PeteFree.comInnovative Marine MiniMax —all-in-one "nano" aquarium reactor — medium size — a review
© 2018 Peter Free
21 February 2018
Over-priced and under-performing
Innovative Marine's MiniMax has generally mediocre online reviews. After using the medium sized version in one of the same company's nominally 40 gallon all-in-one rimless Nuvo Fusion aquariums, I can see why.
This thing doesn't do anything well, in my fresh water application, than fit in either of the two reactor columns in the tank. (Those are the two columns located second in from the right and left tank sides.)
Even the instructions on my MiniMax sample were lacking. First, they made no mention of the 40 gallon Nuvo Fusion. Nor did they indicate that the pump that attaches to the base of the reactor has a variable speed switch built into it.
Erratic, generally lousy performance with Sera Marin Silicate Clear
The Sera silicate removal media looks like small gravel. Some of its pieces are roughly the size of bio pellets. This should not be a challenging medium to tumble. But the tiny MiniMax pump had trouble getting anything other than narrowly channeled areas to tumble. The rest of the column just sat there.
I concluded, as many reviewers have, that the pump is underpowered.
Note
One has to overcome two hurdles in attaching a larger pump to the MiniMax. First, you will have to use adapters to decrease a larger pump's outflow to the smaller MiniMax intake. Then, you will have to locate the taller and longer replacement pump, by itself, in the other reactor column (due to space constraints). You will have to run connecting tubing across the all-in-one tank's built-in sump to the column where the MiniMax is located.
This seemed like too much work to me. If I'm going to go to that amount of trouble, a separate sump assembly would be more adaptable and not all that much more work to set up and test.
Also, keep in mind that some reviewers have reported that they had the MiniMax cap blow off the media column a number of times. The cap is held by rubber o-ring friction only. A larger pump might worsen this occasionally reported problem.
In use, the MiniMax reactor would quit media tumbling for no apparent reason. I had to fiddle with the rotated position of the media container two or three times a day, just to get it to resume the tumbling action. Sometimes, I had to disconnect and reconnect the pump to get the media column to do anything. This quickly became tedious.
When the water level dropped slightly (due to evaporation), the MiniMax made a splashy racket. I wound up having to add and condition water every other day.
The medium-sized MiniMax media volume is arguably too low — for some purposes — in a 40 gallon tank
Following the MiniMax's instructions, I could only get one-third of the Sera box's Silicate Clear into it. A small Eheim Professionel 4+ 250 canister had held the entire 500 gram box. It would have accepted double that amount in just one canister tray.
As a result, silicate reduction during an equivalent period was about 50 to 75 percent less in the MiniMax, as opposed to the canister — despite the reactor's hypothesized superiority in exposing all of the media to water flow.
The double sponge filter MiniMax end caps are improperly sized and too porous
As other reviewers have noted, the four circular sponges that cap the top and lower ends of the added media are too small in diameter to fit the plastic column snugly. They are also too porous. Unlike the canister filter that had previously housed the Silicate Clear, the MiniMax allowed tiny bits of it to flow through.
These flow-through bits managed to attach themselves to moss balls, plants and anything minimally rough on the aquarium sides (like brown diatom spots, hard water deposits, and the occasional green algae dot).
After 10 days, everything looked like it had hoarfrost on it.
I would guess that this trait tentatively confirms reviews that complain that the MiniMax is essentially unusable with small-sized activated carbon and often equally problematic with granular ferric oxide.
That pretty much leaves bio pellets as its only marginally workable (generally used) medium.
The moral? — Nothing to recommend here
There are probably more efficient ways to spend your aquarium money.