thats pretty dirty water, i hope your tank isn't that infested with algae and junk :p

no no no this is all for a possible tank in the next few months. with like 300 small schooling freshwater fish lil project im thinkin about

are you thinking about a surface skimmer?

Steve

ya but that is the result of polution or an algae bloom in the water, in a normal stream/river, ect you get bubbles but they disapate imeadiatly, so no benifit. in normal fresh water there is no way to get foam with out adding something.

now I did read where you could buy an aditive to your tank water which increases the surface tension which makes skimming possible, but I can't remember what it was called or if there was any effects from long term usage.

Steve

No - I was thinking about an actual protein skimmer. I saw a company making them a few years ago. They used ceramic based airstones for the smaller bubble sizes and basically compressors instead of airpumps. Other than that they looked more or less identical to say the old style countercurrent skimmers. I went looking for the link but couldn't find them so maybe they weren't viable. Did find a couple skimmers that worked on a slightly (but not altogether) different principle on a couple Koi sites.

Thought I read somewhere that Tanganika water is hard enough that protein skimmers would work on it. I don't remember where I read that though so who knows.

The short answer remains the same. You're not really going to get a protein skimmer intended for saltwater to work on a freshwater tank. I can't really think of an application where it would be really beneficial anyhow, it's not like FW isn't easily managed with water changes.

just through in some melifix it will make the skimmer skimm and it is good for your fish. many very large lakes have a salt content to them Profict example is lakes manitoba and lake winnipeg. Both lakes are in lake lakes but are concidered inlane seas you can smell the salt on the right day. The sand flies are bad but they are attracted to the salt that is on you after you go into the water. You can find quite a few clams that are found in sea water they have adapted to the very low salinity of these lakes. I my self have never measured the salinity of the lakes. Is there anyone that will check it out in the summer???

Schuuran use to make a FW protein skimmer.

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

FW can be skimmed, but for the equipment needed, you're better off doing water changes.

Can't go into it now, gotta go to work, but google this

foam fractionation in fresh water