You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways: It makes zero noise. Enough said. Compared to other skimmers in the lab, the Bubble Magus Curve 5 is silent. What are the dimensions of the Bubble Magus Curve 5?

Another feature contributing to the efficiency of this protein skimmer is the included bubble plate. Place the top of the bubble diffuser onto the base and thread in the thumbscrew to hold it all together. So what is a Protein skimmer?, protein skimming which can also be called foam fractionation or air stripping, is a mechanical process for removing waste substances from saltwater. In some cases, you might not see immediate results. This could mean that some of the parts haven’t been properly assembled.As you can see, the Curve 5 can handle most reef tanks, as the average tank size for saltwater tanks is only about 50 gallons. In the lab, I have Curve 5’s running on 3 different tanks- 2 50g tanks and 1 120g tank. The performance is slightly higher in the smaller tank, but that’s obviously due to a lower volume of water the protein skimmer has to go through to produce skimmate.

The silent operation won’t disturb your fish or anyone else in the room as you eliminate all the waste in the tank. The dial on this machine is a little strange: you have to turn it to the “minimum” setting for the maximum water flow and vice versa. Nevertheless, you have to clean the collection cup regularly as this will guarantee that the protein skimmer will do its job properly.Let’s take a look at the skimmer’s profile. You can see it’s a nearly a full-size skimmer with the typical hourglass design. The BM-Curve 5 is pretty petite for a full-sized protein skimmer. We consider this a really good thing because its compact size keeps the footprint slim and allows almost any buyer to feel confident that it will fit in their tank’s sump.

You won’t have to remove the waste manually, so keeping the tank clean will be a straightforward job. Once you have put all the pieces together, the skimmer will start working instantly, so you can easily remove the contaminants from the water. There is one other quirk with this which I am told is peculiar to the Chinese in that the higher the number you dial in the water flow the more you RESTRICT the water going in to the skimmer. As you restrict the water entering the skimmer from the pump so the bubbles and foam created rise within the riser tube. This does take a little getting used to and is the reverse thinking of most European skimmers. One would normally expect the lower the number dialed in the less water would enter the skimmer not the other way round as is the case here. Still once you get used to it it’s no problem at all but it has caught a number of people out when first trying to adjust the skimmer. Adjustments are very easy to make no matter if you want a very dark skimmate or a lighter one. Grab the venturi and slide it through the hole on the side of the skimmer body until it slides over the top of the pump intake.The skimmer is very well built with a removable cleaning body with easy adjustment. The pump sits right in the protein skimmer itself, leaving a small footprint. Bubble Magus Curve 5 Skimmer Set Up You’ll still have to clean the cup every couple of days to ensure not too much gunk builds up, but the drain tube allows you to avoid the worst of it.

Let it skim for 24 hours and observe again. If the foam is not rising and overflowing into the cup, you can raise the foam level changing no more than 1/2" - 1" at a time and letting it run for another 24-48 hours. Conversely, if the skimmer overflows during the first few days, just open up the outlet valve MAX 100% and let it run with the lowest possible internal foam level for a few days. Empty the collection cup as needed during that time and it will subside. Once things stabilize, return to adjusting the internal foam level for optimal performance. Keep in mind, adjustments to the outlet knob will be small, only 1-2 increments at a time when dialing it in. Once the skimmate begins to gather, you’ll see how efficiently this machine removes excess organic matter from the tank water. These can easily be undone, allowing you to lift it out and disassemble it in a more convenient place. Easy peasy. By Tappinen (CC BY-SA 3.0 licence) The NegativesThe larger tubing attaches to the drain port on the skimmer cup. If you don’t want to use the drain port, you can cut the tubing down and attach the plug to the other side of it. One thing I noticed is that there is a “break in” period for the Curve 5. On 2 of the models I set up, they started producing skimmate almost instantly- such as overnight. However, on the thirdmodel I set up, it took about 2 days for it to start producing anything. I was thinking of adjusting it, as there may have been something I assembled wrong, or maybe the water level was wrong. But then again, it’s a risk to mess with it during the break-in because you don’t know if it’s already set up correctly and just needs a bit to produce the first skimmate. Seeing as how the first 2 models worked instantly, it was hard to resist tampering with it. The Curve 5 has dimensions of 7.28″ * 7.08″ * 18.5″. It’s a relatively small footprint compared to similar skimmers with similar performance. For its size, it outputs a lot of foul skimmate, which makes it extremely efficient. The pump sits inside the skimmer, so the footprint is even smaller. Bubble Magus Curve 5 Maintenance You turn the knob to set the water from the pump which in turn sets the level of the water and foam within the skimmers riser tube within the skimmer cup. You set the water level to rise approximately half way up the skimmer cups inner riser tube and allow it to settle before making any fine tuning adjustments with the water control knob to achieve the colour of skimmate desired..