Bak Pak with low bubble count/freshwater...?

[Todd March]

A few weeks away from setting up my new reef tank, I thought I would give my new Bak Pak 2R skimmer a dry run...

I set it up in a tall bucket of tap water, and started it up... I was shocked at the huge size of the bubbles and the very low number of them (they went directly up and out of the chamber)... After fiddling with the air line valve (lowering it quite a bit), I got a finer bubble, but still there were very few of them (you could see very clearly right through the reaction chamber at all times).

Af first I paniced, but a friend remined me that they do not use protein skimmers on freshwater tanks for a reason--because of the lower surface tension of freshwater. He said that when I connect it to a salt system with organsims in it, it will come to life and skim wonderfully...

Is he right? Can the simple change to saltwater affect the size and the number of the bubbles?

Or maybe I'm just expacting too much, but I thought the reaction chamber would like like a swirling white mass of foamy bubbles, making it hard to see through the chamber...?

HELP! I'm confused and can't believe that my new Bak Pak skimmer doesn't work!? This skimmer has a good rep, and I felt confident buying it...

Thanks,


Todd

 

[danmhippo]

Your friend is right on this one.

However, skimmer can still be used on some types of freshwater tank. Tanks with very hard water such as cichlid tank and some pond can use skimmer as well, however not as efficient as pure saltwater environment.

 

[reefland]

You'll be very surprised at the difference with the skimmer on salt water. As your friend said skimmers don't work well on freshwater tanks... for a reason. You can't easily make the bubbles small enough to be effective do to the surface tension of fresh water.

Add a cup or two of salt to your bucket for testing and you'll see a difference.

 

[Anonymous]

hi.
Your friend made the very same mistake that many of us make. Freshwater has a greater surface tension than saltwater. The ions in the saltwater make the surface tension to decrease. The lowered surface tension is what permit the creation of small air bubble, hence more surface area, and more efficient skimmer.

Other than the sign of the inequality (< or >), your friend's logic is correct.