Nope, these aren’t the Royal Exclusiv Vertex Alpha cone skimmers that have been on the market for a couple of years. Instead, these are Bubble King branded cones complete with a double cone, mini Red Dragon pump, and titanium screws throughout. This new skimmer also features a much softer looking cone shape that has more of a curvature than other traditional cones. This design, coupled with a cone over the bubble plate, is supposed to lend itself to greater efficiency.

The Bubble King cone skimmer will come in three sizes, the 180, 200, and 250. The prices will start at $1140 for the 180, climbing to $1550 for the 250. As for tank size ratings, the 180 can handle tanks up to 500 liters (roughly 130-gallons). The 250 is rated for 1500L, or about 400-gallons. And as with the other BK skimmers, these will have loads of sound deadening rubber feet and a silicone decoupler for the pump.

These cone skimmers aren’t quite available, with the exception of pre-orders, but should be in a couple of weeks.

I was in a local fish store, City Pets, and right before I was about to leave I noticed a bright red and white skimmer in the distance. I walked over to the shelf and noticed it was a Vertex Alpha 170 cone skimmer. Up to this point, I actually hadn’t seen an Alpha cone skimmer in person. So I immediately went to work inspecting it. The first thing I did was remove the collection cup and lid to see how they attached. The collection cup screws into the neck of the skimmer to form a solid seal. The lid, like most other skimmer lids simply sits on top of the collection cup.

Vertex Alpha 170 Cone Skimmer

I put the collection sup back onto the skimmer and began inspecting the plumbing on the output side of the skimmer. I twisted the red vertical pipe that adjusts the skimmer’s internal water level to see how it worked. Upon further tinkering with the Alpha skimmer, I noticed the base didn’t seem to sit directly on the store’s shelf. I leaned the skimmer body over and noticed the entire skimmer sitting on rubber feet. This is great for noise reduction obviously. And when I looked at the pump, I noticed it also had rubber feet. Additionally, the pump is soft plumbed to the skimmer body. There is a piece of flexible tubing connecting the skimmer pump to the body which will also decrease any vibrations the pump would normally cause. Unfortunately I haven’t seen the skimmer in action on anyone’s aquarium, but YouTube is here to help with that.

Would you pay $2000 for an aquarium pump? For most people, that simple question would draw an “are you kidding me?” sort of response immediately. But considering the abilities of the Royal Exclusiv Red Dragon II pump and the Ocean Simulator programmable controller, others might be more inclined to continue with the conversation. Red Dragon is known to make/employ some of the best skimmer pumps on the market…so one could assume their circulation pumps would also be top notch. And judging from the following video, they are.