Protein Skimmer in FW?

[pcfriedrich]

I bought a 135 gallon set up a couple of years ago, came with the stand, overflow, sump, all that, even a protein skimmer installed in line that looked like it had never been used. I just always kept the thing turned off and the line that runs to it closed. After all, protein skimmers are only for salt water tanks, right?

Now, on a couple of other forums, I'm reading that a protein skimmer would have some effect in fresh water, but it wouldn't be worth spending the money on.

Question is: If one is already paid for and installed, would it be beneficial to the health of my aquarium to use it?

 

[Wailua Boy]

i know of a member duanes who runs a FW protien skimmer with good results

 

[duanes]

I have run protein skimming on fresh water since the 80s, after I first read an article in TFH mag by Joe Gargas, called fractionation in a Discus Hatchery. It is not quite as easy in fresh water as salt, but once the sweet spot is found where pump age creates a fracturing of the air water interface it works great.
Protein skimmer verses refergium verses algae scrubber

 

[epond83]

From what I understand the surface tension difference between fresh and saltwater is what makes a protein skimmer work. I have heard of a skimmer for freshwater ponds, but I think they work because there is so much proteins and alge in it.

 

[pacu mom]

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...-affordable-help-for-large-fw-systems.282582/

 

[duanes]

It is true that freshwater fractionators more consistantly produce lots of foam on ponds because of the continuous outside organic fallout (leaves, pine needles, bird krapp etc etc), in tanks, the production of foam is often intermittent because the water is often too "clean", especially on well maintained tanks with frequent water changes.
I usually would place one fractionator on the outfall of line with 3 - 5 tanks.
Though it wouldn't always produce foam 24/7, it would often kick in if a fish died, if I overfed, or if I slacked off on water changes. And in reality because they don't require an outside power source, other than the normal pump age used for tank turnover, for me, a perfect type of redundancy.
My DIY model is (I believe) a similar in concept to the one in Oddballs video in Pacu Moms repost of 2007ish.
This type unit also acts as a bio filter, because the media used to create help fracture the surface tension as water cascades over it, also creates biofiltration as the media gets covered in aerobic bio bacteria, a secondary and welcome additional benefit.

 

[nossalucard]

I am a FIRM believer that although a protein skimmer *might* work somewhat in freshwater, it will NEVER be as efficient in freshwater(surface tension, blah, blah, blah).

It's just so much more cost effective to do water changes, for freshwater aquariums anyway. Take into account what marine salt costs for instance. On my saltwater tanks, I've VERY RARELY done 50-80% water changes as often as I do in freshwater for that reason alone (if possible), unless something was really "off" in that saltwater tank. I am however a HEAVY protein skimmer user on my saltwater tanks(when set up and running), and have collected many skimmers over the years (Deltec/Reef Octopus/Coralife Super Skimmer 125/Aqua-C Remora) for that reason.

I imagine for a pond or something of that sort, due to all the extra sources of "uncontrollable" factors of decaying matter(leaves, external sources of detritus/bugs/etc), then it *might* be slightly feasible, but otherwise just not worth the expense or aggravation/time unless you're just bored.

Just my opinion, but I think you will find it's pretty much standard findings...

 

[duanes]

I would tend to agree, water changes for fresh water are more important, and practical especially if you have only a few tanks, or even a couple hundred gallons.
But I was running about 1500 gallons in tanks, and my DIY fractionator cost less than $40 to build, and because I placed it on the effluent water pipe to a sump, it added zero extra energy cost, becoming a great bit of extra water quality control.
Because I also ran refugiums under direct sunlight windows, so free floating algae could have become a problem, but those cells, and certain other protozoan and nematodes were also controlled with fractionation, of which I considered an extra bonus.
I did a microscopy population comparison in the lab of nematodes, ciliates and other macro life in fractionator waste, compared to straight tank water. The fractionator waste contained an average of about 10 times the population of these minute animals, removed from the tank, as a similar sample of straight tank water.

 

[pcfriedrich]

Thanks for the input, guys. I opened the valve to that thing a couple of days ago, and it doesn't appear to be doing anything at all.

Anyway, I"m posting another thread in this sub-forum on pH, if anyone knows anything on the subject.

 

[jwh]

I have a 150g marine setup I converted to fw a while back, as I had the protein skimmer ran it for a while, knowing it would probably not do much, it achieved nothing...