Bubble MagusCurve 5 Protein Skimmer

A great skimmer, relatively quiet and now pulling a great skim. I have it on setting 2 on my Reefer 170.It took 10 days to break in and having seen various advice online, here's what worked for me in case it helps anyone else:Day 1: Soaked in RO water with white vinegar. Install and turn on - it overflowed like crazyDay 1-3 Left overflowing back in to the sump. By Day 3 it was still overflowing but much more slowly.Day 4-6 installed a clamp on the airline to reduce airflow. This stopped the overflowing but still only pulled water, no skim.Day 7: Removed clamp on airline and did a 30% water change through the overflow tube in the skimmer. After an hour I turned it up from 'max' to level 3 and then 2 after an hour and then 1 before 'Min'. (Min still pulls mostly water). Skimmer still very noisy.Day 8: left running on 'Max' with no issues and noise reduced significantly.Day 9: Woke up to the first skimmate and turned up to level 2.Day 10: Working perfectly and level 2 is the correct dial in.Also worth noting that the recommended water depth is 9-11 inches. I have it at 8 inches as I found anything deeper produced a really wet skim.It was a battle to get there but now it's broken in and running perfectly I highly recommend this skimmer.

Outstanding skimmer. Perfect for my needs. Really does a great job and at a fraction of the cost of most other brands. I wanted to wait a while before leaving a proper review... giving me enough time to properly test the skimmer and report back on its performance. If I lost or broke this skimmer, I'd buy the very same again. Well worth the money. Very happy with the item.

This is a good bit of kit and works well however there is one thing that lets it down, the main body has two holes for the suction pump to allow you to orientate it to the desired position that you need in your sump. They supply a blanking cap for the spare hole, however the blanking cap is a standard universal cheap red pipe blank that is ill fitting and it just blows out after a short time the pump runs, I've had to secure the blank in place with an elastic band which is unacceptable when you consider the quality and price of the unit, why can't they supply a good fitting blank that locks in the hole? Apart from that its great.

Had great fun putting this thing together...and I don't mean that sarcastically. It comes well packaged and in kit form so that you must construct it following the diagrams. It is really well constructed in terms of its manufacture...solid and strong. I find the cup to be easily removed for emptying and it has a cup drain should you wish to drain off the contents into a larger container....a great idea if you're going away and can't empty the cup. The water height control is prominent and well made with a marker and numbers to make life easier. Set it to max for the lowest water height level!The skimmer sits on 4 rubber feet, is quiet and produces a mass of bubbles and a good foam. It worked (producing foam) almost instantly and I find it really simple to control. I'm delighted with it. I have it skimming 350 litres of sea water and it is doing a sterling job. Point of interest:- the instructions suggest an external water height of 26cm, I found this created a cup overflow after each time I emptied the cup! (No I don’t understand it either!) A 17cm external height, (measured from base of skimmer to water level, not base of sump to water level) is perfect and allows some flexibility with the water output tube setting. In my case I had to use a plastic dish to raise the skimmer off the sump floor and it worked much better. 5 years later and it is still working as good as the day I bought it....exceptional!

This has not worked from day one not impressed

Excellent

Overflowed once (when I first added it to my aquarium). No problems since. Didn't need 'running in' and is pretty quiet, certainly the quietest skimmer I have owned. Very good value for money. Watch your water levels.

been a few months now in use, tbh i was dubious about claims, three days in and it worked, it carried on working, proved its worth over two others i had from older tanks. only downside is water height in sump, i had to 3D print a stand to lift it