I think I have a working setup for freshwater protein skimmer

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p3rf3ctsp3cim3n

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 10, 2010
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What I have seen in forums so far, everyone is almost dismissing protein skimmers for freshwater. i have to small turtles in a 55gl tank with a canister filter, aeration, plants(eat nitrites and nitrate. On top of that, I just got a Berlin X2 Turbo Protein Skimmer. Quite a expensive venture of $225 but I think I would like to run an experiment.

If you check out this company: http://www.absolute-koi.com/subcat601.html they sell freshwater skimmers for ponds and such. Regular skimmer, but with one catch. It's on reverse. Instead of collection cup being on top, it's on bottom, usually as a drip, on top is the aeration and in the middle are biorings. That's right, bio rings. It seems to work and I am trying it on my setup.

I have turned the skimmer on today(just got it) and instructions state it takes 3 days of operation for priming before anything shows up, which is consistent with several reports I have seen around the net with saltwater skimmers, which what mine is. Once it is primed, I will place biorings and see if it will operate normally, without the upside-down drip.

I'll update over time water quality and parameters and report back over time.

Let me know what anyone thinks.
 
So you're trying out the Berlin skimmer? I'm trying to find something that works for a FW too, I have a couple ideas as well.
 
big dovii;3968897; said:
So you're trying out the Berlin skimmer? I'm trying to find something that works for a FW too, I have a couple ideas as well.
Click to expand...

Yup, I was impatient and I had little bit of bio-balls left over. I dumped them into the skimmer, even though I can pack a lot more in there. As soon as I did, it was a major improvement in bubbling and a lot smaller bubbles. Gonna get more bio balls tomorrow and go from there.

If you got ideas, I'm willing to try as I go along.
 
Yeah that "algae skimmer" seems to work.

So with bioballs and skimmer at the end of second day of operation, with one more left for it to be primed, per instructions, seem to work. They are breaking the air into very fine air bubbles at this point but with slight disadvantage. Bio-balls are gonna be breaking down due to force of water and flow rate, I have it at full 150gl/h blast until it is primed.

I am noticing that the collection cup has been greased with gas and plenty of moisture and bubbling seems to be increasing to a good sized foam but still not enough.

Tomorrow I am trying something new, I'm gonna cut up a large prefilter sponge into sections and gonna layer the skimmer with that, alternating with bioballs. I have a hunch that it will improve things a lot better.
 
Update

Ok, skimmer is primed and I did get some slime, which was pretty cool but not enough. Since the bio-balls topped off where it was bubbling, their surface of four of them got really , constant bubbles popping over them. It started to creep up the bottom of the collection cup wall, but it is nowhere near topping into the overflow for the cup. There is quite a bit of evaporation that is collection on the top of the cup that has small vents. It's pretty scummy water.

I added freshwater API salt this evening down into the skimmer per instruction dosing. Used hot water to dissolve and dilute it and poured it down. Got quite a bit of bubbling action going on. But then it settled down and filtered out of the tank. The rest of the salt crystals settled on the bottom of the skimmer where they lay almost undisturbed due to the design of it. So it will leak a bit out over time.

Tomorrow getting around to getting it off the tank, disassembling and putting it together.

I've been doing quite a bit of research on getting the water clear and keep it stable with various methods for both salt and fresh systems. Here is what will happen.

I will be taking pics and posting them once it is done for visuals.

Bottom of the skimmer (stack is top-to-bottom order)

(((collection cup ^))) this is water line/bubbling action
- Tried to find a large water screen that is used in facets(not sure if that metal is a good idea, but something that does not dissolve that easily) but ended up getting a rubber one that is shaped in a small cup at Lowes. This is where a bit of experimentation will take place as I am considering cutting out a micron filter bag into the shape of the cup and and placing salt rocks in it. I figured, per instructions, it will leak barely a small amount as water is not move that much at this level back into the system, but in any case, keeping the dosing of salt to recommended levels no matter what for the system). As a PLUS, it would be salinated and hopefully getting some hot bubble action.
- Bag of saly crystals or something in a bigger format, like a salt rocks
(((at this point this is almost the very top ^ before the collection cup)))
- Adding a small bag of seachem purigen - getting extra clarity and filtration
- stack of bioballs
- Fitted Prefilter - breaking of bubbles very small
- Venturi

***There is another additional surrounding overflow cylinder that can be used to fill it with additional filter(s) for maxing out bubbling.

If you have any ideas, pointer, etc. let me know.

As for parameters...

ph 7.6
everything else reads in low ranges and I am using a API kit for testing. Water is heavily oxygenated now that skimmer is running but had pretty good saturation before as well.
Two Mississippi map turtles and two small silver tipped sharks

Setup
55gl
100W PowerSun full spectrum heat basking lamp
quite a bit of anarachis
cascade 1500
Berling X2
10gal flow pump connected to air pump for aeration
I do need to bring down my ph to 7 at least or ideally 6.7 as that's the preferred range for my turtles.
 
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