Coralife Biocube Protein Skimmer

This has worked out great for my situation. I lost five aquariums in a house fire, so I am starting over slowly. I started a 29 gallon cycling (mid June 23), and most skimmers were way too big. I did not want to set up a sump (and/or have the tank drilled). Not now anyway... As others have said; yes, this skimmer puts out tons of microbubbles, but those will eventually settle down. You will also need to mess with it (a lot) in order to find the perfect water level and adjustment of air flow. Mine took a few weeks to start producing foam. The suction cups hold tight, so it is easy to remove the chamber for cleaning. The biggest pain was I had to cut a piece of glass out of the canopy top, to make the skimmer fit properly. Overall, for smaller aquariums this seems to be the best stand-alone (not a component of a HOB filter), AFFORDABLE, skimmer on the market.

I have never used protein skimmers or filtration of any kind. Just a hang on back refugium. Tanks have done great. Recently decided to use a small protein skimmer due to overstocking and to reduce water changes. The skimmer didn’t seem to work for the first 4-6 hours but then started producing so much waste it blew the lid off the skimmer. The skimmer was extremely easy to set up. And fits great in my hang on back refugium. @3ghostman3 YT

Great little skimmer and is working fine. Only issue is there is a very small collection cup with no tube or outlet for collected detritus. I can only run it ‘dry’, not ‘wet’ as it accumulates and fills the cup. This causes the collection cup cap to lift and fall off. It is a nice, simple little skimmer. Easy to adjust the foam. Seems built well and I have had no issues with it in the two weeks I have had it running. I use it in a bait shrimp 120 QT (30 Gal) cooler. Since I regularly have 6+ dozen 3” – 5” shrimp in it at any given time, it has an extremely high organic load. This little skimmer does pull a ton of detritus out, but overfills the small collection cup every day. For a light load tank small tank it would be fine. Overall I would recommend to a friend with a light organic load application.

The system as a whole is loud. Just as many bubbles on the inside as the outside. It does skim. The skim mate holder lid pops off easy, use a rubber band or something to help secure it. I wouldn't recommend it.

The quality of the product and its functionality is top-notch for its price. It works as expected. It produces bubbles and pushes the toxic protein to the top and skims as one would think. Make sure your tank is tall enough because the pump will be underneath the skimmer. I added a little bit of tubing to remove the pump so I can place the skimmer lower, therefore the water level is up higher. This setup will for sure migrate to a bigger tank, but this has been a lot of fun for the kids.

Huge for a BioCube 14 or 16. I have a BioCube 16, which only holds 10 gallons. I already had to put a combo circulating pump and UV sterilizer in the tank because the tank itself is not self reliant for salt water. I bought the BSP-1 protein skimmer because I read a post from Coralife advising someone to make sure is it "all the way back in the far right compartment." This lead me to believe it would fit in the far right compartment, which is where the filter cartridge is located. However, this is way too big to go in that compartment as can be seen by the photos. The first two photos show how much the lid remains open when installed per the directions. The directions state, "a. If using with BioCube aquarium, remove cartridge from chamber one (BioCube 16 only). Use small clip to hang protein skimmer on the wall between chambers one and two." And there is a diagram showing this. The problem is there is a false floor that is siliconed into place making the compartment only 7.5 inches deep, but the protein skimmer without the collection cup is 9.5 inches. So, I looked around online and found instructions from Coralife explaining that the false floor had to be removed.Keep in mind, this is being held in place by silicone. You will not get it out without causing damage, so once removed, you cannot put it back. One response from Coralife to a user in a forum was to place the pump for the protein skimmer in the front right corner of the far right compartment for it to fit. But that can't happen with also removing a side plate inside said compartment. (See photos 5 & 6). So I finally got that out and was able to get the protein skimmer into the compartment in the position instructed by Coralife. (See photo 3.) The result was even when installed according to the instructions, the lid will not even come close to closing. See photos 1 & 2). The result is I do not have a functioning protein skimmer and now I can't even put a filter cartridge in the slot where it is supposed to go, because that has been destroyed. Don't make the mistake I made. If you have a BioCube 16, do not buy this. You will be sorry you did.

Skimmers go for OUTRAGEOUS prices now a day holy smokes I was lucky enough to stumble across this one which is a fraction of the price other brands are. The protein skimmer is quiet and actually sits pretty in my tank! I have a FOWLR that I only do water changes every 3 weeks because this thing works so well! When you place it in the water for the first time, it’s going to make your tank look like a snow globe, don’t worry thats completely normal. Give it at least 5 days to run, you will start to see the water in the container go from clear to gross dirty water. the bubbles will also regulate after 5 days. Depending on your tank size I would say I empty out the clear box once every 2 days (I have a 20g)

Me gusto

Skimmer is great and works well.

This is an amazing skimmer for micro tanks!! Highly recommmend, you’ll have to tinker with it until you are only getting one cup of skim mate per week out of it. Don’t wanna be taking too much water out.

The product us great and cheap!! It has been 1 week and it is getting lots if gunk and dirty water. I would defenetly recomend. The 2 reasons i give 4 stars and not 5 is because the box looked old and had holes in it, and it does make micro bubbles which is getting less and less with time. Also the skimmer chamber should be a bit bigger since the gunk acumulates fast (have to clean it about every 12 hours) and the lid comes loose so i put a rubber band around it and it does the trick.

Install was easy and seems to be working. Thr micro bubbles are crazy. I will let it run for a while, and maybe only run it a few days a week. My tank is a species only and I can get away with it, but I think this would be better in a sump, not in tank