Most say that protein skimmers do almost nothing for fresh water but through my own experience I have found that they do a fantastic job at removing both soluble and non soluble fish wastes. Anyone else using skimmers on fresh?
Fresh water protein skimming
- Thread starter D_Nicepumpkin
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I use protein skimming on fresh water, with both downdraft and counter current type.
When I worked in a lab I did an experiment comparing desiccated skimmer wastewater weight with tank water, and found the weight of desiccated waste be 8 to 10 Xs greater than solids in tank water.
fractionator waste left, straight tank right
desiccation process, I had to dilute the waste, to allow it to pass thru filter
foam from one of my freshwater skimmers on a Tilapia pond
and a video of my downdraft skimmer on my freshwater koi pond
When I worked in a lab I did an experiment comparing desiccated skimmer wastewater weight with tank water, and found the weight of desiccated waste be 8 to 10 Xs greater than solids in tank water.
fractionator waste left, straight tank right
desiccation process, I had to dilute the waste, to allow it to pass thru filter
foam from one of my freshwater skimmers on a Tilapia pond
and a video of my downdraft skimmer on my freshwater koi pond
Cool study dude, wish I had acess to that type if tech. But still very cool to see tha someone did independent research and found that skimming does make a difference
I inherited a reef octopus from my uncle who gave up his reef when his 190 started leaking, so I threw it in my wet dry and low and behold it drew foam. And with the new found info from Duanes, it seems that skimmers do indeed pull waste well in fresh
It is a bit harder to produce foam in fresh, compared to salt water.
I believe most protein skimmer pumps chosen are simply too wimpy to produce the agitation needed to break the tension of the air water interface to separate DOC, solids, and other components.
Fractionation happens in nature all the time, and foam you see below a waterfall, is fractionated. You will also find it in creeks in spring where fast water breaks tension as it rushes over rocks.
Beside removing DOC, and other components, I did bacterial, algae, and other microscopic animal counts of normal tank water, compared to the foam/ fractionator waste water, and found these populations coincided with the dry weight comparison.
I believe most protein skimmer pumps chosen are simply too wimpy to produce the agitation needed to break the tension of the air water interface to separate DOC, solids, and other components.
Fractionation happens in nature all the time, and foam you see below a waterfall, is fractionated. You will also find it in creeks in spring where fast water breaks tension as it rushes over rocks.
Beside removing DOC, and other components, I did bacterial, algae, and other microscopic animal counts of normal tank water, compared to the foam/ fractionator waste water, and found these populations coincided with the dry weight comparison.
