Fission Skimmer - Observations & Questions

[codered]

I bought my Fission Skimmer a few days ago, and it arrived today. A few observations for those of you purchasing one, and a few questions for those of you that have one...
OBSERVATIONS:
-- The elbows cracked shortly after I put them on. I've heard this happens a lot. I emailed Current USA, but they haven't gotten back to me yet.
-- It fits in the JBJ Nanocube 12 Gallon Deluxe just fine. There was a video on one site showing how to do it, so I just replicated. I put it in the first chamber, crunched the sponges into the second chamber, and put my heater and carbon in the third.
QUESTIONS:
-- I've never owned a protein skimmer before, but the bubbles it creates are bigger than I expected. They're about 1mm wide. Is this normal? I expected a ton of small, "micro" bubbles.
-- Also, about how long does it take before it actually puts something in the collection cup?
CodeRed

 

[gregzbobo]

The elbows on mine arrived cracked, so I know how you feel. Most folks do not utilize the sponges as they tend to become rather efficient nitrate producers, instead they place live rock rubble in one chamber, as for the bubbles, do you have the skimmer too high or low in regards to water level? The top edge of where the water exits the skimmer should be right on the upper surface of the water level in the sump. Mine started putting exceedingly watery skimmate in the cup after about a day or two, probably from the weak bubbles just popping and spraying water mist up in there, but its starting to break in and the bubbles are lasting longer, give it a week or so, it all really depends on your bio-load. The more shtuff in the tank, the better the skimmate.