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

[khuang100]

This seems to be an old post, but it was the first thing that came up in my search engine. I thought I follow up for anyone else interested. I had to get this protein skimmer as it seems the smallest one out there, and I was able to get it to fit in my oceanic bio cube 8. So far, it seems to work for me (at least for the first 2 days).

Also, an online place sold it for $22. with the pump, so it was also the cheapest skimmer I found.

I tweeked mine a little to fit into my nano tank's first chamber; I basically installed it without the top cap. I went to the local home improvement store to get a plastic tubing (outer diameter- "3/4") and placed it 1/2" into the collecting tube. The unit is running 1" below the suggested water line, but the bubbles are building up fine through the plastic tubing--and not escaping through the pads and into the tank. If I can get skimate to pass through the new plastic tubing, I may not even need the pads.

The plastic tubing is arched all the way to the 3rd chamber into a small plastic bottle for collection.

Also, I had to get a rigid tubing and completely replace the provided "U" connection from the skimmer to the pump. The "U" formation took too much room in my setup, and I could not fit the unit where I needed it. With the help of a candle, I warmed up parts of the rigid tubing, bent it, and let it cool to set the new shape.

I also took a Dremel tool to the top chamber, and remove 1cm off--trying to fit it in the tank. It turned out that I probably did not need to do it after I found another part that could be removed for a better fit. I probably made it impossible to ever put the cap back on it if I ever need to. However, when I first tested it for 4 hours, the small cup filled up too quickly from the small water splashes from popped bubbles in the skimming chamber. I think the size of the cup makes this device less usuable. (others have posted that they would have to empty / clean the cup every day in order to use this; I believe my tubing into a larger collecting cup would fix that.)

I will comment within two weeks to see how it goes. However, it is working as I expect a protein skimmer should.

[khuang100]

It has been over 2 weeks, and I have found that the micro air tubing gets clogged easily from the dust in my house.

It took me a needle to clean the micro air tubing, and after letting it dry, I was able to get it connected. Oddly, the blockage was at the pump end and hidden from view--looks like where air meets water. I had to trim the end at an angle, and with help of a a toothpick I was able to push the tubing back in. (surprisingly, very difficult)

When initially starting, the air tubing did not take in any air. I tried blowing it to get it started. It worked with very small bubbles, but not enough to serve a skimming purpose. Being frustrated, I put it to the side, let it dry again, and the next day, it worked! However, after turning it off for 1 min, apparently, the tubing got clogged with water, and it will not add any bubbles. (again, frustrating)

Being frustrated, I shoved the end of the micro tubing to the end of air tubing from my air pump; I taped the end of the micro tubing to get 80-90% of the air trapped, and skimmer is working again! I will keep it permantly attached to an air pump--maybe that will help with any future cloggs.

This is very frustrating, but it seems to work. I only have corals in my 8 gal nano tank and the water seems to be very clear--all the bubbling for 2 weeks still makes very white-colored bubbles in the skimmer tube. No yellow or brown skimage can be seen. The bubbling still occurs about 1.5" above the water line--but in my set up, it has to rise about the 2-3" in order to collect skimmage.

I am hoping it is working. I was assured by my friend that if I ever had serious gunk to skim, it would bubble over 4-10+" inches with brown gunk. I am thinking that I probably won't get any serious skimage until I add a fish and start feeding (or over feeding it).

oh, by forcing air with the help of a small air pump, I think my bubbles are bigger. I still think this is a workable skimmer for the size it was made and intended for. It is the only one that I found that would even fit in the back compartments of my bio cube 8. A better alternative would be an external unit; but, besides the cost (more the $22. that I paid for the fission nano skimmer), it would also have a clutter that makes the tank look less of a nano tank. Also, for an external unit, some serious cutting into the hood may be needed for tubes to go in/out.

For now my review is complete. Unless I find some serious skimmage, no skimmage, or if I find a better product, it will probably be several months for a conclusion / update.

[PEMfish]

A Fission nano skimmer? ha. You bought a piece of crap, FYI.