Why do nano skimmers suck? tunze 9001

Heard great things about this. Not very happy with it.
Sure it pulls "dirty water".
But my old swc 160 on my 125gal tank pulled SLUDGE!
It was like mud consistency.

Why aren't these nano skimmers capable of this?

 

I do not know maybe it has to do with contact time. In a larger skimmer the micro bubbles are exposed for a longer time to the proteins in the water column of the skimmer. The only Nano skimmer I have had that I loved was the Tunze 9002, I loved that thing, in fact I have to see if one will fit in the back compartment of my tank.

 

Yeah, my old 9002 was amazing. That said, there is only so much neck space to dry the foam in, so you will get wetter skimmate.

 

Did the 9002 produce just dirty water? Or sludge? The 9001 was supposed to be an improvement. But I am not very impressed

 

Producing sludge requires height so the foam can dry. No skimmer that small is going to be able to do that. If you are only going to be happy with viscous skimmate however, you're asking a lot. My Bubble King could be set to do that, but isn't and the "dirty water" is an excellent result.

 

^ yup that is basically what I was trying to say.

 

Oh so I should be happy with dirty water? Lol just never had a nano skimmer before really. So expected same result as my big cone. Is that dirty watet getting the same amount of nutrients out as the sludge my big skimmer was is the real question?

 

It could be getting more (though in the case of a nano probably not). As an example, I have a great skimmer. If I dial back the pressure, it will increase the height the foam has to travel before it spills into the cup. If I do it enough, I'll get sludge. I chose not to, I skim wetter. I do so because while wetter takes out more incidental water, it also captures more waste in the process.

The viscosity of your skimmate is not the only measure of the effectiveness of a skimmer. The goal is to get the waste. How much water comes with the waste is incidental to a point. You're correct that smaller skimmers are incapable of skimming less water. There's only so much you can accomplish in a compact space. It's the waste extraction that counts however, regardless of whether it's wet or dry.

 

I might order the cad lights pls-50 elite. Read a ton of good reviews. But then matt on here did a review and had a bunch of issues. Idk probably never going to get the results I want but idk what else to try. Maybe just be happy with what I have.

 

I have the last version the nano (basically the same exact skimmer) it works well and is pretty quiet as I hate noise. But it pulls tea not sludge. The only good thing is it is small. If I wasn't worried about hob skimmers I'd get the aquamaxx / jns hob1. IMO best hob skimmer for the money