Protien Skimmer

[MojoDex]

ive got myself an air driven protien skimmer for my brackish tank now it shows that the collection cup should be above water but when i do that the cup doesnt fill up!

question is will the cup be ok submerged cuz thats the only way it seems to fill up i dont know what volume the air pump is exactly but i can tell u its fairly powerful

underwater cup filling up

out of water cup not filling up

on the box the cup is out of water and filling up do i just need the god of all airpumps?

 

[andywg]

Depends on your salinity.

For one, that looks like a cheap and nasty skimmer, so it isn't going to be the best at producing skimmate. Seconldy, unless you have a fairly high SG (1.010 or higher) then you are going to have trouble getting the bubbles small enough to effectively skim the water.

 

[MojoDex]

sg is exactly 1.010 and yea it is a cheap 1 but i read i only needed a cheap air driven one since its only for brackish!

 

[andywg]

The problem you have is that the lwer the salinity, the less effective the skimmer will be, meaning you really want a better skimmer.

I have a skimmer similar to that in SW and it is pretty woeful at producing skimmate. The reaction chamber is too short to get any meaningful contact time. With such a skimmer it is all about balancing it out by poutting it in exactly the right point in the water column for the skimmate to just pop up and into the collection cup.

 

[MojoDex]

i think im gonna scrap my protien skimmer idea now the stress bars dont allow for a hang on 1 and i see no reason another air lift 1 would work

oh well cheers all the same andywg

 

[andywg]

I understood that if you leave the make up water in a bucket and aerate it with a powerhead this will drive off the chlorine so you don't have to use conditioner.

Is this right?

If you don't minds spending a little bit of money, the Tunze nano skimmer works very well and is internal. Being made by Tunze you can be assured it is of top quality.

I seem to recall that Flumpus owns one and is so impressed with it he is getting another (though his are on SW).

Try looking into those.