Hey guys. I was just underneath my tank today grabbing some prime for my girl friends tank while she was doing a WC and realized the water surface in my sump has a whitish colored filament over it... I stirred it around and it broke easily. Any idea what this is? I mean with the pump being submerged and the water level being constant in there, dormant with no light I guess that could be why? Is this something I should be concerned about?... Maybe it was from the medication I put in about a week ago?
Not sure. I'm pretty new to using sumps so anyone have any idea I'd appreciate the feedback.
Yeah, mine has excess protein in it too. Protein skimmers are TOOOO expensive for my blood though, but I bet it would make maintenance on my big fat goldfish tank much easier.
They are only "necessary" for saltwater tanks, but you can use them on freshwater tanks as well. However, since FW fish are more tolerant to nitrAtes, most people don't see it as necessary when putting cost to importance.
That's what I thought. Well after discussing it with someone else the only negative to this is that without agitation on the surface of the sump water this protein will build up and it can prevent some 02 from entering the water so I'm just going to run a whisper10 and a 12" curtain in there to keep agitation on the surface.
I have an airstone in my sump, right before it falls over the drip plate. I bought this set up, and never really questioned it, but that's an even better reason to have it there, other than "increased O2" on its own, since coming out of the overflow causes the water to become super oxygenated.
They are only "necessary" for saltwater tanks, but you can use them on freshwater tanks as well. However, since FW fish are more tolerant to nitrAtes, most people don't see it as necessary when putting cost to importance.
Actually the main reason protein skimmers can mostly be found in SW tanks is due to cost.
Saltwater is alot more expensive than freshwater. Having to spend $ on salt to mix with RO water. Both RO water and salt are expensive. You need to waste like 5~9g of water (depending on rejection rate) to produce like 1g of good RO water.
Hence most SW keepers want to minimize water changes as much as possible. Now the main reason we do water change is to keep nitrates low. With a protein skimmer to remove DOC before they have a chance to break down into nitrates, thus they can last a longer time before a water change.
People who can afford the large daily waterchange can make do without a protein skimmer but i think a protein skimmer is more cheap over the long run and environmental friendly
