Cadlights PLS-50 nano skimmer review

[kellerexpress]

Hi all, just thought I would post a review about a skimmer I recently purchased, the Cadlights PLS-50 nano skimmer.

A little background, I currently have 29g biocube, medium stocked with 3 fish. (Pair of clowns and a royal gramma). Nearly every nano skimmer I have tried in the past was a joke and ineffective. I was using a tunze 9002 previously, and while its a decent skimmer I was never satisfied with the quantity and quality of skimmate it produced. I read about and was impressed with the design of the new cadlights pipeless skimmers and when I saw they had a nano version, I had to try it. I've been running it for a couple weeks now and have been very impressed! The specs on this skimmer are as follows:

CAD Lights patented Pipeless design
-patented Locking system for holding settings
-Air injection
- Pin-wheel impellers
-100% Aquarium grade Cell-Cast acrylic
-up and down adjustable bracket
- 3-piece assembly thats easy to disassemble

Specs:
-Dimensions: 3.5" x 3.25" x 15"
-Speed: 190GPH
- Air Draw: 187LPH
- Noise emissions: 5dB over audible sound
-Aquarium Capacity: 10G to 50G
-100% Cell-Cast acrylic
-easily disassembles in 3 pieces
-Built in Professional Bubble-Plate
-Lock knob for tension control and full lock
-sliding tank mount for higher or lower settings
-CAD Lights TIA Pro skimmer pumps

Pics!

What comes in the box

Pump and pinwheel impeller

All put togetther

In the tank for the first time to break in. This is chamber 2 of my biocube, will also fit in chamber 1.

Few days worth of skim. A little wet but I'm still dialing it in.

After using this for a couple weeks, I have been impressed! The sweet spot for me is at about 6" water depth(measuring from the bottom of the pump) but am still dialing things in. It took about a week to fully break in and the skim gets darker each day. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a quality nano skimmer.
Pros:
-SMALL footprint, this should fit in the back of most aio style tanks
-VERY quiet, seriously I can barely hear it running
-Affordable
-Produces tons of foam! way more skimmate then any nano skimmer I have used. (blows the tunze out of the water)
-Easy to set up
-Simple to adjust, just twist the skimmer body.
-Quality construction and design

Cons:
-no instructions in the box. Wasn't a big deal though because its easy to figure out. (There is a video on youtube that explains things very well.)
-Although its very easy to adjust, it can be touchy. Once you find the sweet spot though you are good to go.
-Takes about a week to start producing consistent foam.

 

[rrocky]

great review! im still tuning my pls-100 and same here i had no instructions, but they are great skimmers!

 

[reeftivo]

:thumbsup:Nice review

 

[kellerexpress]

Thanks

 

[Conceyted]

Keller, thanks for your review. A few quick questions:

Did you notice that the pump threaded onto the skimmer but came to the tight position backwards or 180 degrees from the point at which is shown in your pictures? I had to turn my pump a half a turn loose to put it into the right position.

Did you find that interface between the body and the piece that the pump threads onto to be very loose? My skimmer body and the o-ring around it is not the same diameter as the piece that the pump mounts to and the o-ring interfacing between the two of them serves little to no purpose.

Where are you setting your bubble level? The only way I see any color close to your photo is when I have the bubble level set somewhere below the neck of the cup (like down in the actual skimmer body). I have mine set in 5.5" of water.

 

[kellerexpress]

Yes I had to loosen mine a half turn as well, and I also felt the interface between the pump and the body wasnt very tight, but it hasn't been an issue though no micro bubbles or anything like that. And like you explained above I keep my bubble level at the very top if the skimmer body. ( If you look closely at my last picture you can see the bubble level.). If I raise the bubble level higher than that it seems to skim a lot wetter.

 

[Conceyted]

Thanks again. Glad it wasn't just me with these issues. I still can't get that amount of skimmate nor that dark of a color even with the level set I'm the body of the skimmer. The lowest point on the neck I get light skimmate and the minute it goes lower into the body I get no skimmate at all. I've been trying to play with the water level the skimmer sits in. Maybe I will bring it up higher than 5.5 inches...

 

[kellerexpress]

Ya I tried 5.5 and my skim was a lot lighter and wetter so I went back to 6". I would try 6" if I were you.
Here is the skim from the last 2 days. Loving this thing.

 

[mkoop]

Great info!

 

[reeftivo]

Ya I tried 5.5 and my skim was a lot lighter and wetter so I went back to 6". I would try 6" if I were you.
Here is the skim from the last 2 days. Loving this thing.

Looking good

Just leave it at that depth and adjustment and it will darken up nicely over the coming weeks

 

[Tron_954]

Another satisfied customer, very nice!


Cad Lights Pipeless Nano Skimmer PLS-50 by J.L Photography, on Flickr

 

[reeftivo]

Are the bubble plate holes tiny like the pls100? I maintained my 100 with a small toilet brush and had to use it periodically to brush (poke down) through the tiny holes to keep clear.

 

[LinkinReef]

Just ordered one of these for a 34g solana. Can't wait to set it up!

 

[Tron_954]

Are the bubble plate holes tiny like the pls100? I maintained my 100 with a small toilet brush and had to use it periodically to brush (poke down) through the tiny holes to keep clear.

Never seen the 100, couldn't tell you!

 

[Tron_954]

Just ordered one of these for a 34g solana. Can't wait to set it up!

Enjoy. The initial setup may be tricky, don't forget to raise your skimmer, measure from the bottom of the pump to your waterline and have it be around 5.75" for the best performance...

It will be touchy at first, but once you figure out how it works, you will set it to skim like crazy.

Enjoy.

 

[LinkinReef]

Just got mine and set it up in a bucket with old water to break it in a little. The interface between the pump and the body isn't tight and I'm getting a LOT of microbubbles. Have you guys gotten anything like this?

 

[Conceyted]

Yes, microbubbles are absolutely ridiculous for the first week or two. They do calm down almost completely. That interface you refer to is identical on mine and I talked to CAD about it. They were very vague but said this was normal. I pushed for a better answer and they ignored my email.

I had a mod in mind to fix this interface and it does work. Take some Teflon or PTFE thread tape and wrap it around the body where the oring is. The tape is thin enough to mimick the raised portion of the oring but thick enough that a few layers will create a tight interface between the two pieces. It also makes the adjustment less finicky and more precise.

 

[Conceyted]

Its a QC issue IMO. Speculating here, but Cad probably ordered a run of these skimmers and they all came in with this interface being too loose. Rather than scrap them all they are selling them and claiming it was designed this way. Its complete BS, as the oring exists to seal, if there was not meant to be a tight interface then the oring would not exist.

 

[Tron_954]

You are tightening the lock to hard and it is making the body shift off the plate a bit. That's why there are bubbles. Once you figure out the setting abs it breaks in, you will notice there are no more bubbles. Mine didn't give off any bubbles...

 

[Conceyted]

If the oring sealed like it is supposed to and the tolerances were correct then it wouldn't matter how hard you tightened the lock.