inches deep or so. It put the water maybe an inch over the plate and let the bubbles do the rest.
With the mod I had to turn up the intake to get water level higher in the cone and bubbles working the way they where with the plate on it...

merereef · Apr 30, 2020

bigdeeezyyyy said:
I have a bubble magus curve 5 skimmer with a 3D printed bubble plate mod which seems to not be skimming...

The skimmer is submerged in 10" of water and have fiddled with the adjustment from min to max and still nothing. Is there something i should check?

upload a video of your skimmer running in the sump post it on youtube and inbox me the link

SALTYMOPAR · Apr 30, 2020

jd371 said:
I have the same skimmer. What's this mod you guys are talking about?

3D PRINTED BUBBLE PLATE

Bubble Magus Curve 5 Bubble Plate Skimmer Modification by Alemoki

This is an STL for the Bubble Magus protein skimmer bubble plate. Its a custom version which has upward projecting tubes to better direct the flow of air in the skimmer body. The SLDPRT file is very messy and hence I will not be posting it.Hope everyone finds this useful!PS: If you like my...

www.thingiverse.com

LRT · Apr 30, 2020

jd371 said:
I have the same skimmer. What's this mod you guys are talking about?

This is what mine looks like just a plate with mini cones on it. I bought my Magus 5 barely used and it came with it and a sicce pump mod for sicce pump.

SALTYMOPAR · Apr 30, 2020

LRT said:
This is what mine looks like just a plate with mini cones on it. I bought my Magus 5 barely used and it came with it and a sicce pump mod for sicce pump.

I have the elite model with the sicce pump ive been thinking about trying the bubble plate but the skimmer is just a beast on my tank ive got it in 8" of water out of the box and making skimate in 24 hours