What exactly does a protein skimmer do?

[vaz]

What exactly does a protein skimmer do. I'm sure it skims proteins. But where do the proteins come from. And what do the proteins hurt the most, Inverts or fish, and how do they hurt them. And how does the skimmer keep the proteins out of the tank.
Thanks as you can tell I am just starting out on a reef tank after years of freshwater where I never needed a skimmer.
Steve

 

[reefersx2]

works sorda like waves, the bubbles attract all the organic matter and rise to the surface as the smaller bubbles merge with each other they spew in to the cup. It is a little more involved than that but that is the jist of it.
Joey

 

[10k]

basically a protien skimmer takes out most of the organics (nasties) in the water, before the bacteria have a chance to turn them to Ammonia, basically stopping the nitrogen cycle in it's tracks, which will in turn reduce Nitrate buildup...HTH

 

[arkman]

It may help if you call it a fractionator, than a protein skimmer. It’s the same as any other filter except the filter media in this case is very little air bubbles that actively run through the water column and remove anything that it can “cling” to. The “gook” bubbles to the top of the cup where the bubble breaks and the gook gets collected.
These are very efficient filters – there is some discussion around the need/desire of running them 24/7 – they will filter both good and bad.
Welcome to the world of SW – this is a great board – lots of good information here. Try using the search engine for specifics.

 

[jrb384]

sure they all already answered your ? but it was explained to me as, when you go to the beach, and you see the waves crash into the shore, that white frothy stuff is natures way of cleaning.
the skimmer copy's that.
makes sense to me, but i may be wrong.
oh, another thing it does is break your wallet!

 

[thomas712]

The way it was first explained to me was. "Remember when you were a kid, and you had that little plastic wand with the circle in it to blow soap bubbles with, ever see the rainbow of colors on the bubble?. Well pretend you have thousands of those bubbles in your skimmer and the rainbow of those colors is the dissolved organic compounds that collect around the bubbles, they rise up, pop in a cup."
Thomas

 

[nm reef]

The folks above pretty much covered your question....below is some additional info I copy/pasted from another site...
In Summary
Protein skimmers can be an effective method in reducing the problems related to waste accumulation in our tanks. The application of skimmers have been associated with reduced waste (reduction of DOCs), reduced algal growth, and increased water quality. Many of the present skimmers on the hobbyist market are too small (height and diameter) and/or underpowered to effectively remove sufficient amounts of organic waste. As a rule of thumb, taller skimmers tend to work better than short, squat ones. The hobbyist needs to ensure bubble production is maximized (smaller bubbles work better than big bubbles), and consequently, the water in the reaction column should be milky white in appearance. The foam produced in the skimmer should be continually moving up towards the collection cup so that is being collected and removed from the system. One final word on skimmate consistency: this topic is often a subject of debate (i.e., thick, mud colored, and dry versus watery and iced-tea colored (image above right)), and I will address skimmate in an upcoming article. But I'll leave the topic for now by saying: you want to collect skimmate (any skimmate), and any skimmate is better than no skimmate at all.
For additional infomation see: www.proteinskimmers.com
Hope that technical stuff helps!
Bottom line for my reef is my protien skimmer removes some nasty looking stuff that I'm convinced does not belong in the system.