Bubble Magus Curve 5 thoughts/opinions?

[acolotto]

Alright have had enough of my cad lights skimmer this thing is a point of sale, looking to get a new skimmer for my sps frag tank. The tank is 4o to 50 gallons including the sump/refugium (25 gallon display and probably 20 gallon of water in sump), in it currently is an lawnmower blenny, no sand, about 10 to 15 lbs for rock in refugium, and about 20 to 30 sps frags. I have been looking at either the Tunze 9004 or 9012 or a Bubble Magus Curve 5 for the frag tank. Right now im leaning towards the Tunze 9004 its rated for up to 40 gallon SPS tanks and have the Tunze 9012 on my display and the thing is a beast, but would like to hear some thoughts from people that have used the bubble magus curve 5 and their opinions on it.

Main issue with the cad lights pls-100 is barely creates a skimmate, its a nightmare to get running (overflows everytime it starts up), also everytime i start it up it seem I have to readjust it to get adjusted so it isnt creating too wet of a skimmate. Mostly seems i either get no skimmamte at all or it just creates a super wet basically just clear tank water skimmmate.

Thanks for any advice in advance

 

[EDO]

I have the Bubble Magus Curve 7 on my 125g mixed reef and love it.

 

[lyscer]

I have the Curve 5 and I love it. It runs pretty consistent, has a relatively small footprint since the pump is in the skimmer body. When I first set it up it kept overflowing and then read that most people run it in 8" or so of water. Once I raised it in the water column to I think 7" it has performed great. I also like that it has rubber feet on it, makes it so that you done hear much noise from it. I would say the only downside is that when you do decide to clean the pump you have to pull the entire thing out to tear it apart.

 

[EDO]

I have the Curve 5 and I love it. It runs pretty consistent, has a relatively small footprint since the pump is in the skimmer body. When I first set it up it kept overflowing and then read that most people run it in 8" or so of water. Once I raised it in the water column to I think 7" it has performed great. I also like that it has rubber feet on it, makes it so that you done hear much noise from it. I would say the only downside is that when you do decide to clean the pump you have to pull the entire thing out to tear it apart.

One the plus side it is easy to take apart and easy to clean.

 

[acolotto]

Have read online of people having problems with the venturi getting clogged with salt, have you guys had this problem at all?

 

[EDO]

Have read online of people having problems with the venturi getting clogged with salt, have you guys had this problem at all?

I have not had that or any other issue, but like lyscer says if you have it to deep it can be a problem but that is with most skimmers in my experience.

 

[lyscer]

I personally have not had issues with it getting clogged. I did however notice that I could hear a different noise from my venturi intake tube so I pulled the cap off, rubbed one of the cotton ear swabs in there put the lid back on and haven't heard the noise. I would imagine this was the beginning of a build up, but it was easily solved while the skimmer was still in use in the tank.

 

[SPSREEFS]

I had a NAC6 and the venture does get clogged in the inside. Not sure if this design was eliminated on the newer Curve models. The Bubble Magus are cheap skimmers, and it shows. Very cheesy pumps. Impellers cracked on mine in just weeks of use.
If you want a excellent affordable skimmer, check out the Reef Octopus Classic 110. I run it on my 65 gallon SPS tank and love it! Built extremely well, a awesome Aquatrance pump that uses like 9 watts. Much better design in my opinion, and the pump comes off for super easy and quick cleaning.
Look at the reviews...............

 

[Zechirian]

I've got a Curve7 on my 120 and love it. Very easy to tear apart and clean, very small foot print and very quiet. Been running it almost a year now, still pullin some nasty stuff like it was new. I run mine in about 9" of water and it seems to be the happiest there.

 

[Jon Warner]

that's the recently ubiquitous "Wine Glass" body featured by several manufacturers.

It has several distinct advantages. Being a one-piece body+transition piece it saves the manufacturer on mfg costs and eliminates a labor step.

It is an efficient body design and tends to be low turbulence.

Assuming the neck size and volume is well matched to the pump they could be good skimmers. The pump and it's performance/quality is an unknown though... but I suspect it will work just fine and replacements should be reasonably priced.

 

[Downbeach]

The only thing that is suspect on the BM products is their pumps. For that reason I chose to go with a Sea Side Aquatics version, its a BM skimmer, but uses a Sicce PSK pump. The SSA ES 5 would be the same skimmeras the Curve 5, but with the Sicce pump.

 

[EDO]

Notice the only negative comments are from people that don't own one and the folks that do seem to love it.

 

[acolotto]

Seems like its a good skimmer, how is the break in period? Take awhile or quick to start pulling a good skim mate?

 

[EDO]

The first couple of days I had it running it was a few inches deeper than the recommended range so it was just overflowing. It took mine only a day or so to start giving me a good skim once I raised it up.

 

[jd371]

I have the BM5. It over flowed at first, but after raising it to 7.5" no problems. I'm still new to this and this is my first skimmer, but it's doing what it's supposed to do.... I'm happy with it.

 

[braaap]

Seems like its a good skimmer, how is the break in period? Take awhile or quick to start pulling a good skim mate?

Mine took 5 days to break in. I'm running in about 7 inches of water and the thing pulls mud! So nasty. If I don't clean the cup every other day it starts to smell up the tank room. Soon as I clean it no smell. Really a good skimmer especially for the price. There is a guy selling brand new ones in the classifieds for $175 shipped.

 

[Downbeach]

You can shorten the break in period if you run it in a 5 gal. bucket with a 50/50 mix of water/vinegar for a few hours.

 

[Harold Green]

I've been running a bm 220A for over a year without a single issue. Recently purchased a curve 7 for a smaller tank since I like the big one so well. I'd suggest the curve 7 over the 5 for a tank of 50 or so gallons. The more water/air flow in the skimmer the better water quality in your tank. As someone noted earlier and I will repeat, the water height around the skimmer is the most important element in getting the best performance.

 

[kv69]

curve 5 for 3 years clean it regularly, no issues, run it in 7" of water, and I can tune it to wet or dry skim in minutes. 100 gallons total system volume.

 

[braaap]

You can shorten the break in period if you run it in a 5 gal. bucket with a 50/50 mix of water/vinegar for a few hours.

So they say. I saw no improvement after doing it for nearly 24 hours. I just took the plug out of the drain and let it overflow back into the sump. 5 days later it was skimming some light brown. Tuned it and capped it and mud ever since. I've been running it for a month now.

I should clarify that my tank is 3 months old with VERY light stocking at the time of break in. 60 or so total water volume.