protein skimmers...give me your opinions
- Thread starter kndmercer
- Start date
They are pointless in fresh water. I use one most of my tanks for water quality and air exchange.
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Pointless if you don't have a real bio load. They have their applications, and most will agree they are NOT pointless.
They are designed to break up proteins that waves do in the ocean. Sea foam is the same thing as skimate.
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The problem with getting a protein skimmer to work in fresh water, is that most of the time, not enough pressure/flow is provided to get separation at the air water interface.
Because salt water is more dense, fractionation is easily accomplished, but not so easy in fresh. None of the commercial ones I've tried, have done a satisfactory job, so I make my own, I have made a counter current version, and a cascading type.
The cascading type from plans on koiphen.com, have worked best for me.
Below is a video of one I made for my koi pond, as you can see it produces planty of foam. It requires an @ 1200gph pump. click pic to start video.
Below is a counter current one, made from plans in Aquarium Fish Mag.
I have used it on indoor tanks, and outdoor ponds.
my version uses a 1/2" venturi tube.
Because salt water is more dense, fractionation is easily accomplished, but not so easy in fresh. None of the commercial ones I've tried, have done a satisfactory job, so I make my own, I have made a counter current version, and a cascading type.
The cascading type from plans on koiphen.com, have worked best for me.
Below is a video of one I made for my koi pond, as you can see it produces planty of foam. It requires an @ 1200gph pump. click pic to start video.
Below is a counter current one, made from plans in Aquarium Fish Mag.
I have used it on indoor tanks, and outdoor ponds.
my version uses a 1/2" venturi tube.
While maybe not pointless... has there been a successful scale down of that system to work indoors on a normal tank?
Seems like you need several feet of drop to get the desired effect here... not sure its worth it just to get a freshwater skimmer going. If you already has the system in place for something else, then sure.
Seems like you need several feet of drop to get the desired effect here... not sure its worth it just to get a freshwater skimmer going. If you already has the system in place for something else, then sure.
I agree, with the cascading system, the longer the drop, the better it will work.
I have one indoors that drops from the top of the tank into the sump, @ 4 ft.
Whether its worth the trouble can be a matter of prospective.
From experiments I did in the lab on skimmate vs tank water, I found beyond simple detritus, DOC and metals, a high removal of free floating algae, and micro/macroscopic life, which included ciliates, nematodes, and other arguably, potential problem organisms.
skimmer waste left/tank water right
after filtration I weighed aliquots of each sample and found dry weight of fractionated waste to be 8Xs that of tank water .
At times skimmer concentration was so high, I had to dilute the sample, and extrapolate, percent. dilution.
I have one indoors that drops from the top of the tank into the sump, @ 4 ft.
Whether its worth the trouble can be a matter of prospective.
From experiments I did in the lab on skimmate vs tank water, I found beyond simple detritus, DOC and metals, a high removal of free floating algae, and micro/macroscopic life, which included ciliates, nematodes, and other arguably, potential problem organisms.
skimmer waste left/tank water right
after filtration I weighed aliquots of each sample and found dry weight of fractionated waste to be 8Xs that of tank water .
At times skimmer concentration was so high, I had to dilute the sample, and extrapolate, percent. dilution.
Definitely pretty cool. If I kept my original sump that had a 2 stage drop from 4 feet above the bottom tank I would probably consider incorporating something like that.
Has anyone used any of the store bought models? There was one brand, can't remember what it was, but they touted their unit's effectiveness on freshwater tanks. They looked just like saltwater units to me.. except maybe a lot bigger.
Has anyone used any of the store bought models? There was one brand, can't remember what it was, but they touted their unit's effectiveness on freshwater tanks. They looked just like saltwater units to me.. except maybe a lot bigger.