since brackish aint 100% fresh or salt, but still has salt in it, I wondered if I should have a skimmer or not. Watcha guys think?
Does brackish water require a protein skimmer?
- Thread starter JESTERX626
- Start date
Nope. In fact in most cases it won't even work. Now I have sucessfully ran a modified protien skimmer on a freshwater tank before but it took a lot of work and in the end wasn't worth the effort. Skimmers are even of debatable value on a salt water tank because along with the nasty crap they remove from the water they also take out trace elements that have to be re- added to the water. Stick with a good basic filter system for your brackish tank.
It doesn't require one, but it will work with brackish water.
As far as getting it working on freshwater, you'd need micron fine bubbles and even then the result would be poor at best.
The specific gravity of freshwater is only slightly higher than "water," so the "surface tension" needed to cause the gunk (amino acids, etc.) to cling to the bubbles. Even at that, you'd need some really dirty water to get what you'd get from the same skimmer on a marine tank.
As far as getting it working on freshwater, you'd need micron fine bubbles and even then the result would be poor at best.
The specific gravity of freshwater is only slightly higher than "water," so the "surface tension" needed to cause the gunk (amino acids, etc.) to cling to the bubbles. Even at that, you'd need some really dirty water to get what you'd get from the same skimmer on a marine tank.
I keep the salinity of my brackish tank at 1.014. The protein skimmer works well. Soon my fish are going full marine . Because they do better in full marine when they are full grown.
I personally have never really used a protein skimmer. Ive bought a few and always discarded them...the only one that saw much if any use was a Prisim Pro I ran on my past dwarf seahorse breeder tank. Ive ran reef tanks successfully for years without skimmers. The best thing you could do is have a great filter system, a good turnover rate(10X minimum IMO) and keep up on your maintenance.
matter of personal exp what work 4 you throuogh personal exp I have one my tannk is great but I never was without one so I know one thing firmly skimmer help with that crystal clear water the clearest comes skimmed water
nolapete;1167864; said:
HUH? The SG of FW is 1.000. Same as "water", whatever that means...
If you saw the nasty, gross-smelling crap that my skimmers take out of my 3 tanks, you'd never run one w/o one!
My skimmer is full of the same garbage so if that much gunk is being removed it must be a plus but remember that you have to supplement if you skim you water cause tank is not 100% garbage being removed