Protein Skimming For Fresh Water?

[newfishaddict]

My filter in my small 21g got clogged by plants recently. For about 24hours there was little filtration. I quickly cleaned the filter and remedied the problem. But , I noticed that there was a liquid substance floating on top of my calm aquarium water…what was this? I can guess that it was oils from frozen foods, what else could it be?

This made me wonder if skimming the surface of a freshwater tank, I did it with a mug, would be a good idea occasionally…any comments?

 

[CFC]

Protein skimmers do not work by skimming the surface of the water, they work on a process known as air stripping where a column of very fine bubbles rises through the water which seperates organic elements and deposits them in a foam which collects in a cup above the water line. As a rule protein skimmers do not work in fresh water or brackish water with a SG below 1.006 as the very fine bubbles cannot form in the water as it is not dense enough though some manufactorers do now offer protein skimmers for freshwater but these are built for tanks of 150g+ and are quite expensive.

Several filters on the market offer a SURFACE skimming attachment which removes oily scum from the waters surface.

 

[Dangerousdan]

rt

 

[Paul_MTS]

what ever you do don't buy the ehiem surface skimmer, makes a huge ammount of noise

 

[rdd1952]

The Fluval surface skimmers work great. I have them on my 75 gallon since y water tends to form a film on the surface. They are quiet except for when something gets under them and causes them to make a noice. That's easy to fix though.

 

[fish_keeper2]

i find that adding an airstone to a decent sized air pump removes this "film". i get the same thing in all my tanks that i dont have an airstone in.

 

[rdd1952]

An air pump is fine as long as you don't have live plants. I already need to add CO2 for my plants so I can't afford to drive any more CO2 out of the water.

 

[fishdaddy]

i didnt think o2 pushed co2 out of the water ??

 

[CFC]

Surface turbulance causes gas exchange to take place at a faster rate, in a planted tank where CO2 is added to aid plant growth the extra turbulance would drive out the excess CO2 as fresh O2 enters the water.

 

[loz_the_guru]

Does that mean my nutrafin CO2 diffuser is completely useless as I have a 6 inch air stone?

 

[Corleone]

Probably. Mine did almost nothing just because of the movement made by my filter.

 

[CFC]

Yep, as your CO2 is being added your airstone is pushing it straight back out again. Planted tanks with added CO2 are usually have an almost still surface with just gentle current moving the water around.