protein skimmer

[Aquatic_Addiction]

Hello everyone, I don't know much about these. I'm just curious if it would be worth while to get one for my 130 Gal tank with African Cichlids or not? Any feedback would be great.

Thanks

~Ray~

[Vallisneria]

I haven't really heard of them being used in Freshwater, they are more of a Salt thing.

[Aquatic_Addiction]

Ok thank you Valerie, I wasn't really sure, I started doing some reading up on them today after I posted that. I agree, for a freshwater tank I don't think it would really add any benefit. Thanks for the replay.

~Ray~

[bosshog]

I don't think it would be of any benefit to a fresh tank. The tried and true methods of mechanical, chemical and biological are far more efficient for freshie tanks. Skimmers can also be a serious PITB. Some overflow, some are very finicky about water levels, they need to be dumped every day or two. Not worth it. They are also very expensive for a good one. There are lots of cheap ones around but the cheaper the more problematic.

Just my $0.02.

[jvision]

The main reason Skimmers aren't used on FW, is that FW isn't dense enough to create the foam needed to skim out the proteins. Some have said that Rift Lake tanks might b/c of how hard the water is, but I never added anything to my African tanks to make them any different than other tanks.