Fresh water protein skimmer

[pete321]

Hi

Has anyone tried a protein skimmer in fresh water. I am setting up a central system of about 1000 gal for angels and discus and am trying to keep water changes below 10% per day.
Any ideas?

Pete

[Graham]

There are some large models made for the ponding hobby, but normal skimmers as you would find on a marine tank work very poorly on freshwater.

The bubble size that forms in salt water around 0.5mm is hard to achive in freshwater. Generally a venturi style unit is used in the pond skimmers.

The other thing that would affect FF in a discus tank is the lower pH that are maintained. The lower it is the more poorly they function, High temps also make them function poorly.

You could look at using O3 in a unit but that another story

[Rod]

Hi

Has anyone tried a protein skimmer in fresh water. I am setting up a central system of about 1000 gal for angels and discus and am trying to keep water changes below 10% per day.
Any ideas?

Pete

An ozone system would work well in your case.

Too many problems with making protein skimmers work in fresh as Graham pointed out.

[dave Cox]

I kept having a film on the top of my tank that would last from feeding to feeding. I bought a skimmer made by Fuval at the LFS. It replaces the suction tube on your canister filter. It is a two part suction tube with one drawing water from the surface and one drawing water from mid tank. The surface skimmer floats on top of the water so it adjusts for water level. It is a very simple device but has worked very well for me.

[salth20]

Skimming fresh water will work, but the DOC has to be very high. Heavily stocked ponds can benefit, but even at that there isn't a whole lot of skimmate produced, at least in comparison to say, a moderately stocked reef tank. O3 would be a better choice in your case. Oxidizing the DOC's will easily outperform skimming in fresh water. Be sure and carbon filter the water before returning to the system to remove any residual ozone.