Tunze 9001 Protein Skimmer Review

Here's a brief review of the Tunze 9001 Protein Skimmer. At only around $100-120, this makes for a very high value nano reef addition and an essential piece of equipment. And it works well.

This skimmer is very small as protein skimmers go. It's about 1.5" wide and 3 inches deep (on the horizontal plane) and about 10" tall, with part of the attachment above the water. Even on a 10 gallon tank it doesn't look monstrous, just noticeable. On a 20 gallon tank it is almost invisible and it is the perfect protein skimmer for those who don't have a sump to hide their reefing equipment.

The skimmer comes with a very strong magnet that keeps it in place. You will not have to worry about it moving and it is a real challenge to separate - which can be good and not so good. You'll want to be careful removing it when you do so that you don't strip the posts that hold the skimmer against the magnet.

I was able to get it working quickly but decided to use the option where the skimmer output water to the back of the aquarium (the side where the magnet is on and position #2) although it comes set up for position #1. There are various reasons for doing so - including using the surface skimming attachment. I was able to test that device but it makes the skimmer look very large. It is not advisable to use the surface skimmer on 10-15 gallon tanks unless you don't care if 1/3 of your tank width will be taken up with the view of the skimmer - although it did perform reasonable well. However you need to be sure that your water is level with the intake area, which should give you plenty of leeway even though people were complaining about needing an auto leveler for water, which is really unnecessary if you refill every day or few days.

The Tunze 9001 is very quiet for a protein skimmer. I was pleasantly surprised. It doesn't provide much vibration either and isn't the usual noisy racket that some of these can be, even after removing the top attachment to empty the cup. Access to the cup is pretty reasonable as you can see from the photos that illustrate all the compartments of the Tunze 9001 protein skimmer.