[Chizpa305]

Hello,

I've always been a little OCD about the aesthetics of the tank and the equipment, trying to minimize as much (visible) equipment as possible from the view. However a surface skimmer is not something that you can store in the cabinet under the tank since it needs to be, well... on the water surface. I always hated seeing the skimmer there taking the attention away from the plants, fish and rocks. So then I got this filter intake which also had the function of a skimmer. At first I thought it was a perfect solution. It was clear, fairly discrete and did the killed two birds with one glass piece. But it wasn't really doing the skimmer function very well. The intake was made out of glass, but the skimmer was made out of plastic so that it was lighter and be able to keep itself on the water surface level, but when it got a little slimy from algae, or bacterial growth, the water flow would keep it down from the surface. That and other problems I had with the plastic calcifying and snapping. Anyways, I was just wondering if anybody out there knew of any other alternative for a skimmer that works well, but also looks clean. Or do I have to just resign to the idea and keep using the original skimmer?

 

[Oughtsix]

Could you post a picture of what you are using now please?

 

[minorhero]

You can have a tank drilled for an overflow. Or you can just keep the integrated skimmer clean. Or you can go without a skimmer and use a net to remove any floating plant debris during water change. If you are getting bacterial film on the surface you can permanently get rid of it with temporary use of a UV filter in tank. This might take a few applications but it does work (I recently learned this).

 

[jellopuddinpop]

In the next few weeks, I'm going to be building a small overflow box on one end of my aquarium, and it shouldn't extend much below the rim. Check out my journal in a few weeks to see what I'm going to do.