Protein Skimmer?

Hello everyone!

I have a 6G tank that I’m currently in the process of cycling and planting. I noticed a little bit of clear gunky looking film accumulating in the corners of the tank where the silicone joins the panels of the tank together, and when I moved stuff around today to plant some new stuff the water got a little cloudy.

I went to the LPS today and I was talking to the person in the fish section. He has sold me a bunch of stuff for my tank so when he asked how it was going and I explained what was happening. He said I should get a protein skimmer?

I wanted to see what people’s advice here on the forum is. Do they even sell one for a tank so small?

 

They are really only for marine tanks and at that they are not needed until over 30g..
Maybe a surface extractor like the eheim 350 would work more appropriately for you [on a timer ]..

Even on low it would ba little much for a 6 gallon tank IMO .I use them in my 20 gallon .

 

LFS trying to get you to spend money on stuff you don't need! I have fresh and marine tanks, it is rare to use a skimmer on freshwater tanks as others have mentioned and to be honest I don't currently have one on my 35 g marine tank - I'll add one when I upgrade to 100 g lol. I set up another marine tank at work, only a little under 20 g so may use a very small skimmer as that will have a lot of corals. If you are currently cycling the clear gunk is likely biofilm, it will go on its own as the cycle completes. A heavily planted tank will remove excess nutrients from the water naturally going forward in conjunction with regular water changes and a stable bacteria colony.

 

LFS trying to get you to spend money on stuff you don't need! I have fresh and marine tanks, it is rare to use a skimmer on freshwater tanks as others have mentioned and to be honest I don't currently have one on my 35 g marine tank - I'll add one when I upgrade to 100 g lol. I set up another marine tank at work, only a little under 20 g so may use a very small skimmer as that will have a lot of corals. If you are currently cycling the clear gunk is likely biofilm, it will go on its own as the cycle completes. A heavily planted tank will remove excess nutrients from the water naturally going forward in conjunction with regular water changes and a stable bacteria colony.

Yeah I never hear people here talking about that so it seemed odd to me but I figured I’d ask! Thank you both for your replies. I guess I’m just a little nervous because when I inserted the christmas moss for the carpet there was a lot of dead moss that came floating around. I tried to get as much as I could out but I know for a fact that there’s a bunch of it, big and small, that I wasn’t able to get to. Makes me feel like once that all decomposes in there it’ll be a recipe for disaster. Maybe I’m just worrying more than I should Lol

 

It's natural to worry but just keep an eye on water perimeters. If you don't have fish in yet nothing to be concerned about, it will settle in time. If you do have fish in dose with Prime as soon as you see a spike in ammonia and/or nitrite. Plant matter does of course decompose but it doesn't create as much of the toxic substances as a dead fish or uneaten food. I have a lot of dead plant material in my freshwater tank at the moment as I've had some trouble with one species turning brown and it hasn't caused any problems, reading 0 for ammonia and nitrite. You definitely don't need a skimmer, it's bizarre the LFS suggested it to be honest. Is it a betta tank you're setting up?

 

It's natural to worry but just keep an eye on water perimeters. If you don't have fish in yet nothing to be concerned about, it will settle in time. If you do have fish in dose with Prime as soon as you see a spike in ammonia and/or nitrite. Plant matter does of course decompose but it doesn't create as much of the toxic substances as a dead fish or uneaten food. I have a lot of dead plant material in my freshwater tank at the moment as I've had some trouble with one species turning brown and it hasn't caused any problems, reading 0 for ammonia and nitrite. You definitely don't need a skimmer, it's bizarre the LFS suggested it to be honest. Is it a betta tank you're setting up?

Yeah it is a betta tank. I spoke to the people I bought the betta from and he shouldn’t be arriving here till Wednesday or Thursday so hopefully that will give my tank a few more days to settle. It’s been up and running for a little over a week but for some reason when I tested the water yesterday I had .05 ammonia, 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites. I might have to finish cycling my tank with my poor fish in there which I REALLY didn’t want to do. I bought a very pretty fish that I happen to really like and I don’t want anything to happen to him I tried to plan accordingly but the place where I bought my fish (they kindly agreed to hold him for me while I cycled my tank) said they couldn’t hold him for any longer.

 

Hello everyone!

I have a 6G tank that I’m currently in the process of cycling and planting. I noticed a little bit of clear gunky looking film accumulating in the corners of the tank where the silicone joins the panels of the tank together, and when I moved stuff around today to plant some new stuff the water got a little cloudy.

I went to the LPS today and I was talking to the person in the fish section. He has sold me a bunch of stuff for my tank so when he asked how it was going and I explained what was happening. He said I should get a protein skimmer?

I wanted to see what people’s advice here on the forum is. Do they even sell one for a tank so small?

I would recommend waiting, the film could just be from cycling

 

I totally agree, I've not had film during cycling but I don't think you get it as much in marine and that's mainly what I keep. Mot people report film during cycling, I helped a friend set up a freshwater tank and there was film during cycling. It went very quickly.