Metal Lily Pipe Surface Skimmer Steel Stainless Inflow Outflow for Aquarium Planted Tank (13mm for 12/16mm (1/2'') Tube)

I'm really happy with this product so far.Ideally everyone would like the glass Lily Pipes for the clean appearance. Then reality hits. Glass requires frequent maintenance to look good and worse, glass is fragile so each cleaning risks it being broken.After breaking several lily pipes I decided to try out this metal set and am pleased. The pipes themselves feel solid enough to last years in water and thousands of hose removal attempts. It comes with 2 translucent plastic mounts that not only work well but visually look nice on rimless tanks. There is a translucent plastic floating skimmer piece that works well for what it is but I do fear this is the most delicate part of the set.I installed this on a 20g Long tank. Substrate needs to be very low if you are installing on a tank this shallow as it will fit but barely. The outlet pipe circulates water well and the mount allows you to adjust the pipe output horizontally in any direction. The inlet pipe has a screw type adjustment on the bottom where the louvered inlets are. The inlet adjustment ranges from the skimmer being mostly useless to the skimmer doing most of the suction and the floater being sucked down into the pipe. It took only a few minutes playing around with it for myself to be happy. Surface oils were a big problem in my past but is no longer an issue with this pipe set.Yes, the price is expensive for a few bent stainless steel pipes but overall I think it should be considered a upfront investment for anyone considering glass lily pipes.

I wanted to rid my pretty tank of the ugly plastic pipes that came with my canister filter. The glass products were very pretty, but they're glass. Not only do I tend to be clumsy and fear I'd break them, that pretty glass wouldn't be so pretty with a month's worth of build-up (I clean my filter and pipes monthly). I also wanted a surface skimmer because I have a heavily planted tank.These look beautiful in my tank, and they work as advertised. They came with no burrs, scratches, or blemishes. There are cheaper alternatives available, but reviews tend to indicate lower quality workmanship and materials. Not so much with this product. Add me to the list of people happy with the materials and workmanship of this product. The only problem I had was the skimmer bobbing, but I was able to turn down the suction a bit on my canister filter to alleviate the problem.All that being said, I think this product is a bit overpriced. For this price it should come with better quality and more versatile tank clamps, and a cleaning brush. I love the product, but I don't consider it a great deal for the price.

great product, especially for the price, I am Definitely happy i got these instead of the glass option,with a basic clean up crew (i have 4 ottos right now) they keep the pipes really clean on the outside and the fact its not glass hides the algae inside that the livestock cant reach. another reason prefer these over the glass the stainless is really durable and putting the hoses on and taking them off was a genuine pain (very good thing) id be afraid i would break the glass ones trying to get my hoses on. the skimmer works awesome it sucked up all the biofilm my tank within a couple minutes. and its been crystal clear since and it catches all the floating leaves on the outside for easy cleanup. getting it to work right just takes some time, trial and error, its all based on adjusting a set of intake vents on the bottom to increase/decrease the suction out of the skimmer depending how much you close it down, and a small cavity in the skimmer you fill with air that floats it at the desired height. its gonna take some fiddling. but it will work when you figure out what your setup likes. a couple issues ive encountered are not really with the product, but more than likely concerns with your own personal setup.therefore odds are you wont encounter these but things to watch out for are; #1 im running a fluval 306 and i don't know if this would work as well on anything stronger. it was tricky to keep it from sucking air down the skimmer because of the amount of flow. i even tried to take out the skimmer to see what happened and get the water moving while i was doing a fishless cycle and it will still make a small whirlpool at the surface in its lowest position and the vents wide open. I eventually figured it out, still have the vents wide open so anything my size or smaller you should be fine. and note #2 one huge and obvious suggestion from a mistake i made, is if you have CO2 injection or a airstone of any kind don't place it under the intake thinking that the bubbles would just go in and be in contact with water longer, ie more efficient... eventually the air that gets by adds more and more air under the skimmer which you just spent time adjusting and you have to keep going back to it and knocking air out so it works right.

I've used this for a few months, and I'm noticing that there is rust on the outflow at the pivot joint (which isn't even necessary??). It looks like it has been there a while unfortunately. I wish I had caught it sooner. It is also very frustrating to get the perfect balance of skimming intake and regular intake at the bottom. I think both the design and the quality of manufacturing is not even baseline -- to create an aquarium product that will kill aquarium inhabitants is ridiculous.Pros: the product is the right size; it has an adjustable intake at the bottom; skimmer feature is great; stainless steel looks coolCons: rusted and dangerous for tank inhabitants; something about the proportions of the acrylic intake to the bottom intake "valve" -I guess you would call it- creates a very narrow set of adjustments that get the desired effect (skimming water on the top without the acrylic piece sinking straight down)