Well, now on 2 full days of running my Itech small, it has settled in very nicely. I had some confusion with water level and whether or not my Aquabee was running correctly, but never an issue with the skimmer build itself.
The bubbles in the cone have a much more orderly look as they all rise nice and even compared to when I just fired it up there was more randomness.
Overall, I really like how its operating and by just removing three titanium screws at bottom of cone you can have full access inside to clean. Tweaking the skimmer for wet or dry foam is as simple as it gets. Just turn the riser pipe to the left or right. Very satisfied so far!