# I don't care that they say skimmers are not needed for fresh water. They're wrong.



## vinjo (Dec 8, 2010)

I don't care that they say skimmers are for salt water only.

That's a load of rubbish.

I have a 90G african cichlid tank, and it's always getting oily residue on the surface. There's always a collection of particles and things on the surface...

I just attached an Eheim surface skimmer... there's a build up of bubbles right away.

Skimmers are for fresh water too.


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

A Skimmer and a Surface Skimmer are different equipments, just sharing the same name IMO.


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## vinjo (Dec 8, 2010)

I figured they did relatively the same thing, skim oils and protein out of the water... one does from the surface and one from the water column.


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Yes, their uses/benifits overlap, but their methods are very different.

Freshwater doesn't allow production of small enough bubbles for a foam fractioning skimmer to work anywhere near efficiently (If it could it work like in SW, it would be far more effective than even a surface skimmer). And this is why you hear/see people saying that skimmers are for SW only, but they are not including 'surface skimmers' in that.

Foam fractioning protein skimmer









Surface protein-slick skimmers (eheim/hagen)


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## Al-Losaurus (Jul 21, 2009)

I had the same problem oily or kinda looked like a fine dust. 2 weeks ago i added a power head and i have not had the problem since my water almost looks drinkable lol I thought about getting a surface skimmer but decided to try the power head and it works great.


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## vinjo (Dec 8, 2010)

Well after seeing how it runs with my aquarium, I think it's almost essential for proper aquarium keeping.

Not that the fish can't survive without it... but a beautiful tank with clear water should have one.


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## vinjo (Dec 8, 2010)

I didn't go the powerhead route because I have 2 koralias a 750 and a 1400 plus my eheim2217... it's plenty of water movement.

Which powerhead did you use?


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## Al-Losaurus (Jul 21, 2009)

i used the maxi-jet 1200 the laminar flow was way to strong blew plants and sand everywhere lol but the power head worked. I just bought it for making more flow in the tank aimed it toward the surface and now all my dust particles/oily stuff is gone and has not shown any signs of coming back.

the surface is literally a mirror


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

I have seen a foam fractionator (skimmer) used in waste water treatment and it was extremely effective, although it didn't produce the brown foam that it does in salt water. DOCs were lowered significantly.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

That brown crud at the base of waterfalls - skimmate!! But as Will said, it's just not as effective of a process at the DOC levels we're dealing with in aquarums.

As you guys have figured out, adequate surface agitation will get rid of the crud - try having your spraybar from your canister 0.5cm above the water line. This will draw the proteins and other crud on the surface back into the water which can be either broken down, or removed by water changes.


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

I didn't think I had to distinguish between industrial water treatment plant skimmers and aquarium skimmers.  Lol, though I'm sure everyone would love to have multi million dollar skimmers on their FW tanks. It would require one hell of a bubble trap! Even those giant 6' tall aquarium skimmers would work on a FW, but only to a small degree that it would on SW. Aquarium skimmers are expensive enough to have not work efficiently on your FW tanks.

Just like waterfalls, you can sometimes see it on the shorelines where waves constantly crash. It happens in many areas of the great lakes, no doubt there is lots in that water that could be skimmed.


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## adrenaline (Jan 17, 2011)

you don't need a surface skimmer to remove the oily film. sufficient surface agitation is all you need to avoid that. Basically surface agitation allows it to be borken up and removed through regular filtration. 

Don't get me wrong here as surface extractors will always help... Just saying they are not necessary to avoid the oily surface residue. I use power heads for additional surface aggitation in my larger tanks to prevent this. In smaller tanks the mail filter (usually has a spray bar) tends to be enough.


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## J-P (Feb 27, 2011)

adrenaline said:


> you don't need a surface skimmer to remove the oily film. sufficient surface agitation is all you need to avoid that. Basically surface agitation allows it to be borken up and removed through regular filtration.
> 
> Don't get me wrong here as surface extractors will always help... Just saying they are not necessary to avoid the oily surface residue. I use power heads for additional surface aggitation in my larger tanks to prevent this. In smaller tanks the mail filter (usually has a spray bar) tends to be enough.


+1

PM me if you want to test a SW skimmer with a FW tank.


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