best skimmer for bio cube?

[ryangrieder]

hey thanks for the pics. so u have the aquaticlife mini 115 skimmer huh? becides what u said about it would u reccomend it or anything? looks pretty nice. does that bracket it comes with fit on anything or is it too big to use that with it as well and just use the suction cups? i like how the controller is high on top and easy location to adjust it. whats your thoughts?

 

[DREUTZ]

I don't use the brackets or suction cups. I made that egg crate platform so its more stable, I figured the suction cups would slide around and the brackets wouldn't fit. I like it so far. It seems to be made well. It doesn't require an air stone like the BC skimmer. Its pretty cheap compared to others. I got it for $45 i think from amazon. Skimmate is getting darker and darker everyday and if you want I can post another picture of it in a week or so to show you what its pulling out.

Bottom line I would recommend it!

 

[DREUTZ]

I should mention, that 4th pic with the shelf I made out of eggcrate and plastic wall hooks that is holding the blue floss was to catch any large debris and also to quiet down the water flowing into chamber 2. People complained about bubbles in there display caused by this skimmer that I didn't read until I had it, but other than the first day I havn't had any. I think the water flowing through the floss and then through the chaeto breaks up the bubbles before it gets sent back into the tank.

 

[ryangrieder]

yeah i had the same issue with the fussion skimmer. but im going to look into this skimmer some more as well now. i like the look of it and aquaticlife products usually are very nicely made

 

[DREUTZ]

yeah i had the same issue with the fussion skimmer. but im going to look into this skimmer some more as well now. i like the look of it and aquaticlife products usually are very nicely made

I havent run the skimmer without the floss, but just visually inspecting the water before it goes through the floss it doesn't look like there are bubbles in it... Let me know if you have any other questions on it.

 

[ryangrieder]

i just read alot of reviews on it and alot of people were contenplating on it for three reasons.

1) it did not work properly. after hooking it up they said it was not bubbling correctly at all and even when you tuened it all the way up it did nothing. HOWEVER once it ran for 2 weeks or so they all claim it runs great now and pulls out dark green sludge like crazy..

2) the big one. people complaining it is making alot of bubbles in there aquarium. but the issue is obviously solved just like dreutz said about the pad. most people did this and said it worked fine after words. if you dont have a pad then alot of microbubbles will apear in the display.

and 3) the price. people were saying well for only 45-55 bucks for this unit how can it be that great. its going to be another one of those p.o.s. that say they work but dont. well after many people purchased this product again, they thought they were right because of problem 1 that i stated. but just like most skimmers you have to give it some time. once they did give it time and it worked people started to claim for the price you cant beat it because now reviews are very stong and satisfying.

in the end i think i may give this a shot and see how it does. (im actually really thinking about drilling my biocube and hooking up a custom sump but i started another thread already about this so i wont go into details about that here) but i think i am going to give the aquatic life skimmer a chance seeing for only 45 bucks what the heck. ill give it a month or two and see how it does. if not then ill sell it and end up with the tunze. thanks dreutz for the reccomendation on this skimmer. ill take your word and let everyone know what i think of it after a month or so