ADA lily as surface skimmer?

While I don't have a lily pipe, my guess would be no. Reason being that it would not remove the surface sludge, at most it may help concentrate it into a central location for easier removal, but this would be dependent on the flow patterns in your tank.

That's sucks.. I will have an open top tank and was hoping that lily pipe would solve my surface sum problem. I really don't want to go the overflow box or surface skimmer route, but look like I have no other choice.

There is a post where people are saying that they really like a skimmer that hooks up to their canister filter, and on page 2 of this thread, mcd19 says that he only uses the skimming feature when he needs it.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/general-planted-tank-discussion/55360-surface-skimmer-2.html

Garuf says that you can adjust your lilly pipe in this thread:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/diy/55713-any-good-surface-skimmer.html