Aquatop Aquarium Surface Skimmer – 65 GPH Flow Rate – Efficient Waste Removal – Ideal for Tanks Up to 100 Gallons – Ideal for Freshwater & Saltwater Compatible

Unless others received a different product or one that was faulty, I don’t understand the negative reviews. This isn’t my main filter (I have a canister on my 40 breeder) so it’s mainly used for biofilm cleaning. I do not have a lid on my tank and it is well stocked and planted, so surface dust, hair, and oil is expected. This cleans it up in minutes. The suctions cups are solid. The floating intake has never stuck. It is so quiet I don’t even know it’s on. I have it set on the lowest setting and on a timer (20 min twice a day) and it has kept the surface noticeably cleaner. I have not had any issues with fish or shrimp being pulled into the filter but only running 40 min per day should hopefully avoid that. I anticipate having to clean the filter often as it is quite small, but the top comes off easily without having to take any suction cups off. I would 100% buy this again and will definitely recommend to anyone with biofilm or dirty water surface issues Update 5/11/2026: three years later and it’s still working great. I have used this as the main filter for a small tank and it has ran continuously for the last 2 years. I have replaced the sponge filter but everything else works like brand new. Fantastic value.

Had a bunch of stuff floating on water surface of my 75g cichlid tank (running a canister filter). This unit cleaned the surface very well after only a few hours. Suction cups are almost TOO god, lol (i had a hard time freeing from glass after i wasnt happy with my initial location i chose...). I do shut it off during feedings, as the surface food accumulated on top of the sponge filter in the unit almost immediately. Dont need to create a new problem... For the price, this unit is a no-brainer.

To be honest, I bought tjis item by mistake think I'm buying a name brand. However, I do not dislike the skimmer. It works very well and clears film on the surface in a minute for a 20g long. 0 noise. Install is easy, just stick it in the tank and plug it in. Value foe money well worth it. Only problem i have is tinkering with the water lvl, especially if you have ta k with the plastic rim. I lucked out as I rub it 1/4 below the rim, otherwise it won't work. The ubit needs to be about 1-2 mm abive the surface for it to work.

Great invention. It really does do a good job of clearing the film and debris from the surface of the water in an aquarium that doesn't have an overflow. Gets that water surface crystal clear quickly. It does have a few negatives, though: It's pump can be kinda noisy. The top bobber can get stuck on something and then it stops working and sucks and blows a bunch of air. This can especially happen if you have snails running around the glass of your tank - the top bobber sits pretty close to the glass and is easy for a snail to get under it and keep it from working right. It will go back to normal once the snail leaves, but the unit will be blowing a ton of air bubbles into the water while the snail is there. This would be much less likely to happen if there was some way to mount the unit further out from the glass.

It gets rid of the film, and that's what I bought it for. It has some major design flaws that really hamper its function and longevity though. Mainly, its design is completely incompatible with small fish. The shrimp guard sucks and does not stop small fish from getting sucked in - it just gets forced out of the way as fish get pulled in. The shrimp guard also slows flow to the point that it can't clean the film anymore and damages the motor. You're better off putting netting over the top, BUT the netting can also restrict the flow and cause damage. There's no way to win with this thing.

Anyone who has seriously been into aquarium keeping will relate to the horrors of duck weed. How it chokes out the light, overwhelms the aquarium, ruins your other floaters and gets into and onto everything. Try to net it out? Good luck soldier! This slippery, sneaky, evil floating weed skitters away and you can never get it all. I needed a way to eliminate it that did not involve tearing down every aquarium to the foundations and starting over. This little gadget does the job! Sucks in the duck weed that you missed with the net and hand picking, murders that nasty stuff. I used it to clean out two totally infested tanks last night. My big beautiful frog bit plants I would just dunk under the water and give them a shake to loosen up the attached duck weed... it would float to the top, thinking it was free at last to continue it's evil mission of world dominance... and be promptly sucked into this God send device! Now I am not going to leave it running in any of my tanks full time since they are shrimp and snail tanks where the device could end up covered in snails or sucking down some shrimp - but it was perfectly safe to use in a supervised fashion as I did. I knew though, that as evil as duck weed is, I would need to be vigilant over the coming days to ensure it was fully eradicated. This morning, a careful examination of the 2 tanks I purged last night revealed only 5 little tiny leaves of duck weed that had escaped... they were promptly snatched out and disposed of with vengeance. I will continue to watch and purge for every single tiny leaf that may have escaped. This is the first time I feel truly hopeful, the first time I feel that I may very well have just won the battle against the evil incarnate that is duck weed. If you too wish to win the fight, get this device!

It does what it's suppose to, keeps the water surface crystal clear. Avoid putting it in max to avoid micro bubbles from coming out. I keep mine a little over half and it sucks pretty well. For those that gave negative comments about the suction cups, you need to clean your aquarium walls. Algae and/or anything slimy on the aquarium walls will affect the suction. Don't blame the product or seller, you need to clean your tank. I've had zero issues with the suction cups and the device itself. I had bought an Oase skimmer for $39, that was ridiculous, I got this one for half the price and works even better. The oase was a mission to stop the microbubbles from coming out. I would buy this product again.

Good: this product cleaned the surface of my 75G tank in about 15 minutes and keeps it clean. Cons: 1) The suction cups don't work. I have only had this skimmer for about 3 months and ran into the same problem that many others complain about, the suction cups don't hold. After about 2 months of use, they just started to let go almost daily. This is a common problem with any suction cup (although most last a year) and I have replaced everything in my tank with magnetic holders (MagClip) instead of suction cups. The hard part of this item was that the MagClips are meant for tubing, but I cut the threaded shaft off of the tube connector and used it to replace one of the suction cups. The MagClips work "forever". I have been using some for 10 years without any problems. 2) It will suck down any floating food. This is also a common problem of any skimmer. I bought an electronic timer to turn this off 5 minutes before I feed and back on 30 minutes after feeding. I also use a automatic feeder, so it is set to turn on when this is off. I think this is finally a decent solution for a surface skimmer. I tried the Eheim skimmer that attaches to the filter intake and it worked great, but had the same problem that it could take food down and I didn't want to turn off my primary filter during feeding (or have to manually adjust it every feeding). Since this is a separate device, I was able to put it on a timer.

stop working after 3 days