Hagen Fluval Surface Skimmer

I had really high hopes for this, especially after reading other reviews, but after a year of use, I'm not sure i would recommend it.

good:

* low cost. way lower than so many other surface skimmers

* adjusts to water evaporation (see below though)

* attaches to your current filter/skimmer

* has a top and a bottom intake that you can adjust, which allows you to balance it depending on how powerful your pump is. this is a little hard to describe why this is good unless you have one..

bad:

* it uses an air pocket under the top of the skimmer to keep the top part on the surface. I don't know why they don't just put styrofoam or something that's permanently floating. This design is tenuous. it's kinda like balancing a ball at the top of a hill. typically for me, the movement of the water eventually dislodges some of the air, then the thing sinks and is no longer a skimmer.

* the suction cups it uses to attach to the glass wears out. And if it's not attached firmly, the whole thing becomes ineffective because it doesn't hold the surface intake part on the surface.

frustrating. This is ALMOST an awesome product. If it had a mechanism for better attachment to the glass (e.g. magnet) and a better flotation for the surface collector, it'd be awesome. as it is, i wouldn't recommend this product.

I bought this version because the eheim version costs almost 3x as much and this one gets good reviews from folks at Plantedtank. To attach it to my Eheim intake (5/8" not 1/2"), I used the 90* elbow and joined the intake pipe to it using a short segment of 5/8" hose. The black center piece that stick up is the adjuster which opens and closes the lower openings. The more you allow flow through the bottom, the less the surface suction will be. Also, I had to drill a piece of plastic from my canopy to accommodate the height of the adjuster. But in so doing, you can increase or decrease the surface skimmer flow on the fly. Just remember to keep the top of the surface skimmer clean periodically.

Previously, I had a sponge prefilter on my intake pipe. I could still have one--just cut a short 2" piece of foam and slip it over the lower intake.

There are some bubbles being entrained into the intake from the surface water being sucked in. This has not been an issue. However, those with CO2 injected tanks should understand that outgassing of CO2 will occur from this area. This may not be a problem with intermittent activation--turn the center adjuster for a brief period when surface scum accumulates, then turn off most of the surface flow once the surface scum is cleared (takes about 20" or so).

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This product does what it says and removed surface film from your tank but it is very cheap to the touch and I didn't keep it in the tank. It removed the film within 2 days, 90 gallon salt tank. The film was back a few days later but I didn't want to put this back in. Main complain I have is the dependence on water level and how hard it is to set up and get working properly. I have it 3 stars because it did what it was intended to but it isn't a piece you can easily leave on your tank for a permanent fix.

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Straight-forward installation, and it works great. Poor instructions, but the skimmer is pretty simple, so minimal documentation was not a problem. It removed all of the scum on the surface and made my 40 gallon goldfish tank glisten.

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It takes a bit of adjusting but once you get it set up it works great. Within a minute it had skimmed all the stuff off the top of the water and that oily residue that floats up there. It connected directly to my Fluval 405 with no problems. Great product and a great price.

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