protein skimming frshwater???

[Aquattro]

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

[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.

[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 Delphinus

Short answer: You can and you can't ..

Slightly longer answer: Generally speaking, you can't, you just won't get adequate foam fractionation (for the reasons stated above). However that said, there does seem to be such thing as a FW skimmer, think they are run on ponds in areas where the water is so insanely hard that basically you can get foam production.

are you thinking about a surface skimmer?

Steve

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

are you thinking about a surface skimmer?

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???

[albert_dao]

Schuuran use to make a FW protein skimmer.

[Canadian]

Originally Posted by albert_dao

Schuuran use to make a FW protein skimmer.

Yup. That was exactly what I was thinking about when I first read this thread:

http://www.koicarp.net/filtration/pr...an_sander.html