surface skimmers to increase dissolved oxygen?

I Like Surface Skimmers

Hi,

I really like surface skimmers, I like the results.

The ability to have glass smooth surface while keeping the water well oxygenated.

Biollante

 

The lack of surface film is also very useful for the gas exchange and also helps keep your lighting levels consistent day to day.

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S

 

I use it too and it helps.

 

I am also a fan of surface skimmers.

If you can drill a couple of holes in the back there are nice options available.

Joe

 

how does the surface film coming about? does the plant produce it? at what condition does the plant produce it?

 

Surface film

It comes from different sources. It can be dust, it can be proteins and such from food, and it can come from fish as well. I'm not sure that plants directly produce it.

Case in point, in my heavily planted biocube if I don't clean the overflow I'll get a thin film of stuff over the top but it's not a heavy film. On my discus tanks I don't have lots of plants in there and I feed heavily and can have a thick film on the top which I remove daily. If I'm careless with the water change and stress them too much they'll shed their slime coat which floats to the surface adding to said film. An overflow would at least sweep the surface clean but I'll still have all that "stuff" in the water to deal with one way or the other. Marine tanks, or high pH and hardness freshwater, then have the option of foam fractionation to strip that out, but it's not really an option for my tanks at the moment. The stuff on the top of the water when I've used the palm sander can be ridiculous....

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S

 

Slice The Surface

Hi,

One of the best articles on surface skimmers http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-04/gt/index.php also has a couple of calculators for figuring hole and drain sizes. It is oriented toward reef keepers.

A place to buy hole saws. http://www.glass-holes.com/Glass-Hole-Cutters_c7.htm I saw an ad somewhere for a set that includes some sort of holder to make it easier to start and stabilize the saw.

I really like the over flow skimming real thin 'slice' off the surface.

I agree with S, I do not think there is one source of surface film, I have seen film that really was serious polymerization, actually have seen a couple, I thought I might be able to pull thread.

Biollante

 

That's one of my favorite pages to quote when talking about skimmers! You didn't snag that from one of my posts did you? LOL

Coast to coast is one of the best skimming methods out there and you can take it to the extreme with the zero edge aquariums as well.

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S

 

Hi S,

Of course!

Actually it has been a favorite of mine for many years, I love being able to 'slice' the top layer of water a sixteenth of an inch!

I also love smart people that figure it all out and let dumb guys like me 'figure' things so nicely.

Biollante

 

Skimmer, Overflow Box, Sump, Return

Hi,

I think I sent the second part of a three-part article, at the bottom of the page you will see links for parts I & III. Part III, http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-07/gt/index.php, has the calculators. I think reading and understanding all three part is a good idea.

In reef keeping lingo, skimming has a slightly different meaning, though the process is the same on the aquarium end. The water is ‘skimmed’ into an ‘overflow’, usually ‘box’ then into a ‘sump’.

Biollante