Ahhhh, at last I have obtained "The Nimble Super Magnet Cleaner" from C. Jerome that some of the members here at NR are boosting about. Is "The Nimble Super Magnet Cleaner " actually as good as others say? Well then, let's take a look at the pro's and con's, and you decide for yourself.

Okay, so many of you may wonder if the product holds up to the hype, here is my review of the product experience from the past five months I have tried to use the Nimble Super.

Upon arrival, the package was in a yellow envelope delevered via US postal service. I give the package an A+ because the package was wrapped in bubble wrap which was sufficient enough to protect the product inside from damage. The time of delivery of the magnet cleaner was decent. Jerome delivered my package and others at his own spare time. I give dilvery time an A-. Next comes communication. Communicating with Jerome was excellent. He was ontop of things when it came to responding to questions, and has answered most questions sufficiently. He scores an A- here.

Okay now here comes the product use review:

First you need to keep in mind that the small form factor has a trade off. Like any product there is the good and the bad. What you need to decide on is whether you will be able to put up with the flaws of this magnet cleaner and use it for what it is. Upon inspection the scrub pads, it appeared to be cut out with sissors and is inconsistent on the corners where it appears to be simply sniped off. It appears that both the magnet srubber halves are made by pouring resin into an icecube tray. The felt on the bottom looks and feels very cheap, however the magnets was very strong and had a very strong pull. I tested the magnet scrubber under water on glass, and it is very strong! In fact it may be too strong because the outter grip is too small to grip with my small fingers. Imagine if you got bigger fingers! The magnets is definately strong enough to work on a 15 gallon acrylic tank (which is thicker then glass)or 10-20g tanks(glass is thinner). The combination of a small grip plus strong magnets made it hard to clean my 15g acylic as the magnets always seem to lag behind in a jerky-like movement. It is not smooth gliding at all! Nope, not like my mag float. This unsmooth, jerky movement causes poor manuverbilty of the magnet srubber inside the tank. Often times the magnet scrubber would fall off into the sand because of the jerky movements. This is bad, because this defeats the purpose of the magnet scrubber, and that is ease of use, and not getting hands wet. Removing the grains of sand caught in the loops of the velcro was time consuming and frustrating. Ease of use gets an F. However this magnet srubber may suit your needs, it may need some getting use to compared to other brand name magnet srubbers.

So what is the big deal with the Nimber Super magnet scrubbers? It is small, but is it worth 16 bucks? You decide. Mine is going in the garbage.

So, how do I clean my tank then? I use a mini-mag float on my 15g ocassionally, however for the most part, it is the old fashion hand scrubbin with an acrylic scrub pad. Once you pass the hair algae phase, snails are useless and ugly!

man, I tried a buddies, after the magnet coming undone once, and the loud and hard clank it made on my glass, when the magnets came back together, I thought it would crack my tank, WAAAAAY to strong of magnets.
I also had jerkiness problems too, and having the inside piece coming off, with no floating, is a major PITA.
My Mag-Float is awesome too, nice and soft, and no jerkiness.
D

i dont see why people dont like Mag-Floats.. i love mine... and wouldnt ever trade it for a Nimble b.c. then i would have to reach into my tank when ever it came off.. ughh...

i'll take it.

is the movement jerky? i'd agree, at first. but my mini-mag float is even more jerky. you mean it twists around, right? i'd agree on that.

is it hard to manuever? um, that's subjective obviously. i don't think so but i've been using it for a few months. you have to get used to it since it's like nothing on the market (size-wise).

i had been using mag-floats. (btw, i don't think it's an appropriate mag scraper for acrylic. too strong and possible scratching from dropping onto the substrate. for acrylic tanks i would suggest the mag-float mini.

is it too small? well, that's kinda the point of it. it's for reaching hard to get places. this is definitely not a scraper for a big tank, i.e. >20g. i wouldn't recommend it for such tanks. it's strictly for smaller nanos and picos imo.

quality of the part is good enough for me. i'm in the plastic industry and manufacture for the aquarium trade, in fact. is it "professional"? no, cj's just a guy doing this in his spare time. but it's better than some stuff i see out there made professionally.

i'd like it to float but i think the rare earth magnets are just too dense to float without sacrificing the slimness, which is the inherent quality you're looking for when you buy the nimble.

i'm serious, i'll take the nimble off your hands. gimme!

Anyone..? Is the Nimble Super acrylic safe??

any scraper that doesn't float isn't acrylic-safe imo (including the nimbles-sorry cj).

the risk for picking up a grain of sand is just too great. note: that goes for coralline as well for any scraper.

Hey, I got mine a few days ago. I have NO problems with mine at all. I love the low profile, it allows it to get into places other wont. Works better that my POS mag-float.

90% of the stuff I have purchased for my aqaurium is total JUNK, but I give the nimble VERY HIGH RATINGS. I am ordering another as a spare. I think its the perfect size for my 12 Nano Cube.

I think its just a case of ...different strokes for different folks. Anyone that doesnt like theirs ...PLEASE send it to me

Kudo's to CJ.

Mark

p.s. I think he makes one that is safe for acrylic too, mine is the one for glass.

The nimble nano is great IMO. For small tanks it can't be beat, with my 2.5g the clearance is so small that a standard magfloat type cleaner wouldn't even clear the corals and the front glass. If you are careful using it you won't break your glass - even cheap AGA glass. If you want to see powerful magnets, try the Tunze magnet holders, you could break a finger with those things!

I disagree with the negative review. I love my nimble super. I find it more manueverable than a Magfloat because of the thinness of it. The power is more than adequate and I don't have experience any jerking. Jerome's product is A+++ in my view.

Kappa

Thank you for the reivew, I value everyones feedback. The Nimbles are infact made in my spare time non-comercialy to the best of my ability, so there is a little variation as with most handmade goods. The Nimbles have strengths and weaknesses as any product, but it is hard to beat the nimble at its core competency, cleaning small tanks and hard to reach places, especially for use in the 2.5 gallon for which it was originaly developed. Other users, thank you for your comments as well. I am happy to hear about your positive experiences.

C. Jerome

I use the Super and have nothing but praise for this sleek little cleaner. Its smaller than I thought and that ended up being a real plus for getting around my rockscape and Hydor-Flo in my 12DX. It works great in the corners and has'nt fallen off yet. If and when it does,.... its not like I never get my hands wet when I mess with my tank anyway. The smoke color and small size makes in tank storage nice and discreet, not like that bar of soap or Twinkie float cleaner that messes up so many nice tank pictures here . Thanks CJerome for uping everyone's options. TJ

Cool, I see some very positve responce in here.

I would like to add another positive review. I have a 9g tank with some tight spaces, and the nimble does a fabulous job. If you are trying to clean a wide space, you would be better suited for something larger, as trying to clean too fast does lend itself to the scrubber falling off the glass. I currently own 2 nimble supers and a mini mag float. The mag float never gets used.

I would also like to add my review of this scrubber.

i own a mag float mini for acrylic before the nimble super and it gets the job done, but i have a few corals that grew too close to the glass and i cant clean that part of the glass with the mag float because its just too big. so i went ahead and ordered a nimble.

i was surprised how fast it got shipped. all theses stories on how most people have to wait 2-3 months for it, mine got shipped days after ordering. when i got the nimble, i was kind of put off on the craftsmanship of the nimble. it was pretty crude, there were tones of air bubbles in the plastic resin and the surface of the plastic isnt smooth and the magnets arent at an uniform location in the resin (which is critical since it affects the strength of the pull). the scrubber and felt does seem a bit cheap, but it gets the job done. I would think after a few years of making these, even in his spare time, he would of perfected a process of making a good product.

on the the performance of the nimbler. well no surprises here. it works as advertised. i have it in my 20gal custom tank and the glass is 1/4" thick. there was a slight lag on the scrubber part but it wasnt anything i was annoyed about. it cleaned just as well as my mag float and its good in tight spaces. i still use both the nimbler and the mag float together. nimbler for tight spaces and the mag float for large areas.

overall, the nimbler performs as expected. I just got to remember that it doesnt float so go easy on the strokes. works well in tight spaces. i just wish there was no bubbles in the resin as this will enhance the appeal of the nimble more. try putting the molds in a vacuum to draw out the bubbles

I purchased one a couple years ago in black (or smoke?). I left it in the tank all the time. The paint gradually came off over a month or so. I got a replacement... same thing happened.

Thanks for your comments. Stallen I am not sure what happened with yours because they are not painted but have pigment mixed in when casting them. I would be willing to replace it if you mail it back to me. I have black in my tank along with a few clears in different capacities and have not experienced a similar issue.
Time for shipping varies depending on what else I have going on and the weather. Right now I am getting them out pretty fast, including a few this morning.

Jerome

I think the nimble is a good product. I use it on my 10 gal and it cleans in places that are pretty much impossible to get to any other way. In fact its now the only method I use to clean the glass on my 10 gal. It is jerky when moving it, but I don't even understand how that's an issue? It doesn't effect the cleaning one bit. My biggest concern when buying was the ability to get around corners. Which took a try or two to get right, but has never been an issue. The fact that it doesn't float is a PITA when you drop it, but I rarely drop it. IMO anyone that owns a small tank with hard to reach places its well worth the money.

My super black came in and here we go...

The package








The size




The challenge






The reward




It made quick work of the corners and thanks to it's size makes quick work of parts of the tank that I would have need a razor blade and an hour to take care of by hand.

Tank looks great in the after Nimble Super pictures! Nice re-use of the other mag. into a shelf.

Jerome

I have heard a lot of great things from lots of people on this site that have them. I am going to order one myself because there is nothing worse than having places you can not clean because the magfloat wont fit.

I ordered one on sat. I hope to get it soon cause my tank is clean except a few stops the mag cant hit and it's a pain evryone asking me the tank is so clean but why those few stops dirty errrrrrr..... we'll let you know when i get it ....

Hy everyone,

I,ve purchased mine a month ago or so, very impacient to try it. Comunication with JC very good, it arrived quickly and it traveled to Madrid, Spain. I didn´t clean my 10G for over a month so the cristals were full with algae. It does pretty good job, but it didn,t clean the geen spot algae at all, I need to use a razor to that. It is small, strong, I am using it every day now in the evening when I have some time and keeps my cristals clean an shiny. I am very pleased with the nimble, very good IMO for small tanks, I woul buy it again. thanks Jerome.

I have both nimble's use the super more. I agree it will not outperform the mag float on large surfaces \ places the mag will go. However it smokes my mag in tight spots, going around my vortech and along the sand line and most importantly to me right around the top rim where my mag float will splash water everywhere.

all in all - the difference being a mag float is like a paint roller, while the nimble does all the pin striping i use both in conjunction with eachother.

great analogy

just got mine odered on the 17th but the post office missed sent it 2 times so it took a while even though he lives 6 hours away but not his fault now down to the review well i was waiting for the nimble to come in to clean but since the post office took a while i got to cleanning it myself coulndt wait so my tank was pretty clean but i tried it on the conners and tight spots and worked great i went fats to try to make it fall and i couldnt get it to fall of into sand. it doesnt stir up alot etheir all in all i really like it alot nothing was wrong at all GREAT thx's

Great to hear it arrived and is working well!

I received mine last week for my picotope, its absolutely tiny, and VERY maneuverable. I have not experienced ANY sort of jerkiness to its movement, nor is it too strong, it seems about as strong as the Small mag-float in my nanocube, yet it isn't overpowering enough to prevent smooth movement. It goes around the corners VERY easily. Mine came with some sort of glitter on the paper wrapping it within the bubble wrap some of which was stuck to the product, took a sec to get all that off, then I washed the inner piece in fresh water, it seemed to have a bit of excess scrubber adhesive on the plastic. I also polished it up as best I could with a soft cloth, but there still seems to be a slight residue that showed up once I got it in the tank.

I can easily recommend this product. Great performance, price is very very reasonable, and shipping was much faster than I expected (have had past problems with USPS delivering packages to me, seems fixed now).

Only issue I had was the glitter and a bit of excess adhesive, neither of which were enough for me to dock any "points".

All in all, 5 stars, 2 thumbs up, aquarium keeper seal of approval.

Thanks for the great feedback. I did not realize that the glitter was sticking to the nimbles after I wrapped them. I will switch to a solid color tissue paper ASAP. That is okay anyway because my girlfriend was annoyed by the glitter falling off the paper into the carpet when I was wrapping them so I was going to have to switch anyway!

Jerome

Jerome I don't know if you recall but early 2008 you made me a prototype "Large Magnus" for my 90g system. WOW!!

That amazing thing is still going strong (strong being the KEY word there). It cuts the crud and grime off my THICK glass and thanks to it's larger "footprint" I'm able to clear my front 4' panel in less than 90 seconds. I've been using it almost daily since Jan 2008 and it's still working just like the day it arrived.

GREAT work buddy

In addition to the "Large Magnus" I have one in our 6g NanoCube (small one), one in my NanoCube 12g (super) and one in my 10g Frag tank (super). I'm confident that EVERY tank I have from now on will have at least ONE of your Nimble products in it!

*2 wet thumbs up*

Sincerely,
Allen

Allen

Thanks so much for the update, it sounds like they are going strong!

Jerome

i got a nimble nano about a month ago for my pico and it is probably the best investment I have made for my tank! it can get around all the corners and works on acrylic as well. also has a nice grip that cleans the algae! so much better than magfloat in my opinion

Great! Thanks for the comments. I am happy to hear the Nimble works so well for you.
For those on Facebook, i started a fan page, so far I am the only fan ;(
NimbleNano.com on Facebook