Skilter feedback

[Aceswife]

Hello all. I have a 5 gallon nano at work, and I am thinking about asking santa for a skilter. I have a whisper 1 on it now, but the sand keeps getting into the impeller and causing all sorts of trouble keeping it running. I'm just looking for some feedback or comments from anyone that has a skilter or knows much about them...

Thanks in advance!

[impur]

I have only heard bad stuff about skilters. Never used one, but never read a positive review either. Basically all its good for is moving water, which can be done with an AC filter for cheaper and much more reliable. Plus you can mod it into a nice little fuge.

[Loverotties]

I had one years ago(won it at local club tried it on a hospital take.VERY NOISIE!!!)but I do remember people said it worked great with a airstone instead of the venturi.I maid a small skimmer for a 5gal yrs ago(intank with a air stone) that worked better then the skilter without the mods to it.

[RobinsonFam1]

i too have heard nothing great about the skilter. go with an ac 500 if you want a hang on filter, otherwise a sump/fuge is the way to go. you really dont have to have a filter on a nano but i do beleive it makes things easier.

[bink0404]

I use a skilter 250 on my 20H and have had fairly good results. As long as I run it for a few hours at a time, I will get a nice brown liquid in the collection tray. It's not the nice thick sludge that high quality skimmers produce, but it does it's job and collects organic wastes. The only big downfall is that it produces an unbelievable amout of micro bubbles and there seems to be no way of keeping them out of the tank. Other than that, I am happpy with mine.

[tabwyo]

I hade one and I will never get another one again.

[Justin Cabibi]

Ditch the skilter idea and get a HOB skimmer. IMO

[kuma119]

Originally Posted by Aceswife

Hello all. I have a 5 gallon nano at work, and I am thinking about asking santa for a skilter. I have a whisper 1 on it now, but the sand keeps getting into the impeller and causing all sorts of trouble keeping it running. I'm just looking for some feedback or comments from anyone that has a skilter or knows much about them...

Thanks in advance!

[kuma119]

I have a skilter on my 10g nano. I also thought it was too noisy and inefficient. I modified it by turning the skimmer into an air stone driven skimmer. Now it works like a charm and it is quiet. There was also enough room in the bottom of the skilter to adapt an ice probe chiller.Mark

[tabwyo]

DIY an air driven skimmer for alot less and get better performance.

[jeepjon]

I have only seen one reef (at an LFS) with a skilter and it didn't work for crap, according to them.