Yet another Bubble Magus Curve 5 overflowing

[lost66]

Hi
I have problem with my bubble magus curve 5 skimmer. I bought it used on ebay. I cleaned it in vinegar and rinsed well. It is overflowing forming huge cap of foam which touches my cabinet and eventually may damage wood. At the beginning I put it on a 9" depth as manual recommended and it was there for a week. At that depth there was almost no foam, it was like a fountain of water. A jacked it to 6" and then I was having issue with foam all over my sump and today I raised the level to 4" and still, no proper foam.
My tank is pretty new, 2 months old. I don't have heavy bio load and nitrates are low. I recorded this video to show how does it look like after few hour on depth of 4".
I read somewhere that I can put something into air inlet but I don't want to do it, it is against original design and it is walkaround and may not produce proper foam.
Skimmer is dirty because there was plenty of foam and this is all gunk from that foam.
Any recommendations what I can do?

 

[Daddy-o]

Have you turned the dial to "max"

 

[lost66]

Yes, it is set to max all the time.

 

[Daddy-o]

You have the bubble plate oriented correctly? I am still thinking the air knob has to be on minimum for all those bubbles

 

[S2G]

I cant stand my bubble mag and working on replacing it. Do yourself a favor & grab an adjustable air valve. Open up your dial to max if it's bad overflowing & use that air valve to limit your crazy foam.

 

[A&Aaquatics]

Id say just let it run. I run mine at 6" water height and the dial for air at about 2-3. Occasionally after a heavy feeding or large water change, it will pour wet foam into the cup and overflow out of the lid. I just run the cup drain back into the sump for a day or so until it settles out.

 

[Daddy-o]

I cant stand my bubble mag and working on replacing it. Do yourself a favor & grab an adjustable air valve. Open up your dial to max if it's bad overflowing & use that air valve to limit your crazy foam.

Opening the knob to "max" is actually closing it.

 

[Daddy-o]

I run my Curve 5 in 9 inches of water on #2

 

[S2G]

If you open the regular knob to max & limit air off your tubing it brings the foam down & will make it work again. Mine overflows if you look at it wrong this has been the only thing that gets me by when it acts up

This is a little older curve 9

 

[lost66]

So I reduced a little bit the air input by putting a wire which I had in hand - temporarily. Foam reduced little bit by having huge bubbles but they run up fast. I will leave it for a day and see but adjustable air valve sounds like something stable and cheap.
I wonder if it is because each tank is unique and some skimmers just don't work properly on given configuration/maturity, my unit is somehow broken (I don't know why previous owner was selling it) or this model is just a junk for most users.

I am thinking, maybe a change of the unit will be better? I can sell it for around $110 I think, add some and buy something different. But what else I can buy? I have 100g in total, limited budget to lets say $200.

 

[S2G]

So I reduced a little bit the air input by putting a wire which I had in hand - temporarily. Foam reduced little bit by having huge bubbles but they run up fast. I will leave it for a day and see but adjustable air valve sounds like something stable and cheap.
I wonder if it is because each tank is unique and some skimmers just don't work properly on given configuration/maturity, my unit is somehow broken (I don't know why previous owner was selling it) or this model is just a junk for most users.

I am thinking, maybe a change of the unit will be better? I can sell it for around $110 I think, add some and buy something different. But what else I can buy? I have 100g in total, limited budget to lets say $200.

I'm going tunze or reef octopus. Tunze was the best set and forget but the RO wasnt near as finicky as this curve. I cant remember a RO classic 110 or 150 for a tank that size. I'm going ro 200 or tunze 9410

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

I love this skimmer on my 125, Reef Octopus CLASSIC 150SSS, https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-octopus-classic-150sss-6-internal-space-saving-skimmer.html

 

[Daddy-o]

For me it always came down to staying away from the venturi type.
Cheers! Mark

 

[lost66]

$2 solved the problem, I guess. I installed air valve, moved the unit to 8" and it's working fine. So now when I finally got it working I can tune it to a desired foam type.

 

[Daddy-o]

$2 solved the problem, I guess. I installed air valve, moved the unit to 8" and it's working fine. So now when I finally got it working I can tune it to a desired foam type.

Nice, perhaps somebody rebuilt the original air intake adjuster wrong?
Cheers! Mark