cpr bc29 protein skimmer review for biocube nano tank.

[Gz28]

I dont know if anyone else here has one of the oceanic biocube nano tanks, but i just wanted to give a review on the new cpr bc29 skimmer that came out for the biocube 29g (think it also fits the 14gal)
ok first off the skimmer was really hard to tweak to get it to actually skim instead it just spraying micro bubbles all over the tank, after 2 weeks of tweaking water level collection cup height air intake...etc my corals rarely ever opened because of all of the bubbles stuck to them so i finally unplugged it and gave them time to recover. I ended up having to fill the tank up almost all the way so the water level was actually over the top of the top water return. finally got it to skim and it took almost 2 more weeks before the bubbles calmed down in the tank, i had to take out the bio bale from the bottom water return and stuff poly fill around the sides and put a little in the bottom return and lay the rest over the top water return this helped trap the bubbles, i finally got it skimming good and it does do a decent job of pulling stuff out of the water, but the biggest problem now is the noise, it is horrible, the pump roars and vibrates through the whole tank, everywhere i go in my apartment i can hear it. I cant even hear the fans from the hood anymore because the noise overpowers it!! not that i want to hear the fans but this gives you an idea of how loud it is. i have tried putting rubber feet on the bottom and the sides but nothing works. i have even held it with my hands so that it was totally suspended in the water not touching anything in the tank and there was no differance.
basically dont waste the 150-180 bucks on this thing.
pro's
*big collection cup can go about a week before needing to be emptied
*collection cup is easly adjustable
*decent job at producing good skimmate a little better than the round skimmer with the airstone.
con's
* price doesnt match performance definitally no bang for the buck here.
* noise
* very hard to get adjusted right, although this does improve after break in period.
* very sensitive to water level changes, a water top off system is a must. if your mechanical filters get even slightly clogged and water flow changes a litle skimmer quits producing skimmate and/or starts shooting micro bubles everywhere.
have to do small adjustments on almost a daily basis.
* long break in period the directions say 48 hours..bahhh. even ran it in warm water for first 12 hours to lessen the break in time before putting it in tank as per directions. hope your corals can go a while with millions of bubbles sticking to everything in the tank for an extended period.

[Gerwin]

nice review
thanks

[Brad]

It has been a while since I had my bc29 up and running so forgive me if my reply is a little simple. I had purchased a CPR Sr3 skimmer, and used it for quite a while with some success. I will agree with most of your review, however I did not have difficulties with setup... keeping it running was our problem. It was very sensitive to water level, I had to make some mods to increase flow to the skimmer area which seemed to help. Compared to regular skimmers that you would find a larger tank it was not user friendly and it was by no means hands off. But this skimmer did produce plenty of skimmate and I was happy with its performance... when it was performing.

[Gz28]

Cool thanks for your reply, It is good to know that oher's have had some of the same problems as i have. I just came back to this post to update that my skimmer is producing some good skimmate now. Still very noisy, and like you said it still is definitely not hands off!!! I did read other reviews to see if other people are having the same problem as I have had with this thing, and interestingly 1/2 say set up and break in was a pita and the other 1/2 say it was a breeze.

[Gz28]

I have an update on this. If you look at my maxijet mod post you can see what I have done recently, with some success and failure. After getting the maxi jet making really nice bubbles I kept going trying to get more and more and I made it stop working all together, so gerwin sold me a rio+600 I just put it in a few hours ago and it immediately started skimming, Not only that but it is quiet!!!!!!!!!!!! I can now actually hear the gurgling sound coming from the muffler over the humm of the pump in the skimmer. What's interesting is the rio is not actually quieter than the maxijet 1200 when placed in the water alone but when placed in the skimmer the maxijet gets really loud and the rio just has a slight humm to it. Maybe the maxijet transfers more vibration to the skimmer and it resonates through the skimmer???? I don’t know, but I am just so happy it is not obnoxiously loud anymore!!! The bubbles produced by the rio are definitely adequate I personally would like just a few more or maybe just slightly finer bubbles. I may buy another impeller for the rio and try the fishing string mod that I did to the maxijet and see how that works. If I do I will let you guys know.
I am hoping the rio will make the skimmer more reliable too, one problem I have been having with the maxi is it will produce good bubbles at first and then it starts to diminish until it won’t even skim anymore, maybe the rio will be more constant. ILL let you know.

[Brad]

Definitely keep me informed, I have been thinking about setting my bc29 back up for a kids room tank. I am very interested if you can get it to work for longer periods without constant tweaking.

[Gerwin]

just ordered a cpr SR3 for a customer, he is using it on a 57 gallon tank. It stated its used for the 29 biocube runs about 130 dollars. Might be another you wanna look into.

[Brad]

just ordered a cpr SR3 for a customer, he is using it on a 57 gallon tank. It stated its used for the 29 biocube runs about 130 dollars. Might be another you wanna look into.

Ya that's the one I have, I just assumed this is the one you were talking about Gz.

[Gz28]

Yes that is the one. And i LOVE the skimmer now! Now that i have replaced the maxijet with the rio+ 600 IT IS AWESOME i have not even made one adjustment or had to take the skimmer out to clean since i got that pump. i got the skimmer cup height set and about every 3 days i empty the cup, clean it and put it back and that is all i have to do!!! it is quiet, it skimms some nasty stuff now(it amazes me sometimes ), it is consistant, and trouble free.....what more can you ask from a skimmer? People come into my apartment and without me saying anything one of the first things they notice is how much quieter my tank is!! this skimmer + the rio is a perfect skimmer for the bc29 in my opinion. I didnt try the fishing string mod on this pump because it just works so good!!!!! I wish the skimmer came with the rio instead of the accella (maxijet wannabe)
but im sure you can always find a use for the accella when you replace it with the rio.
basically, just to reiderate...i dont think there is a better skimmer for the bc29 than the sr3 paired with the rio+600. if you would like to come by and take a look at mine just let me know.