This thing was frustrating. Seems to function well but if you touch it it falls apart. The collection cup is the tightest connection on it, to put back on requires you to GRAB it and push generously. But then the suction cups and suspension clip have come off. The bracket holding the suction cups is also the "clamp" that holds the case clamshelled together and it easily slides 1/2" to allow the unit to split into 2 halves. The only application this would be worth the effort to dump would be if it was in a space that allowed for a FULL grip on it, and one would still need to be very careful. Could have been a good product.

I have been using this in my 29 gallon bow front for about 3 weeks. It is awesome. It does spew a lot of micro bubbles at first, give it some time. After about 8 hours there was a noticeable decrease in the amount of bubble and now there is an acceptable level. It does take up quite a bit of room and my glass cover no longer fits. I will need to get the back glass cut to compensate for it. I guess it is notable that I would prefer to trim the glass cover than to remove the skimmer. It did not take long to set it up, maybe 45 minutes, but I was playing with the settings to see if I could get the bubbles to stop. Don't bother, they won't stop completely. Maybe it is me, but I have never had a protein skimmer that did not introduce micro bubbles into an aquarium. I have it set to allow the foam to rise about half way up the collection cup. Occasionally the foam spills over the top into the cup. I am getting about 3/4 of a retention container a day of skim-mate. My water is crystal clear. This skimmer is fairly quiet. The aquarium is in our living room and the noise is not very noticeable.

Some things I don't like are:
1. It is very difficult to get the retention cup to seat on the unit while it is operating. This is a silly design. It does not need to fit as tightly as it does.I have thought about taking a knife to both parts to trim some of the plastic down but so far it hasn't bothered me enough to warrant the time.
2. The unit interferes with the tank's glass cover. If they had placed the collection cup and air intake at the back of the unit I think the tank cover would fit better. At least I would not lose as much of the glass cover.
3. The hang-off-the-back bracket does not allow me to raise the unit high enough to meet the water line requirements of the skimmer. I tried using a block of wood but in the end decided to lower the water level of the tank. This seemed to be the best compromise. Not sure why they did such a poor design of the bracket. They ended the ratcheting section too early. It needs to extend all the way to the top of the bracket to accommodate a greater range of adjustment.

All things consider, you can't go wrong with this. It is inexpensive and effective.

When my Innovative Marine ghost skimmer stopped putting out foam and became worthless, I had to look around and find a replacement. I came across this one at a very reasonable price unlike my old costly skimmer, I figured I would give this one a try as I couldn't go wrong given the price.
I have a Nuvo 30L tank and this fit perfectly into a compartment in the back of my divided tank. 2 days and it was putting out skim. Very pleased. It's a nice bit of engineering in a compact body. I( have only had it a few days so I can't say how long it will last, but at this price I'm not worrying.

Works well when it's working... intakes gets easily clogged from loose Cheato floating around which also will get caught on the bubble maker which causes it to either spin off balance and create a loud rumble or stop it from working at all. Luckily, the entire unit is easy to disassemble to clean out and also easy to reassemble. Other than the easy clogging, the skimmer works really well and cleans out my 3 gallon pico tank (with 10 gallon sump) really well.

i bought two of these, the second one i had to take apart and play with underwater while plugged in to get it working, who cares? Now they both work and skim. I dont think they are considerably noisy, just louder than an hob water fall. if you need something small that skims well this is your answer, there is a break in period, the unit must devolp a foam head, its best to have it on lowest setting and do not clean the cup just empty it. if you do clean the cup you will have to start this cycle over, im not sure if there is ever a reason to clean the cup.