What Are Skimmers

[eddieace]

and what do they do? i keep seeing them mentioned

 

[jacko9901]

protien skimmers are only used for marine tanks

 

[eddieace]

protien skimmers are only used for marine tanks

right ok thanks

i wont be needing one when i get my tank setup,

what are they used for?

 

[waterdrop]

I believe protein skimmers are used to help remove dissolved organic compounds (DOCs) from salt water. Huge amounts of bubbles are forced into a vertical tube (a common skimmer type) and a cup at the top collects the DOCs that ride up on the bubble surfaces.

In the ocean I believe the range of substances that make up "dissolved organic compounds" is quite wide and varied, but perhaps a TFF marine person will come along and tell us the most common makeup of DOCs in marine aquariums.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

lol, well i've kept marines but can't tell you exactly what the DOC's are...... anyway skimmers are a clever bit of kit really, if you imagine the sea, you know how you can get a build up of scum and it's loads of bubbles with all manky stuff collected in them. well that's what a skimmer does, it creates a massve surface area of lots of bubbles, all the mank in the water is drawn into them and it then collects outside of the tank and you can throw it away.

it's a method of filtration basically. you dont need them for freshwater systems though, marine systems are much more sensitive to DOC's, just plain old filters and water changes will do enough cleaning in a freshwater tank.

 

[waterdrop]

lol, this is what we need to simplify our lives... when we get to worrying about what those 100,000 compounds are we just dial up MW and she lets us know its just, well, MANK!, you know that nice white foam on the sea that you pick up and throw to the wind when you are feeling free at the beginning of vacation... ahh, vacation, I like the sound of it...

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

lol, this is what we need to simplify our lives... when we get to worrying about what those 100,000 compounds are we just dial up MW and she lets us know its just, well, MANK!, you know that nice white foam on the sea that you pick up and throw to the wind when you are feeling free at the beginning of vacation... ahh, vacation, I like the sound of it...

~~waterdrop~~

well tbh, if you don't need one, you don't need to know exactly what it removes do you?! ha ha ha

 

[waterdrop]

Oh but we know you are only buying time and will not be able to resist seeing if Ian knows the most popular DOCs at some point...

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I'm in a hotel in London, Ian's sound asleep about 200 miles away at home

no chance of an answer until at least tomorrow!!

 

[waterdrop]

drat those high-rise engineers, they're slowing down our entertainment science..

Hopefully they left you one of those chocolate mints to make up for this travesty.

How's the lights of London? Plenty of us in the sticks are now jealous.

~~waterdrop~~
ps. I read that "downdraft skimmers" can be so efficient that some now worry about over-skimming, which was thought not possible in the past...

 

[Miss Wiggle]

lol, you probably won't have seen it, but for those in the UK, think about the BMI adverts on the telly now (may be able to find it on youtube if your in the US and want to see) that's my life...... today in all the glamour of london i've seen a crowded horrible train, walked half way across london in rush hr in high heels cos i couldn;t face the tube at 9am, sat in an office which could be anwhere in the world for the day, walked to my hotel, sat in my room, got room service, now i'm sat here not tired but knowing i should go to bed soon.... finished the book i bought with me so got nothing to read which is a big deal for me.


hardly glamorous..... although considering our bedroom is half renovated at the moment, the odd night in a nice clean tidy decorated hotel with no hosuework or diy to do is a nice break!

 

[waterdrop]

o what fun, I did indeed find some of the bmi adverts right on utube just now and saw right away, lol

my wife got back from meetings in manhattan a bit ago with the same litany, pity I couldn't go along to the theatre

..bad, must never run out of books, but at least you have a moment for TFF. Now you've made me remember I meant to get a book at the graduate lib at lunch and they may close now on summer hours, I'm as bad off as you

(well, the OP is worse off, we've quite run out of info to skim about skimmers...)

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i've always been a bookworm, i had half a book to read when i came down here, thought it would see me through 1 night, good story though, started reading it when i got back from the office and had it finished a few hrs later, been killing time ever since.

see at least you're at home though, there's gotta be another book you can pick up and re-read or something...... i've got some leaflets about local tourist attractions, and a newspaper that i've already read for my nighttime reading tonight.

ummmm..... something to possibly interest those..... this is just one of my vague memories, but i seem to think that andywg, bignose et al have discussed freshwater skimming before which may be of interest!