JoeVic Posted November 5, 2010 Author Share Posted November 5, 2010 Hey Stevie, If you're gonna try it out on your Solana, let me know how it fits and if you had to change anything. My stock skimmer on my Solana is starting to go and I'm in the market for a new one now. If I end up getting one Ill post how it goes. The Stock solana skimmer draws from the bottom though and the Hydor draws from the top. So..I don't know. I want to hear more about it. Link to comment
StevieT Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Right now I have the Solana in to design a media basket but I would love to have it as a display. But I probably will have the slim skims on the site for sale if they work out meaning I can test fit. Just can't do any real water tests as I don't put saltwater in these things for design, just tap. The Tunze 9002 is also an option for the Solana Link to comment
HydorMan Posted November 8, 2010 Share Posted November 8, 2010 So you need 1" of clearance in front of the intake? 4" includes the depth on the unit The inside part of the magnetic mount needs about 1/2 on clearance on the backside of the skimmer. The other 1/2 is to allow water to enter the skimmer but, you got get by with less space in front. Link to comment
JSVAND5 Posted November 8, 2010 Share Posted November 8, 2010 I just talked to the guys at premium aquatics about the above water height. They said the hydor slim skim needs about 5-7 inches of clearance above the water line, so it looks like it is still a no go with my NC 24 without hacking up the hood. Starting to wish I went with the NC 28. Link to comment
Rcplain123 Posted December 2, 2010 Share Posted December 2, 2010 Reef Builders is doing one right now here. Link to comment
bulldogpet Posted December 3, 2010 Share Posted December 3, 2010 Mine will be here tomorrow will post updates once I get it. Link to comment
Shooter Posted December 3, 2010 Share Posted December 3, 2010 Got one yesterday, will be going into my 29g this weekend. Hoping for good things from it. This tank is 2 hours away from me, though, so not going to be able to mess with it a lot. Will be relying on my fiance' to watch what's going on with it in the meantime. Link to comment
Shooter Posted December 4, 2010 Share Posted December 4, 2010 Ok, just started mine up and.... well, the usual fear - microbubbles. I have a pretty steady mist of microbubbles emitting from the bottom of the unit right now. It's only been running about 15 mins and in that time the bubbles have lessened somewhat. Hoping that, with time, maybe it will slime up a bit inside and the bubbles will reduce. Was also hoping for a fairly significant impact on the protein film that was already forming on the surface of the water, given that this skimmer has a surface grate on it, but not really so far. There is plenty of the grate below the surface, so its hard to tell just how much actual top surface gunk is being sucked down in. No real appreciable noise coming from the unit. A lot of bubbles being formed inside the body of the skimmer, totally clouded with bubbles, but nothing even close yet to anything coming up into the collection cup. I only have the rest of today to observe, then heading back home this evening. Will try to post up some pics upon my return home late tonight, or possibly tomorrow morning. Link to comment
Shooter Posted December 5, 2010 Share Posted December 5, 2010 Ok, well, for anyone wanting to see, here's some pics: Size comparison to a 2 ltr soda bottle Top down view into the bubble chamber. Water comes in through the grate goes down to a small tube opening where it is sucked into the pump and then bubbled upward in the cyclinder View through the back clear panel. Back panel equipped with positioning magnets and suction cups that have slots for the power cord and air line. Within the first 15 mins of running... Taken a bit later, you can see the mist of microbubbles at the bottom of the unit This was taken a few hours later and is one of the better points in time where not a bunch of bubbles were present. When I left at about 7:30 pm tonight, there were still bubbles being produced out the bottom of the unit. Over the course of roughly 9 hours, microbubbles were still present, and nothing had begun to be produced in the collection cup. Brand new skimmer in a newer tank that has no fish in it yet. Had done a little bit of a job of clearing off the surface film, but some was still present. Will be a wait and see, I guess. I won't be back up there til next Fri, so will be relying on my GF to relay to me what is going on with it. Link to comment
rod2 Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 The build quality on the skimmer looks high. There are some micro bubbles present when first started up. It does not fit in the Solana's first chamber, where the stock skimmer goes, without some modification to the stock filtration. It will, however, fit perfectly in the second chamber. Does anyone know how to organize the first chamber if a skimmer occupies the second? Originally I was running filter floss, cheato, and chemi-pure elite in the second chamber. Thanks Link to comment
Mitch619 Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 The build quality on the skimmer looks high. There are some micro bubbles present when first started up. It does not fit in the Solana's first chamber, where the stock skimmer goes, without some modification to the stock filtration. It will, however, fit perfectly in the second chamber. Does anyone know how to organize the first chamber if a skimmer occupies the second? Originally I was running filter floss, cheato, and chemi-pure elite in the second chamber. Thanks Maybe try a diy media basket like mine. Check my signature, I made one for the second chamber, but you can easily make one for the first. Link to comment
Shooter Posted December 11, 2010 Share Posted December 11, 2010 I'm at my GF's house right now, a week after installing this skimmer. I am happy to report that there are no microbubbles emitting from the unit at this point. Zero. None. It finally started making some foam, and just a little while ago I emptied the cup for the first time after a week of startup time and it had about a quarter inch of green tea colored skimmate in it with the cup set at the "startup" position as indicated in the book that came with it. I don't really have any pics to add at this point. I am a little disappointed in one thing. One reason I got this was because it was set to take water off the surface of the tank for its input, and I was hoping that it would really clear off the surface film. Thus far, it has only done a moderate at best job of doing that. I need to get some extra flow in there to get a bit more turbulence on the surface. Added my clownfish and a couple snails from my big tank. Haven't been able to chase down my chromis and leopard wrasse yet in a tank the size of my 120g. Just too much running space for the zippy chromis, and the wrasse just hides. Think I'm gonna have to wait til I drain it to get them. Link to comment
asianer Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 Does anyone know of any stores or dealers selling on the East Coast, specifically NY? Link to comment
Shooter Posted December 27, 2010 Share Posted December 27, 2010 Had a 2 week span between visits to my GF's house and so just let this thing sit and run to see what I would get. Checked it when I arrived, first note was that I didn't see any microbubbles emitting from the skimmer anymore, so that was very good. The collection cup was full of green tea colored skimmate and bubbles, a lot of gunk on the cup itself. I found some q-tips work pretty good when cleaning the cup, particularly the narrowing opening where the bubbles come up in the back. Will comment that I'm a bit disappointed in the performance of this skimmer when it comes to surface skimming. I thought the design with the intake at the waterline would lend itself to doing a good job of sucking in the surface film off my tank, but that hasn't been the case. Still a pretty good film on the water, so I guess I'm going to have to get a powerhead to put in there and aim it to work on breaking up the surface some. Link to comment
GOODgREEF Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Aw kinda of disappointed to hear that it doesn't do a good job surface skimming. I modded my Rio Nano Skimmer with an overflow piece and it does a great job on surface skimming. This is was a big selling point for me, but now im not sure and might be content with staying with my skimmer i have on now. Link to comment
Kamao Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Any noise? Will this fit in the back chambers of the RMS 130? Link to comment
GOODgREEF Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 also are these skimmers only for rimless tanks? Because it lies right next to the glass and I would think it would conflict if you have a rim can anybody confirm this? Link to comment
majority_rules Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 You can't really blame the skimmer for poor surface skimming. It's not a vacuum, it's not going to suck crap off the top of the water. It works the same way any overflow does, gravity. It's your job to move the skimmer and adjust the flow in your tank so that the crap on the surface of the water collects near the skimmers intake. Thanks for the pics and review though, I'm interested in one of these. Link to comment
Shooter Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 GOODgREEF, my tank has a rim and I'm using it ok. Thing is though, if I wanted to push the skimmer up higher so it primarily only got water off the very top, I can't do it because of where the magnet on the back is located. But you can use it on a rimmed tank. majority_rules: Actually, it IS kind of a vacuum. The small compartment on the front of the skimmer is closed and there is just the small tube that the pump uses to suck water out of that area and into the bubble chamber. And I'm well aware that it's my job to move the water if I can. The point I'm making is that there is plenty of surface film right there at the mouth of the skimmer and it's not really being taken in by the skimmer. It's not like there's a little patch of film in the far corner of the tank I'm expecting the skimmer to reach out and grab, it's not really taking in the stuff that's right there in front of it. IF I could slide the skimmer up farther, thus reducing the amount of area of those intake slots are under water and forcing more surface intake, it would obviously make a difference. The rim of the tank is keeping me from doing that, tho. I suppose something could be placed over the lower part of the slots to adjust for this, but I'm not there enough to be doing any skimmer DIY projects right now. Despite this, the skimmer continues to pull out some decent gunk. It did pull a little number on my GF the other day, though. She decided to take on cleaning out the cup for me, but then she said when she returned the cup onto the skimmer, there weren't any bubbles being produced. I had her try a couple things, that didn't work, then had her just shut it down for a bit and then restart. This got it going again. I don't know if it had a chunk of something that got into it or what happened. Hopefully, it was just an odd happening and not a problem of some sort. Link to comment
jcieutat Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 I am new to the AIO tanks. My Solana arrives tomorrow. I am interested in this skimmer as well. I ordered the wood trimmed top for my Solana. Will this skimmer or another one like the Tunze 9002 fit underneath the glass top? Link to comment
thatoneazn Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 hows the skimate? I have an eshopps skimmer and i am looking for something a little more quiet? Link to comment
d'Espresso Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 hows the skimate? I have an eshopps skimmer and i am looking for something a little more quiet? +1. Is it noisy? Link to comment
sefrayser Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 I am new to the AIO tanks. My Solana arrives tomorrow. I am interested in this skimmer as well. I ordered the wood trimmed top for my Solana. Will this skimmer or another one like the Tunze 9002 fit underneath the glass top? If you get the Stevie T cup the Tunze 9002 will fit. Link to comment
FiReBReTHa Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 lets get a photo of the skimmate! Link to comment
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