Surface Skimmer - wow, what a difference!

[Complexity]

I have had a surface film on my 75g for what seems forever. I have no idea why it's there, but nothing I did ever got rid of it. So I decided to try out a cheap surface skimmer. OMG, what a major difference it made!

The surface film was gone very quickly, and what was left was the clearest, most beautiful looking water I've seen in that tank. It seemed as if cleaning that film cleaned all of the water in the tank!

Thought I'd share this for anyone else who may be dealing with a surface film. Those cheap surface skimmers really do work, and the results are excellent! I wish I had done this long ago.

[CichlidFan]

I am a big fan of them as well....12.00 and all you have to do is hook it up to a rena or whisper, AC ...whatever, and that's it.....only drawback, you got to be mindful of floating food now....like flakes and pellets....soak them first....

CF

[Complexity]

Yeah, it was sucking up some food I put in the tank yesterday. I used it to adjust the flow strength since I don't need a strong current now that it's removed the surface film.

I got the basic Tom Aquatics brand. I very much disliked the tube they supply that's supposed to be used to connect it to the intake tube so I rigged it to connect directly into one of the intake ports. This way, I don't even have to attach it to the glass with suction cups. It's a rigid connection with my piping.

I've wondered about possibly adding a sponge or netting just to be sure plant debris doesn't get in. So far, by adjusting it carefully, the flow is strong enough to skim the surface without trying to suck in everything in sight. I'll have to watch this as the filter alters its flow over time as it clogs with debris from filtering the water.

I'm just so surprised at how nice all of the water seems to be now. I don't know if it just looks better because the surface film isn't affecting the light penetration in some way or if removing the surface film actually helps to filter all the water. Whatever the reason, I am beyond glad I finally added the surface skimmer. For so little money, it really has a huge impact! Much more than I ever expected!

[Mzungu]

Thanks for the review! Good to know.

[Bogdan]

A sprayer bar from the filter directed to the surface would do the trick as well, at least that is my experience.

[Matt in Houston]

A sprayer bar from the filter directed to the surface would do the trick as well, at least that is my experience.

Probably wouldnt want to do that in a planted tank...

But...I wonder how much gas exchange occurs anyway using the surface skimmer?

[Bogdan]

[quote=Matt in Houston;404150]Probably wouldnt want to do that in a planted tank...

Why not?
tank.jpg

[Complexity]

A sprayer bar from the filter directed to the surface would do the trick as well, at least that is my experience.

I tried it. It wouldn't work. Even with excess splashing, the surface film remained. And that's with using a spray bar that spans the entire length of the tank, just a few inches from the top.

Probably wouldnt want to do that in a planted tank...

But...I wonder how much gas exchange occurs anyway using the surface skimmer?

I'm wondering the same thing. But when you consider the amount of water that's going into the skimmer – which is very little and with very little agitation – and compare that to the entire body of CO2 injected water, I don't think it's enough to outgas the CO2 at a measurable amount.

Since I'm injected it using a pH controller, even if a little does get outgassed, the overall tank won't be badly affected. All that would happen is the pH controller will stay on for a bit longer, forcing more CO2 into the tank to make up for the difference. So at most, I think I'm risking using up a little more CO2 than I otherwise would. Considering how glad I am to finally get rid of that surface film, it's well worth that trade-off.

[Complexity]

Probably wouldnt want to do that in a planted tank...

Why not?
[ATTACH]773[/ATTACH]

Because surface agitation outgasses the CO2 faster. It is more desirable to keep the CO2 in the water than to have it outgassed out.

If the agitation is minimal, such as with the little skimmer I just installed, the the amount of CO2 being outgassed is negligible.

However, with excess agitation, it's possible to outgas more CO2 from the tank than would be prudent. You could just inject more CO2 to make up for it, but at some point, you'd find yourself injecting a ton of CO2 just to have it be outgassed back out of the tank. Very wasteful and could be problematic when trying to keep a very rich saturation of CO2 of >30ppm.

[Matt in Houston]

[quote=Bogdan;404153]

Probably wouldnt want to do that in a planted tank...

Why not?
[ATTACH]773[/ATTACH]

Nice tank! And I think you know why...

How you have the co2 hooked up and how much you are injecting also plays a big role...Mine is running into the intake and through the canister filter, so the last thing I would want is to spray my output at the surface just to release the co2.

In addition, a smooth surface allows me to inject about half as many bpm as a turbulent surface. I had my tank hooked up very similar to yours once. I recently changed to near zero surface turbulence and I was able to get more pearling all while using about half as much co2.

I would be interested in a surface skimmer but my tank is triple braced and I usually fill it to the top, so that the braces are basicly splitting up the surface into three openings. The glass braces look much cleaner when the water is touching the underside of them...so, I dont think a surface skimmer on one side of the brace would be able to clean the other openings. I think the only way it would work is if I lowered my water level a little.

Here is a pics that shows the top...kind of. Its almost too bright to see the braces, which are on each side of the middle opening.

[Complexity]

Matt, the way I installed the surface skimmer puts it so that it's not under the rim or brace of the tank at all. I also like to fill my tanks to the brim (literally) so it was important that I put the surface skimmer so it could not accidentally hit anything.

[Complexity]

This isn't the best representation, but I think it does the job.

I'm using the CustomFlo kit for the piping inside the tank. What I did was remove the bottom intake screen and plug in the skimmer in its place. It wasn't a direct fit, but with a little DIY alterations, I got it to fit very snug.

The first picture is how my intake looked before I added the skimmer. And then the second picture shows the skimmer added. Hopefully, it shows how the skimmer is placed so that there is nothing above it with lots of clearance from the rim of the tank.

All of this is easily hidden by plants.