# Protein Skimmer in Planted Tank



## Bill Weber (Jul 17, 2005)

Hi all,

I was given a small protein skimmer visi-jet 100 and decided to set it up in the planted tank. Occasionally i get a film / scum build up on the water surface and thought this may help.

Does anyone have any advise to share or am I just wasting electricity?

Thanks in Advance,

Bill Weber


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## eklikewhoa (Jul 24, 2006)

It should help, especially if it skims from the water surface.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Does a protein skimmer work in fresh water? 

I had always thought that protein skimmers only functioned in salt water... can the bubbles even attract organics in freshwater?


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

I recently looked into this as a potential method for fighting surface scum. Regular protein skimmers are intended for use with SW setups. Saltwater has a different surface tension, and highly aerated water will tend to form bubbles quite easily. These bubbles trap small particulates that are suspended within the water column, helping to maintain crystal-clear water and keeping suspended material (often waste products) to a minimum.

They don't really function well in freshwater since the bubbles don't form as readily. Also, many of them don't really function as a surface skimmer, which is much more useful for our purposes. I ended up going with Eheim's surface skimmer, which draws water off of the top and sends it to the canister filter. It works fabulously, but does take a couple of minutes a day to unclog and adjust properly. Within an hour or two it will remove 100% of a thick, heavy layer of scum from the water.


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## Bill Weber (Jul 17, 2005)

All,

I have the same thoughts as Guaiac Boy. I have seen the surface skimmer and it does seem to work as long as the water level does not fall below the top of the skimmer. The skimmer I saw had a very small operating level so maintaing water levels is critical. Ill let this run for a while to see what happens and will report back in a week.

Thanks all.


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## oblongshrimp (Aug 8, 2006)

I believe protein skimmers won't work in freshwater because the specific gravity of the water is not high enough. You can either use a suface skimmer thing that attaches to your filter as suggested above or you could have a powerhead that comes on at night to create surface agitation.


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

A foam fractionator in principle will 'work' in freshwater, just no where near as efficiently as in SW, for the reasons Guiac Boy said. In fact they have started making and marketing them for Koi ponds over here http://www.koicarp.net/filtration/protein_filters/protein_filters.html
These will remove DOC and reduce the yellowing in a koi pond, but the waste removed seems no where near as concentrated as that from a marine Protein skimmer.

Edit: I should have added that Koi ponds have much more waste and DOC than any planted tank will ever have and this is part of the reason I think that these work for Koi ponds. They probably remove the really high levels down to a level near that of a standard tank!

I think you could try one in FW, but I don't know if it would work in the way you intended to cut down surface scum. However if you have it anyway and are prepared to spend some time fiddling with the flow rate and other parameters you never know you might get it to work. It could be a fun experiment.

If you just want to solve your surface scum quickly and easily get a surface skimmer! I have one on my main tank and it works brilliantly.


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## kennyman (Oct 19, 2005)

I use a red sea protein skimmer with the surface skimmer attachment on my marine tank, but as pointed out, it would not produce proper foam in FW. Prior to using the red sea unit I ran an AC150 with a modified intake tube to surface skim that tank. I put 2 90deg elbows at the end of the U tube and cut the strainer pipe so it sat poking back out the top of the water. It worked OK as a surface skimmer but not as well as the manufactured adjustable types you can find for many hob filters.


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## ihooklow (Sep 20, 2006)

You would just be wasting electricity.

In soft water you will get no foam at all. In harder water you will get a minimal foam and probably won't even be push its way out into the collection cup. It may also, unfortunately, remove some of the things you want in your water (mostly trace elements, including iodine and strontium).


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## JHipkin (Jun 13, 2005)

To remove surface film lay a piece of white, uncented paper towel across the surface. Lift it out of the tank and the film will be gone. Do this with weekly water changes and you are good to go. No electicity required.


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## fishumentary (Feb 18, 2007)

I use a surface skimmer attached to a small power head in 3 of my larger planted tanks. This setup has worked perfectly for over a year now. I chose to use a power head instead of hooking it directly to the canister filter intakes so I can turn it on and off as needed very quickly. This is especially handy during feedings to prevent the flake food being sucked in.

Both the surface skimmer and power filter (Dive Power 85) are by Tom Aquarium Products. I got the surface skimmer from Drs. Foster & Smith and the power head at Pet Supplies Plus (Pittsburgh area).


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## Bill Weber (Jul 17, 2005)

All,

Thanks for the discussion and ideas concerning a protein skimmer in a Freshwater Planted Tank. After running the skimmer for approx 1 week I can report back that it does NOT work. I captured ZERO scum in the collection cup.

I do appriecate the feed back on the Koi pond. I do have a 125 gallon aquarium outside where I keep Oranda Goldfish year round. I will set the skimmer on that tank to see what happens. There are 15 2 year old fish in the tank so it will be interesting to see if there is any impact on that enviroment. I do almost daily water changes on that tank because I want to keep it looking nice which may affect any results.

The planted tank (70 gallons) is home to 8 discus which I feed home made Beef Heart so I was thinking that the protein skimmer would fix the scum. Looks like I will be ordering a surface skimmer after all.

Thanks again for all your inputs.

Bill Weber
DFWAPC Member


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Bill, thanks for the feedback. Many of these threads never really get wrapped up. It's nice to hear from someone who actually tried it.


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

guaiac_boy said:


> Bill, thanks for the feedback. Many of these threads never really get wrapped up. It's nice to hear from someone who actually tried it.


Ditto!

Let us know whether it catpures anything in your Oranda tank, maybe it is the higher DOC levels in ponds that allows a skimmer to work rather inefficiently.


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## longhornxtreme (Feb 20, 2007)

I always hate resurrecting a thread from the deep, but did anyone ever try a venturi foam fractionator with 30" or longer column? I've got an idea about keeping DOC to minimal levels that I want to test out on a 29G...


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

This could possibly get off topic, but what about using fish to "skim the surface". I had heard about Mollies doing this and I tried it. I two days, all the scummy stuff was gone from the water surface. I see them go up a few times daily to skim the water surface and they keep it quite clean (4 mollies in a 50g).

Of coarse, if you have a SUPER NICE set-up and only a couple species of tetras, etc..., then mollies may mottle the look of your scape. But it's a lot cheaper than buying surface skimmers.

-Dave


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## cholly (Jun 12, 2007)

davemonkey said:


> ... But it's a lot cheaper than buying surface skimmers.


You can build your own surface skimmer for the cost of a small powerhead, a couple ounces of filter floss and a 16 oz. plastic soda bottle. There's nothing to surface skimmers.

Mollies are definitely a cheaper option than a protein skimmer, though, and about 10,000 times more effective then a protein skimmer would be on a freshwater tank that doesn't have, at a minimum, goldfish tank levels of waste. Protein skimmers were originally developed for freshwater, not saltwater, usage -- but in sewage plants. You have to have truly outrageous levels of contaminants in a freshwater environment for a protein skimmer to be at all effective.


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