Protein skimmer?

[Marvb209]

What is a protein skimmer and why do I need it?

 

[SammyL]

Simple put it is a chamber filled with bubbles that move and remove the waste that is in the water column.

This is one area that you want to spend your time and buy a good one.

 

[Marvb209]

In replacement of my filter or in addition to?

 

[NJAB]

the answer to that question is dependent on various factors the main one being bio load, you can have a skimmer as your only filtration method and you will be fine if it is properly sized and that usually means doubling up (ex. I have a 75 gal and my skimmer is sized for a 150) but if you have a large amount of fish or plan to have a large amount then you will have a large bio load and your phosphates will go up, do to feeding and fish poop you can lower these with water changes but i like to have help lowering them with GFO in a media reactor, now once you have your phosphates in check you can worry about the yellowing of your water, smells, and other toxins entering the water from dirty hands to corals expelling them you can take care of this with again water changes or Carbon in a media reactor which is what I'm using as well, then once you have all that in check you still have to worry about nitrate building up and the best way to get rid of that is also water changes. Now the point being to all this is, yes you can have a skimmer only as your filter but it will increase the percent of water you have to change as a result, you can lower your percent with other filtration methods, In my sump i have 2 filter socks then the skimmer then the 2 media reactors one with GFO and the next with Carbon then the return pump and i try to do a 10% water change every 2-3 weeks.

 

[gone fishin]

OP what size tank do you have?

 

[jrr98002]

Protein skimmers remove waste proteins (uneaten food, fish wastes, other sources) before they can decompose and turn into harmful things for your tank. It does so by mixing the water with air, which causes the protein to bubble into a foam, much like whipping an egg white, which then fills the cup. It doesn't really replace anything, as you really need your other filtration to catch the macro-sized stuff that you can then clean from your primary filter. Protein skimmers may help you from needing to do quite as large WCs by keeping your nitrates down. This does depend on what sort of system you have though. Sometimes you still need the frequent WCs even if you're skimming well, especially with corals involved.