protein skimmer
- Thread starter dallas03
- Start date
puffer32
Active Member
It sorta works like this...... Skimmers make tons of bubbles that goes up the skimmer and into a cup. The yucky stuff in your tank is in those bubbles, so bye bye scum. Sorta like the waves in the ocean hitting the shore, nasty stuff in that foam if you notice.That wasn't very scientific discription, but you get the idea.
reefkprz
Active Member
To be as unscientific and as clear as possible, let's simply say that the air bubbles inside the skimmer's body strip the water of undesirable waste by-products. How the bubbles accomplish this is a neat trick that needs some explanation. Ever blow bubbles as a kid? Remember all the rainbow colors on them? Just as the soap clung to the giant bubbles you were creating so too, does all the junk and other organic gunk in your aquarium water. Those pretty rainbow colors were the light refracting off the soap film...you could actually see it! In our skimmers, the bubbles are microscopic and the results can only be "seen" after they burst and deposit their "films" into the collection cup! No pretty rainbow of color here...nope. Only the vilest and nastiest looking sludge imaginable ride our skimmer's bubbles.
How does this happen? It was discovered long ago in waste treatment plants that by injecting high volumes of air bubbles into a column of waste water, the resulting effluent was purer and much cleaner than before. How could this be? Actually, quite simple. Surface tension. Surface tension? Whatzat? The interaction between the oxygen bubble and the surrounding water creates a kind of friction between the two. This friction in turn "charges" the molecules in the water.
Playing on the old Physics Law of "opposites attract", the charged gunk molecules "stick" to the bubbles, riding them up the column of water. Once the bubbles reach the surface air they burst, depositing their hitchhikers into a collection cup. This collection cup keeps the accumulated gunk from slipping back down into the water column inside the reaction chamber. Due to the very nature of saltwater, this process is possible.
How does this happen? It was discovered long ago in waste treatment plants that by injecting high volumes of air bubbles into a column of waste water, the resulting effluent was purer and much cleaner than before. How could this be? Actually, quite simple. Surface tension. Surface tension? Whatzat? The interaction between the oxygen bubble and the surrounding water creates a kind of friction between the two. This friction in turn "charges" the molecules in the water.
Playing on the old Physics Law of "opposites attract", the charged gunk molecules "stick" to the bubbles, riding them up the column of water. Once the bubbles reach the surface air they burst, depositing their hitchhikers into a collection cup. This collection cup keeps the accumulated gunk from slipping back down into the water column inside the reaction chamber. Due to the very nature of saltwater, this process is possible.
puffer32
Active Member
Originally Posted by reefkprZ
To be as unscientific and as clear as possible, let's simply say that the air bubbles inside the skimmer's body strip the water of undesirable waste by-products. How the bubbles accomplish this is a neat trick that needs some explanation. Ever blow bubbles as a kid? Remember all the rainbow colors on them? Just as the soap clung to the giant bubbles you were creating so too, does all the junk and other organic gunk in your aquarium water. Those pretty rainbow colors were the light refracting off the soap film...you could actually see it! In our skimmers, the bubbles are microscopic and the results can only be "seen" after they burst and deposit their "films" into the collection cup! No pretty rainbow of color here...nope. Only the vilest and nastiest looking sludge imaginable ride our skimmer's bubbles.
How does this happen? It was discovered long ago in waste treatment plants that by injecting high volumes of air bubbles into a column of waste water, the resulting effluent was purer and much cleaner than before. How could this be? Actually, quite simple. Surface tension. Surface tension? Whatzat? The interaction between the oxygen bubble and the surrounding water creates a kind of friction between the two. This friction in turn "charges" the molecules in the water.
Playing on the old Physics Law of "opposites attract", the charged gunk molecules "stick" to the bubbles, riding them up the column of water. Once the bubbles reach the surface air they burst, depositing their hitchhikers into a collection cup. This collection cup keeps the accumulated gunk from slipping back down into the water column inside the reaction chamber. Due to the very nature of saltwater, this process is possible.
Now thats a grownup answer, guess I did daycare for to long.......... :notsure:
:hilarious
To be as unscientific and as clear as possible, let's simply say that the air bubbles inside the skimmer's body strip the water of undesirable waste by-products. How the bubbles accomplish this is a neat trick that needs some explanation. Ever blow bubbles as a kid? Remember all the rainbow colors on them? Just as the soap clung to the giant bubbles you were creating so too, does all the junk and other organic gunk in your aquarium water. Those pretty rainbow colors were the light refracting off the soap film...you could actually see it! In our skimmers, the bubbles are microscopic and the results can only be "seen" after they burst and deposit their "films" into the collection cup! No pretty rainbow of color here...nope. Only the vilest and nastiest looking sludge imaginable ride our skimmer's bubbles.
How does this happen? It was discovered long ago in waste treatment plants that by injecting high volumes of air bubbles into a column of waste water, the resulting effluent was purer and much cleaner than before. How could this be? Actually, quite simple. Surface tension. Surface tension? Whatzat? The interaction between the oxygen bubble and the surrounding water creates a kind of friction between the two. This friction in turn "charges" the molecules in the water.
Playing on the old Physics Law of "opposites attract", the charged gunk molecules "stick" to the bubbles, riding them up the column of water. Once the bubbles reach the surface air they burst, depositing their hitchhikers into a collection cup. This collection cup keeps the accumulated gunk from slipping back down into the water column inside the reaction chamber. Due to the very nature of saltwater, this process is possible.
Now thats a grownup answer, guess I did daycare for to long.......... :notsure: