Mike Johnson
Well-Known Member
Proof that your tank is "full of it". (haha) I couldn't imagine not having a protein skimmer to pull out all that poop.
Show me your skimmate~!
- Thread starter nivek
- Start date
kyle4201
Active Member
I heard skimmers are relatively new,, I could never imagine not having 1. That would be like me taking that cup and all the scrapings off the sides and pouring it into my tank. How did the old timers have such nice tanks,, or didnt they?
Mike Johnson
Well-Known Member
I am an old timer. We vacuumed the substrate, manually skimmed foam off the top of the water, and had very short term success with tanks. I can remember when we called them foam fractionators.
Back then the biggest obstacle in keeping a tank was high levels of nitrates. Then they introduced wet-dry/trickle filtration and other methods which accomplished nitrate reduction. So, then the issues of the day switched to denitrification. Thus the introduction of deep sand beds and live rocks. And the Berlin style instead of underground filters.
Now, we have denitrification methods that don't even require sand and rocks. But that's a whole other story and I'm not trying to write a book on the history of the reef aquarium.
It's a long story, but I had an 8" pipe running 20' up a pine tree for my crab shedding tanks back in the early
90's, but it wasn't called a protein skimmer. I was even published on that method and my findings were distributed up and down the east coast for other crab shedders.
Also had a full size septic tank full of ancient reef rocks for a sump, but we didn't call it that then either.
The biggest advancement back then was the use of live rocks and deep sand beds for denitrification in saltwater tanks.
Back then the biggest obstacle in keeping a tank was high levels of nitrates. Then they introduced wet-dry/trickle filtration and other methods which accomplished nitrate reduction. So, then the issues of the day switched to denitrification. Thus the introduction of deep sand beds and live rocks. And the Berlin style instead of underground filters.
Now, we have denitrification methods that don't even require sand and rocks. But that's a whole other story and I'm not trying to write a book on the history of the reef aquarium.
It's a long story, but I had an 8" pipe running 20' up a pine tree for my crab shedding tanks back in the early
90's, but it wasn't called a protein skimmer. I was even published on that method and my findings were distributed up and down the east coast for other crab shedders.
Also had a full size septic tank full of ancient reef rocks for a sump, but we didn't call it that then either.
The biggest advancement back then was the use of live rocks and deep sand beds for denitrification in saltwater tanks.
Choff
Well-Known Member
I had a skimmer on my tank in 1992 when I started. Not sure if that's considered recent or not, but it sure seems like it was.
It's funny that wet/dry filters + bio balls was an improvement to nitrates considering we call them nitrate factories today.
I can just imagine what my kids will make fun of when they compare their tanks to their dad's tank when they grow up.
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It's funny that wet/dry filters + bio balls was an improvement to nitrates considering we call them nitrate factories today.
I can just imagine what my kids will make fun of when they compare their tanks to their dad's tank when they grow up.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
larrypueblo
Member
ok here is mine aqua medic 5000 shorty it's a beast!
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Is that the skimmer that comes in the LifeReef build? That's impressive if nasty looking counts :LOL:This smells worse than it looks:
Thought I'd start a thread to show off all the hard work that your skimmer is doing. Let me start off with mine - Bubble Magus Nac 3
my bubble magus nac 6 looks exactly like this.
:laughroll