surface suction extractor - GREAT

I have a 50 gallon tank with fish, corals, inverts,... And as suggested looked for a good skimmer. A lot of people with bad experiences so I really doubted about buying on. I bought a Surface Suction Extractor (EHEIM 3535) in the meanwhile, and I am so happy about it I keep it without a skimmer. It cleaned the surface of my tank in 2 HOURS and keeps it clean.

Just what I was looking for and all my parameters are just perfect.

And problems with extra connections just on the canisterfilter and perfect cleaner water.

Greetings,

GM

 

I have used that surface skimmer. You should not any problems with that with regular maintenance and is a good addition to your canister as long you keep it calibrated otherwise it will suck air into the canister. It's not a substitute for a protein skimmer so keep the search up!

 

Hmm... I would be very careful if I were you! Very high percentage of organic waste (proteins, lipids, nucleotides etc...) sediments on the substrate and/or adsorbs on highly porous solid phases (like LR), creating very thin layer. High water current disturbs such a layer and "redissolves" organic impurities. Subsequently, they are trapped on the air/water interface in skimmers. The active skimming surface of your water in the tank is nothing compared to the surface of millions micro bubbles that are created during skimming process. You may be lucky now, but it may happen you add one fish more and boom: ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spike and game over! You would not want that! As Matt suggested, proper maintenance and disturbance of water surface, by eg. circulation pump should be more than enough to get rid of unpleasant thin layer of organic impurities.

Hope this helps ! Cheerio!

 

Can I revive an old thread to get some more opinions on this piece of equipment?

 

It is not a substitute for a skimmer. It basically is a surface skimmer and will provide the same thing an overflow would do. It is not the same as a skimmer. As mentioned above, a skimmer breaks down the water into a million bubbles which create surface area for proteins to stick to. This surface skimmer would be no different than pointing a powerhead to the surface to break it up.

This is an attachment meant to be used with a canister filter. Main difference is a skimmer removes that crap. The surface skimmer will only pull it off the surface and into the canister, continually filtering water through it. Its not extracted the waste like a skimmer would, separating the waste from water.

 

So they're essentially pointless. Fantastic! I just bought one AND hooked it up.

 

They are good for getting the surface of your water cleaned. the stuff that accumulates on the surface of the water will get filtered out, or skimmed out if that water is connected to a protein skimmer.