Fission Nano Protein Skimmer

The Fission Nano Protein Skimmer is the smallest skimmer available coming in at just 6 inches high and 2 inches in diameter. It is a nano skimmer designed for nano aquariums. It comes with a powerhead pump that is rated at 84 GPH (Gallons Per Hour) that pushes the tank water into the cylinder to create a spiraling foam that is then collected in the small waste collection cup that sits on top of the unit. The collection cup has circular filter floss rings that fit into the bottom of the unit that allows water to flow back into the tank and any foam continues to rise into the collection cup. It comes with extra filter floss rings but you could easily make your own when you run out. It comes with some L-shaped tubes that will allow you to place the powerhead pump either to the side or below the skimmer.

Okay, we set up our unit in a 10 gallon tank that has about 15 pounds of live rock and 2 small ocellaris clownfish. The bio load is not large but any skimmer should be able to pull a decent amount of gunk out of the water in this type of setup over a typical day or two.

Setting up this skimmer is fairly straight forward even though the directions could be better. We originally put the powerhead pump to the side of the unit and started to get some serious overflow into the collection cup. So, we tried to put the pump below the skimmer with only slightly better results. The directions show that the optimum water level should be at the mid-point of the filter floss ring area so that is where we placed ours. The first thing you’ll notice is the large amount of tiny micro bubbles. Many skimmers have this issue and it should subside after a few weeks of use.

After a few days of running this skimmer we did see some light brown gunk in the collection cup and promptly emptied it. Things were going along smoothly until we forgot to turn it off when feeding the clownfish their favorite treat of live brine shrimp. The filter floss quickly clogged and the skimmer was overflowing back into the tank. We replaced the filter floss ring in the collection cup and were back in business.

After several weeks of constant use the amount of micro bubbles has diminished slightly but is still noticeable. It does produce some light brown gunk in the cup and we are emptying it on a daily basis. It is important to reiterate that this skimmer’s collection cup needs to be emptied or checked on a daily basis otherwise the very proteins it removed will overflow back into the tank. That is unless you have some airline tubing attached to the overflow spout. You could then direct the airline tubing to a bucket or a drain.

It is really interesting that there is not more of these nano type protein skimmers mass produced yet. The box claims that this skimmer is for tanks up to 30 gallons but you should probably use a more powerful skimmer than this one for anything over 10 gallons. That is just our opinion. If you’re running a 10 gallon or smaller nano tank you may be interested in this skimmer and it might do an ok job for you.

Positives

• Very low price (around $30 USD)
• Very easy to set up
• Extremely small profile for in tank use
• Supposed to fit in Nano cube and Aquapod style aquariums.
• Easy access to the collection cup for cleaning and has an overflow spout that you can hook up to some airline tubing and maybe a bucket or drain. This may come in handy if you need to be away from your tank for a few days.

Negatives

• Can be difficult to get the thing tweaked for collecting the dry type of foam. It seems to produce some fairly wet foam no matter what the position.
• You have to be really careful not to mess up the skimmer’s location or suction cups when removing the collection cup.
• Tiny micro bubbles still in the tank even after several weeks of use. If you have a nano cube it is supposed to fit in one of the back compartments and that is supposed to help reduce the amount of bubbles.
• Daily monitoring of the tiny collection cup

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