grimlock3000
Aquarium Advice Addict
After going back and forth between a BakPak 2R or Remora, I decided to try something a little different and go with an Advanced Aquaria HV1 skimmer. These are not as popular as the other two from what I can tell, however they are large capacity, come with a surface skimmer box and bubble box, and are inexpensive. What really settled my desicions was the fact that a CPR or Remora surface skimmer/bubble box is between $30 and $40 for what is basically and acrylix box with some holes in it. It is almost impossible to find good pics and information about the HV1, so I decided to post everything here on AA. $109 got me the skimmer, a Rio 800 (bleh), and the surface skimmer/bubble box.
Everything comes in a very plain white box. Cat not included:
Insde the box, nothing fancy either, you can see the Rio 800 tucked up in the side:
Instructions are a single page, which could be OK, however this is not very detailed at all:
Underneath the next layer, we have the skimmer itself. Very simple design, and very well built:
Under that, is the surface skimmer and bubble box. This is much larger than I was expecting:
Skimmer cup was not protected well, but it made the trip fine. It has a cheesy sticker too. it appears as if the sticker is held on with almost nothing, since it was half peeled off:
The cup lid was supposed to be drilled out with a hole for air release. Mine however was not drilled all the way through. I could have likely popped out the remaining material with a pen, but I went for the tools:
After checking over everything, I rinsed off everything in hot tap water and let it dry out a bit. I peeled off the sticker too:
Once the piece dry, I am going to hook this up and see how well it works I am going to keep posting the status of the skimmer since it could be a good deal for others. Or I could have wasted $109
Everything comes in a very plain white box. Cat not included:
Insde the box, nothing fancy either, you can see the Rio 800 tucked up in the side:
Instructions are a single page, which could be OK, however this is not very detailed at all:
Underneath the next layer, we have the skimmer itself. Very simple design, and very well built:
Under that, is the surface skimmer and bubble box. This is much larger than I was expecting:
Skimmer cup was not protected well, but it made the trip fine. It has a cheesy sticker too. it appears as if the sticker is held on with almost nothing, since it was half peeled off:
The cup lid was supposed to be drilled out with a hole for air release. Mine however was not drilled all the way through. I could have likely popped out the remaining material with a pen, but I went for the tools:
After checking over everything, I rinsed off everything in hot tap water and let it dry out a bit. I peeled off the sticker too:
Once the piece dry, I am going to hook this up and see how well it works I am going to keep posting the status of the skimmer since it could be a good deal for others. Or I could have wasted $109