Well, this is what happened with mine. Right out of the box I dropped the cup cracked off the neck. I glued it with gorilla glue and while that was drying I cleaned it with ro and vinegar. After an hour I put it in the newest system. New special blend substrate went in cloudy water even though I rinsed it 4 times in ro. So new skimmer went into the water that I couldn’t see my hand in the sump. The next morning it looked like i was running carbon it was crystal clear. There was a thick sludge on the entire skimmer. The cup was full of thick slop. So I was impressed. The next day was when I was let down. There is enough micro bubbles that you would think had an airstone in the sump. It’s BAD. I don’t worry since it’s all out of the column before the return pump. So honestly for the price I have had fewer issues than with my redsea reefers. I will buy another soon as a backup.

Been in the hobby for 10 years and must say this is one of the best skimmers I’ve ever used. I broke it in for a few hours in vinegar then placed in sump. By next morning it was producing a beautiful skimmate and foaming like it should. I originally bought it for better gas exchange to raise ph as my last skimmer was good(or so I thought) at pulling skim but too small for my now heavy build, but this simplicity is significantly better

This just works. I am new to salt water and skimmers were a little concerning with all the information on tuning and getting them to work. I had zero idea on how to make this work but thought I would give it a go. I can tell you in a week it was doing an amazing job and is easy to use. This just works. Add to that, it is super easy to clean and picks up lots of poo. And it continues to get better. If you need a skimmer, this just works.

When the pump in my old skimmer died I needed something inexpensive to get me by till I got something better. So I picked up the 120DC skimmer. That was 2.5 years ago and this skimmer is an absolute workhorse for a heavy bio-loaded 75 gallon. Setup is easy. Just make sure the water level is around the black ring on the body for best overall performance. Easy to tear apart for cleaning is a plus. The only complaint I have are it does tend to have a lot of micro bubbles with the stock bubble plate. So you either want to close off the exhaust outlet to raise the internal water level some, or 3D print a new plate with nozzles to cut the bubbles down. Aside form that I'd definitely buy this brand again.