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October 21st, 2007
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| | Fish Mentor
| Why you need a protein skimmer A seemingly common question as many people begin looking at the equipment needed to set up a saltwater tank is "What does a protein skimmer do?", which is immediately followed by "Do I really need one?" (usually after having researched the price tag)
The (simplified) answer to the first question is: It continuously pulls THIS out of your fish's water.
The answer to the secand question is: Depends. Do you want THIS to stay in your fish's water?
I like visual aids.  |
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October 21st, 2007
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| | Fish Master
| oo sweet nasty junk  |
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October 21st, 2007
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| | Moderator
| Yum Yum ... Green tea anyone ? |
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October 21st, 2007
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| | Moderator
| What kind of skimmer do you have ? |
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October 22nd, 2007
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| | Fish Mentor
| Prizm pro deluxe. (I know...I actually haven't had any trouble with it though.) |
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October 22nd, 2007
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| | Moderator
| Hey that looks pretty good ! I think any kind of skimmer you put on a tank is going to help, from a berlin air-lift to a euro-reef. |
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October 22nd, 2007
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| | Fish Master
| My neighbor bought a prizm pro deluxe too for his 185gallon and he's been having good results from it. I did inform him about it's leaking history. |
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October 22nd, 2007
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| | Fish Mentor
| I've had no leaking issues either. A lot have also indicated the need for frequent adjustments. Once I learned to make small adjustments and give it time to "settle in", rather than trying to adjust it to perfection immediately, I was able to find a nice setting that I do not need to mess with much at all. |
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October 23rd, 2007
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| | Fish Master
| hmm yes he mentioned he had to adjust it a bit before it worked nicely. Sounds like they aren't horrible skimmers just a bit more tweaking to do. |
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October 23rd, 2007
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| | Fish Keeper
| EEEEEW! BUT! I do like pics, so, I guess I asked for that one, didn't I? lol
Visual aids do help. Thanks! |
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October 24th, 2007
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| | Fish Helper
| Wow.... thats proof enough for me.
Time to start saving for a Remora i guess.... |
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November 17th, 2007
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Forum,
I know this is a little off topic, but will a protein skimmer help remove my brown algae?
Sincerely Bryce,  |
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November 17th, 2007
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| | Fish Keeper
| Could it do any help in freshwater tank |
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November 17th, 2007
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| | Fish Keeper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by bryce Forum,
I know this is a little off topic, but will a protein skimmer help remove my brown algae?
Sincerely Bryce,  | No it wont remove the algae, but it removes proteins from the water, which may reduce the algae growth a little  |
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November 17th, 2007
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| | Fish Mentor
| Quote: |
Could it do any help in freshwater tank
| No, protein skimmers do not work very well in fresh water. |
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November 18th, 2007
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Peter Piper,
Thank you "Peter Piper".I thought it would remove nutrience and starve the algae\diatoms.
Thanks,Bryce |
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November 24th, 2007
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| | Fish Mentor
| Ok...NOW I've had leaking issues with the skimmer. At 1:30 in the morning. Into the electrical outlet. Kinda glad I woke up when I did...could have been a very bad scene. |
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November 24th, 2007
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| | Fish Keeper
| Water and power point dont mix to well, you need a drip loop in your power cable.. do you have earth leakage protection? Glad nothing happened. |
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November 24th, 2007
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| | Moderator
| sgould,
Did you skimmer overflow ? |
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November 24th, 2007
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| | Fish Mentor
| Got a drip loop. Had been doing some maintenance under the tank earlier and I hadn't noticed some of the cords got moved around and tangled.
I am not clear on whether it was an overflow or a bad seal. As I said, it was 1:30 in the morning and I didn't really dig very deep...just disconnected everything from the power strip, removed the skimmer, and went back to bed. I hope to have some time to play with it tomorrow and see if I can figure out what happened. Time is short these days...I'm in retail, and therefore working quite a lot over the next few weeks. |
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November 26th, 2007
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| | Fish Mentor
| It looks like this was an overflow. I have hooked the skimmer back up and had it running for a couple of hours tonight and the seal appears to be fine. There is a space where the intake goes into the unit that is open and would be suseptible to overflow, and the water did appear to be concentrated in that area when the leak was occuring the other night. For the time being, I am going to continue to run the thing during the day when there is someone around "just in case", and turn it off at night. I may go ahead and upgrade to a new skimmer in the (very) near future. |
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November 26th, 2007
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| | Moderator
| Yeap ... My skimmer goes crazy at night, not sure why. It just does. Mine overflowed about three times when I decided to get a sump ! Now if it overflows it just does it in the sump, no more wet floors. |
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November 28th, 2007
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| | Fish Bum
| Yum! Poo shake, my fave!! lol
I got a Coralife SS 125. 90ga, blue tang, Rabbitfish, and 4 other small fish that are 1 in+; add it up then add the skimmer.
Last night I cleaned mine and I swear that was the worst skimmate I've ever smelled and seen. I ran it on dry skimm so it was Black (Not green) and smelled lkike fish poo, dirty diaper and rotton eggs (That kind of Sulfur kind of smell)those evil little...
Oh, heres your Green Tea by the way  |
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November 28th, 2007
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| | Fish Keeper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by bryce Forum,
I know this is a little off topic, but will a protein skimmer help remove my brown algae?
Sincerely Bryce,  | A Protein Skimmer will not remove algae. However it will remove proteins from the water, and this will reduce the amount of food that is available, that the algae requires, so you will have a reduction in the algae growth. A skimmer is a good idea |
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December 2nd, 2007
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| | Moderator
| sqould - great visual aid!
bryce - The skimmer will remove proteins from the water before they have a chance to accumulate in the tank and get broken down into elements that algaes use to grow. Will a skimmer ensure that you won't get nuisance algae? No. But they do help. |
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