A Review of the CAD Lights Pipeless Skimmer

The CAD Lights PLS-100 Pipeless protein skimmer is a stand out in 2012 with arguably the first truly original skimmer design seen in some time. Immediately noticeable is the lack of exterior stand-pipes or drains resulting in an extremely small footprint of 4.75" x 4.75". This skimmer achieves this with the innovative two part skimmer body. The base and tower have interior discs with drain holes. To adjust the water level, you rotate the tower - adjusting the size of the drain holes. Beyond this radical design, what really struck me at MACNA was the excellent skimmate it was producing. I had to try one out. So after six weeks of use, it is time for my review. Pics, specs and full review below.


The CAD Lights PLS-100 Pipeless Protein Skimmer


Close up of the innovative adjustable drain design

Features:

• Extremely small overall dimensions: 4.75"(L) x 4.75"(W) x 18.75"(H)
• Powerful TIA-1150 Skimmer pump
• GPH: 375GPH
• Wattage: 20W
• Air draw: 315 L/H (NOTE - pump is 1400 L/H)
• Optimum Water level 7"-10"
• Load recommendations:
• Light bio-load (100G)
• Medium bio-load (80G)
• Heavy bio-load (60G)
• 100% Cell-Cast acrylic. High quality Craftsmanship.

Price:
$175 directly from CAD Lights Web site. Mine came to $187 with taxes and
shipping. It arrived in less than a week.




Unboxing the CAD Lights Pipeless Skimmer

For the anxious types, the unboxing of the PLS-100 is a pleasant experience
as it comes nearly fully assembled as shown. Adding the silencer and hose
to the pump can be done in under a minute. You will spend much more time
processing how this skimmer works and marveling at the design than putting
it together. I sure did.

Instructions:

There is not much to the 1 page instructions provided by CAD Lights and
that might be a reflection of this simple design - as there is not that much
you need to know to get this running. You start it with the drain holes
fully open and then adjust to desired water level by rotating the skimmer
tower left OR right. My recommendation is to note which direction you turn
it and continue to go those directions for draining every time. Otherwise
you will flood out your cup a lot. Trust me on that one. Beyond this, Cad
Lights recommends having the water level at the midway point in tube within
the skimmer cup for break-in. After breaking it in, you will probably lower
it as it begins to crank. I have mine about 1/2" above the white ring found
at the top before the skimmer tapers to the cup with the skimmer in 9" of
sump water. (see pic below) After 6 weeks of use, this is THE sweet spot
for me and I get excellent skimmate.




1st Impressions:

Out of the box I was a bit surprised at the size of this skimmer. Although
it is 18.75" high, the CAD Lights PLS-100 seems smaller. No doubt this has
to do with the lack of girth side to side and the 4" wide reaction tube.
Once I turned it on and began to use it, my fears of it being inadequate
were dispelled. It just takes time to get used to the appearance of this
skimmer. It's different.

The fittings between the base and tower are individually hand-polished and
it shows with the ease at which you can rotate it for adjustments. After
assembly, I realized that what holds the skimmer base and tower together -
and the drain setting you select - is the air hose which goes through
eyelets on both pieces and a bit of downward water pressure. "Really?" I
thought. "Would a rubbery air hose do the trick and hold the line?" The
short answer is "Yes." Most of the time. Surprisingly. But more on this
later.

For the sexy pics and also to gain knowledge about how to put this skimmer
back together after cleaning, I completely disassembled it prior to use.
This exercise highlighted another design choice that made an impression on
me. The skimmer pump is attached to the skimmer simply by a snug fitting of
the nozzle though a hole in the base. Part of me liked this as I would not
have to deal with threaded nuts anymore. But as I tried to remove the pump,
I noted that it fit really snug and took back and forth massaging to
remove. I wondered if this would cause more issues after a lot of use and
build up. More on this later. If you want to remove just the pump and leave
the nozzle attached, you can almost do so by simply rotating the pump but
before you get to the release gaps the pump knocks into the walls of the
base. You CAN continue to rotate the pump and remove it but this causes the
base walls to flex, making me a bit uneasy about wear in the long run.



The Suction Cups:

Another design aspect that made me pause is the use of suction cups on the
base to hold the skimmer in place and allow for aid with drain adjustments.
I noodled this for some time. I still cannot think of a way around their
use unless you weighted the base down and used rubber feet instead. But
some executive will say that will lead to higher production and shipping
cost. The use of suction cups also requires cleaning of debris from the
bottom of your sump to get a good hold. I skirted this initially by placing
the skimmer near a baffle - which allowed me to rotate for adjustments
while the base was held nearly in place by the baffle. But for sake of this
review and long term use, I dug in one day and cleaned an area of my sump.
With the suction cups, the skimmer adjusted much easier than my lazy-man
baffle solution. However we all know how long suction cups last in salt
water so this will be something to circle back on.



Build Quality:

The cell-cast acrylic was pretty nice except of a couple small chips shown
above. While not show-stoppers, these chips were present and noted.
The CAD Lights PLS-100 silencer does attach to the skimmer cup lid - same as my
Bubble Magus did. I am not a fan of this method as it makes removing the
skimmer cup for cleaning a bigger task. Building an alternate silencer
holder would not be that difficult though but one should be aware that the
silencer hose plays a big role in how this skimmer stays together.
Modifications will have to account for that by coming up with an
alternative solution to keeping the skimmer body and base together and
making drain adjustments.

The silencer attaches to the skimmer lid via a plastic screw. Only one hole
in the skimmer thread is threaded and oddly it is not marked. I spent several
minutes one night trying to get the screw into an unthreaded hole. It is
not obvious which one is threaded. Take a sharpie and mark it. I plan too.

The suction cup mount slides into the base via a slot cut in the base
walls. It is a bit loose and I can see someone knocking it out of the slot
with a bit of downward pressure. However this has not happened to me to
date.



I do appreciate the addition of a skimmer cup drain. If I did not have such
a high sump wall, I would be using that by now. I also like the small gap
between the top end of the skimmer tube and the ring on the inside of the
lid. This has proven to hold skimmate on the lid well allowing for easy
drainage. My last skimmer had a much bigger gap. I think this small
gap is ideal and helps produce skimmate better.






Plugging it in:

The TIA iB350 pump on this skimmer is quiet. Very quiet. That was the first
thing I noticed. The next thing I noticed was the fine bubble density the
pump produces. A good sign. There were not any big air bubbles mixed in with
the fine ones unlike my last skimmer.




Adjusting the water line in the skimmer:

Adjusting the water-line in the skimmer takes some getting used to. It is
not hard, but requires nuance. You need to go past the mark and bring it
back down to get a sense of your adjustment and allow for what Cad Lights
refers to as 'buffer' time. That is, the time it takes for the water to
respond to your adjustment. While not difficult, if you are sloppy you can
easily flood out your skimmer cup in the process and it can happen quickly.
I've done it a few times. Some tips: Do not try and adjust the skimmer
while standing and holding a beer. Do not try and adjust skimmer while
holding your 2 year old at bay. Hold the skimmer toward the middle or near
the base to adjust well. You can adjust by turning the skimmer cup, but the
results are not as good. Look at the water line and not the drains while
adjusting. Adjust slowly.




Experiences after six weeks of use:

Nice Skimmate.

The first week of use was the typical skimmer break in with some bubbles in
the sump and waiting for the skimmer tube to gum up. Once it did, the Cad
Lights pipe-less skimmer showed that it can crank out the skimmate. I am
very impressed by the skimmate it produces. I can dial in darker and dryer
skimmate easily. The PLS-100 is capable of getting that up and down
skimmate motion in the top of the tube that I like and go for. Since a
skimmer boils down to skimmate production, the PLS-100 gets high marks here.

Some Adjustments Required.

Stock, the PLS-100 will require a bit more monitoring than skimmers with
nice gate-valves. In my six weeks of use, I have had 4 issues with drifting
settings. Two of those times were due to water level going down in the sump
when my ATO reservoir was empty. No fault of the skimmer there. One of
those times was a mystery. After a couple days, I just noticed the water
line in the skimmer had dropped. I am not sure why. Perhaps my son running
back and forth and jumping caused it (happens a lot!), perhaps the skimmer
tower became buoyant and turned. I don't know. A simple adjustment stayed
in place for some time after that.

The last drifting happened last week after cleaning my skimmer cup. I
turned the skimmer back on and tried several times to adjust the water
line. I could not get it to hold. Upon close inspection I noticed that the
skimmer tower was tilting from the pump water flow. A gap was noted between
the tower and base on the side opposite the side the air hose went through.
The skimmer tower was just too buoyant to set the drains. I got pretty
frustrated by this. I played with the air hose a bit and screwed the
silencer screw all the way into the lid, tightening the hose. This helped.
But it was not enough. After several minutes I took a piece of thick
acrylic scrap I had and placed it on top of the skimmer lid to weigh the
body down. This did the trick and the water line held its mark. My water
line is still where I left it that night. Do I still need the weight on it? Not sure
but if that is all I have to do for the space savings from this skimmer, I
am fine with that.

Easily Modifiable

One of the nice things about the shortcomings I have with the Cad Lights pipeless
skimmer is that they are all addressable with some modifications. A sharpie can mark the threaded hole in the skimmer lid. The stock suction cups, while adequate so far, are pretty skimpy and will probably wear fast. But who doesn't have 300 suction cups in their closet after a few years in this hobby? Surely I can find some beefier ones without dropping any cash. A little weight on the cup handled my recent drift issue but I have some ideas that might be more elegant. For example, super gluing a couple slotted pieces of acrylic on the base and tower and threading with a plastic screw fastened with a wing nut might just be a nice adjustable vice that could help here. Do I need it? Not sure. Surely not for the majority of the last six weeks, but the recent incident has made me paranoid. If I have another incident like that I will start tinkering.




Cleaning

With the exception of my issues with the pump removal, cleaning this CAD lights skimmer is actually a satisfying affair. I first had this feeling when I moved it into the kitchen sink and realized that these few parts accounted for the whole skimmer. Each piece is easily handled too. Removing this skimmer for cleaning is not the stressful experience I have had with bigger skimmers that I had to teeter out between the sump and stand while spilling water everywhere. This skimmer will easily fit in a small bucket. Furthermore you have the possibility to remove just the top section if need be and leave the base. That is nice. One draw back is the way the skimmer tower is sealed at the bottom. Cleaning the inside of the ring will require a tooth brush with an extension on it or a vinegar bath. This is not a show-stopper though. After a month of use, the pump did begin to hum, most likely due to my kalk dosing. A simple 5 minute vinegar soak restored it to the stealthy quiet I was used to. This month mark is pretty average with any skimmers when kalk dosing in my experience.



Final Thoughts

Overall I love my CAD Lights PLS-100 pipeless skimmer as the space-savings and excellent skimmate production outweigh my issues with the design. I have a small sump that is 18"x18" and nearly have of that is my refugium. The subtle nuances of adjusting the water line will turn off some people but I feel this is an acceptable trade-off for the rewards of the small footprint and performance. So having a competent skimmer with a 4.75" x 4.75" footprint is a big deal. After setting up the pipeless PLS-100 I could actually see my sump pump and noticed that it needed cleaning. My sump appears organized again and the CAD Lights skimmer is outperforming a much bigger skimmer that it replaced.

My old skimmer will now reside in the garage. I am a fan of this innovative skimmer.

matt





CAD Lights Web site:
NEW Pipe-Less Protein skimmer Super space saving [PLS-100] - $174.99 : CAD Lights, Thinking outside the cube

 

Great review. I like the fact that its not too tall to fit under some popular stands out there. I looked at the link to their site looks like everything they're working on is pretty solid. Have any experience with MRC or Warner? If so, how would you compare?

 

Having this available to people with small sumps will be great! Most of your shortcomings you found with this skimmer are solved by larger skimmers. I wish I had something like this years ago with my first sump setup!

 

Excellent write up! Looks like the perfect skimmer for smaller sumps.

 

Great review Matt, makes me wish I was in the market for a new skimmer

 

Thanks all. I was up a bit late with this one.

I have the Warner MF-121 and it was ok but I could not dial in dark skimmate with it. It was a bit on the wet side. It was also much louder and I had issues with restarting. The MF-121 also kicked out some rogue big bubbles in the mix and had more bubbles in the sump. It is a beefy skimmer, but this one suites me better so the MF-121 is my backup that resides in the garage.

 

for space saving on a nano set up with the smaller sumps this looks like a great design.

 

That's funny I've been trying to get my hands on a 121 but Jon doesn't make them anymore.

 

Thanks Matt for the review, we just started carrying these and I was wondering how they worked. Looks good to me ...

 

UPDATE -

Hi all - back from travels... Happy new year!

Over the holidays I've had two incidents with this skimmer flooding.
My tank which had been doing very well and stable for many months is now reeling from this and I may have lost my new montipora undata. Needless to say, I am not pleased.

This skimmer has great potential - it is very quiet and capable of great skimmate - but in my opinion has a serious design flaw as the settings wander with vibration over time causing the water line in the skimmer to go up and down rather quickly.

I believe I can DIY a fix. I have a few things in mind. But in the meantime my Warner Marine will go back online until I can do so.

I will start a new thread with the fix and link it here as soon as I can.

matt