Reef glass protein skimmer

[Justin Swinney]

I want to give you my review of the Reef Glass nano protein skimmer.

First off I have a 10g system with a 2.5g hob refugium. I needed a small skimmer that didn't take up space, this one fits the bill. It is only about 3 inches in diameter. It is simply a 12 long Pyrex tube with a rubber stopper that has input for air and output for skimmate. It is exactly what I needed and it helps that it looks good too. It comes with an acrylic mount and rubber o ring that lets you adjust the height of the skimmer which is a fantastic feature to tune it in just right. After a couple of months having it and getting it tuned just right I am producing some black tar that has quite possibly the worst smell I have ever smelled. So it works fantastically. For those interested I posted a link to their site.

http://www.reefglass.com

 

[Ty Hamatake]

That is awesome! It's SO small! How much skimmate does it pull?

 

[Justin Swinney]

That is awesome! It's SO small! How much skimmate does it pull?

Yeah if you can tell from the first pic It's close to the size of the 100w heater. That second picture was about a week of skimmate . I have it tuned to be a more dry skimmate

 

[Justin Swinney]

I would definitely buy it again

 

[gone_phishin]

do you have any tips on how to get this dialed in for a dry skimmate?

what air pump are you using?

i have one coming next week

 

[Justin Swinney]

do you have any tips on how to get this dialed in for a dry skimmate?

what air pump are you using?

i have one coming next week

Start with the air valve off and slowly turn it on it should start to create very small bubbles. Keep increasing the airuntil it gets to the highest amount of air without producing bigger bubbles. May have to go back and forth a couple times to get it just right. Shouldn't be hard though. Once you get this set leave it alone. To adjust the skimmers skimmate the easiest way is to raise or lower the skimmer tube on that bracket with the o ring. It's really simple and straight forward to use. Just know since you the output is a elbow that connects to airline tubing over time it will get clogged and you will have to clean it out or the skimmer will stop. If you want it dry you have to clean it routinely. I clean mine weekly with some pipe cleaners they fit in that hole perfectly.

My air pump is a tetra whisper 10 from petsmart

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

Im acctually looking at getting this for my 10 gallon nuvo and kinda on the fence about it. Im glad to hear you are having great results for it.
Looks like it produced a nice little shot for you to take lol

 

[Justin Swinney]

Im acctually looking at getting this for my 10 gallon nuvo and kinda on the fence about it. Im glad to hear you are having great results for it.
Looks like it produced a nice little shot for you to take lol

Yeah tasty. It’ll knock you on your *** for sure lol

 

[ItouchedThebutt]

Yeah tasty. It’ll knock you on your *** for sure lol

No kidding haha. So this will be my first protein skimmer if i get this one. Its been on my mind for a while now. How exactly do you adjust it to get it to work how you needd it?

 

[gone_phishin]

i got mine installed in my IM 10 gal, it's been going for a week now

i'm it really pulling much skimmate so far. it's very watery and only has a slight green/brown tint to it.

i followed everything i've read on how to dial it in, but i'm not sure i have it where i want it.

how far out of the water do you have it? aka what is the measurement from the o ring to the top of the glass?

is it better to have the air line valve only slightly open, with the skimmer lower? or better to have the valve open more, with more air flow and more bubble production, with the skimmer body higher up so there is more room for bubbles without them going into the waste tube.

i love the look of it back there, and i know at the very least i'm getting more oxygen in the water...but after a week i hoped for a better skimmate. i definitely need to work on dialing it in

 

[Justin Swinney]

My air is probably somewhere close to halfway open I completely closed it until the air stopped and then slowly opened the air valve until there were tons of very fine air bubbles. If you see larger bubbles in the mix turn it down until pretty much all of them are the same size. My height is somewhere around 5-6in

 

[Justin Swinney]

No kidding haha. So this will be my first protein skimmer if i get this one. Its been on my mind for a while now. How exactly do you adjust it to get it to work how you needd it?

Check post #6 and 11

 

[gone_phishin]

so if i set it up like that, with tiny bubbles and about 5 inches above the o ring, then the bubbles come nowhere near the rubber stopper/outlet tube. is that what i'm looking for to get dark skimmate? i guess i assumed i wanted the bubbles as close to the stopper as i could without actual bubbles of water coming out of the tube

 

[Justin Swinney]

so if i set it up like that, with tiny bubbles and about 5 inches above the o ring, then the bubbles come nowhere near the rubber stopper/outlet tube. is that what i'm looking for to get dark skimmate? i guess i assumed i wanted the bubbles as close to the stopper as i could without actual bubbles of water coming out of the tube

May have to experiment a bit. But I have the line of micro bubbles around 1-1/2 to 2 in from stopper and after it settles in it starts making bigger dirty skimmate bubbles on top of the micro bubbles that push out the top.

 

[gone_phishin]

thanks for the input man

i'll be playing around with it. i've read that it takes some time to get where you want it. honestly i've never seen skimmate as dark as yours pulled with this skimmer so you must be doing something right!

 

[clem1975]

May have to experiment a bit. But I have the line of micro bubbles around 1-1/2 to 2 in from stopper and after it settles in it starts making bigger dirty skimmate bubbles on top of the micro bubbles that push out the top.

Thanks, I've been messing around for a week trying to hone this thing in. I raised the tube up 3" from where I had it and now it's settling in nice. I was getting such a wet skim at night I couldn't figure it out.

 

[SkyDragon8]

I like this skimmer a lot, the fact that you have waste going into a separate container is great.. The problem I had was the glass broke on me.. and finding a replacement cost almost as much as buying a new one.. I'm wondering if a plastic tubing (like the ones, for those old under gravel filter) would work.. how long do I need it, and what is the correct diameter, so I can use all the other parts from it..

 

[ReeferMaddne$$]

I just wanted to bump this cause of the great advice in here about dialing in this skimmer.

I just got this for my Innovative marine Nuvo 20 to replace the IM desktop skimmer. The IM skimmer has a junk pump that burned out on me 3 times. I finally tossed it and went reef glass and I love the thing so far.
I think I have it dialed in right. I love that I can use any size containers I want for the skim mate.