unbiased skimmer review

[cthulhu77]

Yep, I just finished the three month cycle of the tank, and turned on the skimmer yesterday...whoohoo!

I usually use a sumped system, but when I specifically ordered the tank to be untempered, guess what I got...yep, a tempered glass tank, so, no holes. Poop. Ah well, the shop felt bad enough to sell me a Coralife hang on the back for a realy ridiculously low amount skimmer.

I've never been a big fan of side mounted skimmers, to me, they just seemed to generate a lot of bubbles and do very little. Boy, how this skimmer has changed my mind!

The photo is of skimming from just a few hours yesterday, it removed a lot of particulate matter, and was extremely easy to adjust. I know, a lot of you would dial the water level down a bit, but I would rather get some excess water in the cup than have that goo in the tank.

Anywho...this hangontheback skimmer really changed my mind, and I would recommend it to anyone out there with cuttles or fish. I don't know if it would work out well for an octo tank, unless you did some radical cutting on the hood of your tank.

 

[DHyslop]

I have a similar impression of the CSS hang-on. We had a used one that was missing a gasket that we jerry-rigged into the sump of a customer's tank and it worked very well, pulling out a lot more thick green stuff than similarly-priced (read Pro-Clear) skimmers. If I get off my butt and order a gasket for it I'm going to run it on my smaller tank.

Given that, no matter how good this skimmer may be, I would never recommend putting together a new tank without a sump. It makes life so much easier and having things like this hanging off the side is pretty goofy when you think about it.

Greg, I'm surprised you didn't send back the tank for a new one: you have every right to.

Dan

 

[cthulhu77]

LOL, you'd be suprised, I am actually much more phlegmatic than most people think...

The store owner was so upset by the tank that I just couldn't bust him too hard, I got the tank at no cost, and a deal on the skimmer...since I wasn't in too big of a rush, I didn't worry about it that much.

I wouldn't keep octos in a glass tank anyway, (gimme acrylic any day of the week), and this one was for a small fish setup to give my wife her dues...she wanted some colourful thingies.

That being said, I would be tempted to use one of these on a sump for the cuttlefish setup...I have never been more impressed with a new product, especially for the MSRP of about 80 bucks.

I've read some negative feedback about Coralife skimmers, but this one has sold me on them.

 

[Animal Mother]

I have one of those. I like it. Bubble trap is still a pain in the butt though.