Anyone getting good skimate from their fission skimmer?

[Joe69]

Hi, I'm pretty new here, but have noticed that a few members are using the fission skimmer on their nanos. I bought one about a month ago and it seemed to work great the first week. Then the bubble reducing pad got loaded with crap and I ended up changing it. Worked great again for about a week and the pad again was filthy. I tried washing the pad but that really didn't help. I decided to try and run the skimmer without the pad. It really doesn't seem to be doing anything. I am running it in the first chamber if that make a difference. Anyone have any answers or suggestions?

[RazerCorals]

The most important thing is to keep the skimmer tube clean. As the foam is pushed up it leaves DOC's (protein waste) behind. This residue makes it harder for more proteins to get into the collection cup. Over time your skimmer performance will be reduced. This should be cleaned 1-2 times a week for max. performance.

[Joe69]

Thanks RazorCorals, I cleaned it out again last night and it is working better. I did have to add the bubble pad back to the system again though. I am going to have to buy a lot more bubble pads or make some myself.

[mattie]

while i am not familar with the skimmer, but most filter pads you can soak in a water bleach mix over night to clean them well.
and then soak them in fresh water with a declorinator for use in the tank.
that way one pad will last a long time...

[mps9506]

The downside of the design of this skimmer.
The pad and the size. If it was slightly larger (the small size is why it is popular) the bubbles would have way more dwell time and perhaps have a chance to disapate before getting sucked out.
Maybe you can experiment with other materials to replace the pad with.
Sorry I don't have any better adivce, small skimmers can be a pain.

[Adnuces]

Well after fiddling with this thing for abount anhour a few points.

1. The air intake tube was blocked and I had to take the pump apart to ensure that this little wee tube was inserted far enough to draw air into the pump. Finally got air moving through the chamber

2. This thing produces a million microbubbles back into the tank and more between the joints. I ended up using two of the bubble filters and managed to reduce the micro bubbles to a minimum.

3. This thing separates very easily when knocked and takes a bit of work to get positioned height-wise in the tank/sump.

Plus side:
1. It is very very quiet
2. It is compact and takes hardly any room in the tank. I have it in the main tank of my 10g. The power head I have in there is bigger.
3. It is inexpensive and if it works out it is a pretty good buy though it doesn't replace regular water changes.

Altogether I probably worked an hour at getting this thing working half decently. I woke up this morning to a full cup of foam in it. So it is producing foam which is a good thing. Now to see if it pulls any gunk out of the water. We will give it a week then re-assess the goods

[Clownboy]

Read the other post on it and you will see that a very few people have had any luck with it with most people not being able to get it to work properly.

I have owned two, and the LFS store has stop carrying them because of all the complaints they had. They skim very little and that is when you have it set in there just right, and when it is not, then the cup fills up with water. I had my uncle(who has set up serveral protein skimmers) try to get it to work and after a couple of weeks could not get it to do much, if anything. The LFS owner didnt believe so he set it up to prove me wrong and after a week or so; he gave up. With that and several other complaints he stop selling it. One person on another site had it kill everything in there tank after a few hours. I have read all the post and one time gave a positive post on it after spending hours of getting it to work right but it didnt last long. Once you water level drops just a little it stops. Too much work for this thing. I have less nitrates by using Purigen than that protien skimmer.

I had two and I believe they are junk!

[Stevenmi]

http://www.current-usa.com/front/sup...e=details&Id=1


Posted recently on the current usa site....Hope this helps all that have purchased a fission.

Steve