protein skimming frshwater???

[Skimmerking]

Originally Posted by the marine apprentice

i was waiting for mike to read this and reply. so what is your opinion on this mike?

I aprreaciate you saying that you are waiting on me to reply. Actually Im just a guy you have owned alot of skimmers. But you u think about it when you have a high Alkaline water the water becomes sticky lets say and with the nutrients in the water its going to stick to the Molecules in the water and with the air that is lighter then the water, casuing the nutrients to float to the top. Fresh was wont have the same effct on the skimmer. With Fresh water the nutrients are usually on the top so surfaces skimming is the answer.

does that make sense.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by asmodeus

does that make sense.

none

[the marine apprentice]

yes mike it does make sense, alot of what everyone is saying makes sense. but when you have it running through an overflow you get all that surface crap out right?

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by asmodeus

Totally disagree here young fella, all the time when I clean my skimmer's i use fresh water and vineger to clean, it will make super tiny bubbles and clean your skimmer unbelieveably clean. addd some more vineger and watch the skimmer go crazy.

x2!

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by asmodeus

Totally disagree here young fella, all the time when I clean my skimmer's i use fresh water and vineger to clean, it will make super tiny bubbles and clean your skimmer unbelieveably clean. addd some more vineger and watch the skimmer go crazy.

I disagree with you there young fellow.. the bubbles you get with vinager are totaly different than salt water.. the bubbles from vinager are short lived and low surface tension, and what they are doing is imploding along the sides of your skimmer because they cannot maintain the bubble. this implosion is the same as cavatation and causes little tiny pits in the size of the skimmer scale, hence cleaning it. but this cleaning action is two fold.. first you have the implosions knocking the scale off the sides, then you have the acidic power of the mixture desolving it. it goes crazy when ou add more vinager as it start fizzing (just like when you have a viniger water mix they you cleaned a lot of pumps with so it is saturated with Ca and you add more viniger to that.. fizzes right up.

Steve

[sphelps]

I'm confused? What's the purpose of this skimmer? I get using one for a large pond but as far as aquariums go isn't water cheap enough to easily do large water changes to reduce nutrients? The cost of the skimmer and the power it uses will never pay for itself or be as efficient as simply changing water.

There's a reason these are used in SW and not FW.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by sphelps

I'm confused? What's the purpose of this skimmer? I get using one for a large pond but as far as aquariums go isn't water cheap enough to easily do large water changes to reduce nutrients? The cost of the skimmer and the power it uses will never pay for itself or be as efficient as simply changing water.

There's a reason these are used in SW and not FW.

there is no purpose in fresh water as exactly like you said.. large waterchanges are simple, cheep and easy.

now the normal fresh water skimmer that is widely used is a surface skimmer, which is to skim the surface of the water to remove proteen buildup in tanks where you have a lot of plants and require low to no surface agitation to prevent CO2 from comming out of solution.

Steve

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

now the normal fresh water skimmer that is widely used is a surface skimmer, which is to skim the surface of the water to remove proteen buildup in tanks where you have a lot of plants and require low to no surface agitation to prevent CO2 from comming out of solution.

By surface skimmer do you mean a simple overflow box?

[darb]

what SG does a protein skimmer start to become effective? I am running a 1.10/12 ish brackish tank and wouldn't mind reducing my 50% water changes.