Purify Your Aquarium with Protein Skimmer

Whatever method you employ to remove residue and impurities from the aquarium, the protein skimmer procedure is one of the most effective ways of purifying the fish aquarium. Protein can breakdown into toxic and potentially harmful products that will damage your marine life in the aquarium. Using this equipment will fractionate the harmful product and cleanse the water which means it will not be necessary to make frequent changes. Protein skimmer is also useful to increase oxygen in the water and reduce damaging phosphate compounds to inhibit further algae growth etc.

Protein Skimmer Equipment

The principle of skimmers is to mix air and water inside a cylinder to produce micro bubbles or froth. This froth attracts residue and impurities because of surface tension and removes them from the fish tank through skimming action - thereby the name protein skimmer! Several modifications have taken place in skimmer design and the latest models are much easier to install, occupy less space, and do a real efficient job of skimming.

There are four types of skimming processes and they are known as co-current skimming, counter-current skimming, venture style skimming, and down-draft skimming.

In co-current skimming a cylinder is used where bubbles formed attract the impurities. The method is not too effective due to a short residence time and a long cylinder tube that had to be kept near the aquarium.

The counter-current protein skimmer unit was the next step in this field. The effect was to double the residence time to conserve on the cylinder length and this system did have a better skimming action for the same unit size. The counter-current equipment is marketed by several companies and still maintains a little popularity.

The third protein skimmer equipment is based on the venture principle and is called the Venture Style Skimming process. In the process use is made of the venture to create a vortex and millions of microscopic bubbles that are created carry out the skimming action. The dwell or residence time is increased drastically over a small area thereby limiting the size of the overall equipment. This system does have popularity especially where reef aquarium or saltwater fish tanks are used.

The fourth equipment deals with shooting a high velocity jet of water through a long tube that has internal baffle plates. The tube contains small bio balls that move at very high speed as the water jet thrashes around the baffle plates, thus creating a churning effect. It is somehow akin to using hydro power to run a turbine in electrical equipment. At the base of the tube the water comes out as foam that flows into another sump thereby skimming the protein with it! The process is used for making large protein skimmer equipment and a scaled down version is also available for small aquariums. Ingenious modifications made by some companies result in more efficient skimming and removal of waste products that would otherwise be harmful to your pet fish and other living organisms.

In conclusion, protein skimmer equipment helps in purifying your aquarium and provides therefore an aid to keeping the fish in a state of well being.