Protein skimmer in a plant tank?

[Jamie]

I'm collecting all my thoughts on what to include in my 150 setup I'm about to purchase. Protein skimmers seem to be very beneficial to a fishtank- should I be concertned about buying one for my new setup that I wish to plant?

[SnakeIce]

from what I have read they are more benaficial on a salt setup. what I was told is that they are not essential on planted tank and might be harmfull to the plants

[125gJoe]

I've seen the skimmer for Fluval canisters - but you shouldn't need one. From the little I know of saltwater tanks, it seems like a good idea to use one.

[Russell F]

Being a former reefer i can tell you that a protien skimmer is very benifial for salt water or reef aquariuams, a protien skimmer is all the filtration i ever used on any of my reefs.....

BUT they are no benifite in a plant tank or to much benifit in a fw tank for that matter. The way they work is that they mix air and water in a froth of sorts using one method or another (downdraft, ventura, air stone, etc) in a columne or pipe of some sort, wastes and solids end up on top of this froth and are collected in a cup or other device(depend on style of skimmer) where they can be disposed of, and the tank waters leaves the skimmer areated and somewhat cleaner.

Sounds good right? Well first reason you don't want one in a plant tank is that they will very quickly and efficently gas off any and all co2 in the water, they areate very very well.

Second reason, protien skimmers need very small bubbles to work right if at all, in SW the size bubbles required are easy to abtain due to the density(i might be wrong on that, but it has something to do with that or the SG or something) of the water, while in FW only some what largish bubbles are possible....I have seen people use protien skimmers on fw, but they son't collect much if any waste, they basicly just use em to up the oxygen content of the water.

But if you has a fish only FW tank, and needed a good way to areate it, a protien skimmer would do the trick...

[plantbrain]

Protein skimmers are good for a reef.Sw tank if you don't have a refugium or a marine plant filter.

If you have a refugium, then you don't need a skimmer at all.
I have a skimmer but it does not produce any foam since my marine tank is well planted.

Skimmers are of no use really unless you have very large systems/loads of organics and hard water.

They are of no use at all for most FW applications and certainly not for a FW planted tank.
Spend your money on a CO2 system, good substrate etc.

Regards,
TomBarr

[mogurnda]

The basis of skimming is that negatively charged molecules like to stick to bubbles. At a high pH, organic molecules, such as proteins, have a net negative charge and will adsorb to the bubbles and go up the column. Ultimately the bubbles burst, spitting the stuff into the collection cup. This will work poorly, if at all at the neutral or acidic pH of a planted aquarium.

So even if the previous posts haven't convinced you...

[tricksterpup]

Ditto to the above, not much use in a plant tank.

Tom, do you have pics of your Reef tank, now that would be something I would like seeing, a heavy planted tank with Macro alage. :)


jim

[plantbrain]

It's not a Reef tank.

It's a Marine Planted tank.

No corals etc.

It does have a DBS, foreground of calcareous red algae that appear to the untrained eye to be coral.

There are many species(44) and I'm still messing with nutrient routines with it. It's okay but nothing I want to take photo's of except of individual plants at the moment. I also lack a digital camera as well.
So it might be a while but it'll look neat when it's done and unlike a coral reef and a planted tank. The live stock is much cheaper than a reef generally.

No Tangs allowed!:-)

The general status of the tank is good, most species are actively growing.
Some grow fast like Caulerpas, Ulva, Laurencia's etc.
Many of the others are slower growers, simply takes time to be well established. But I'm very happy so far and will always keep a tank like this.

I may add a Reef to a Marine planted tank and have them both displayed prominently.

A similar set up with submersed and emersed plants would be a nice mirror.

I do have 2 species of angiosperm seagrasses, and I sold my Mangrove that got pretty good sized.

Back to the topic of this thread, I used Skimmers in the past on FW tanks with high fish loads etc, I also used Ozone and produce foam but still, lots of work for not much result.

Stick with a water change and make that easy(Bulk heads, with ball valves for quick fill/refill).

So even if you don't want to trim etc, it's easy to do the water change and dosing/CO2/lighting is easy also.


Regards,
Tom Barr