protien skimmer in fresh water?

[user404]

I have a 38 gallon fresh water tank... as i said earler 3 tinfoil barbs..ranging 6-8 inches..1 blood parrot..1 gold 1 blue and 1 pink kissing gourami and 1 silver dollar..up keep on this "busy" ahem..tinfoils too big but I wont get rid of them.. tank...Rena Filstar XP needs cleaned out and rebuilt about every 10 days or so..vac about every week..Someone mentioned a protien skimmer for the water saying it would cut down on the nitrates and keep the tank cleaner..I thought they were more for salt tanks so I asked around, I get mixed results some say yes it will help with fresh water too, some say its a waste of money it dosent do anything in a fresh water tank...

 

[HUKIT]

It's a waste of money for freshwater, use that coin for a larger fish tank which is desperately needed. The only thing that removes nitrates is water changes/filter maintenance, your tank is grossly overstocked which will lead to poor water chemisty and poor fish health.

 

[carey]

I also feel the skimmer would be a waste of money on a freshwater tank. Just do bigger water changes more frequently is what will keep the nitrates down.

 

[Crepe]

PS can't work on fw because the SG is too low. I suppose if you had incredibly incredibly hard water like an african tank's water and then some it could possibly work but that's clearly not what you have.

 

[carey]

PS can't work on fw because the SG is too low. I suppose if you had incredibly incredibly hard water like an african tank's water and then some it could possibly work but that's clearly not what you have.

Excellent point. You wouldnt get enough bubbles for it to work would you anyways?

 

[Crepe]

Excellent point. You wouldnt get enough bubbles for it to work would you anyways?

It wouldn't foam nearly as much. You'd have to run the PS really really wet and at that point you might as well be doing water changes lol. So you basically end up with an expensive WC pump that can empty your tank water one cup at a time. The reason fw doesn't foam is the presence or lack there of enough salts to make it work. There are fw skimmers but these units are big and expensive. More expensive than like a new 120 gal. expensive.

OP petco is having its 1$ per gallon sale. For the price of a good skimmer ~200 dollars you can get a 90 gallon tank. I'd say spring for it.

 

[user404]

took the advice Petco did have 1 dollar per gallon...No room for a 75 gal or anything like that got a 55...kinda pushing it there...I got the aquarium home and noticed the black plastic bracket/skirt on the outside edge of the bottom and top..the one on the bottom was broken on both sides..I thought i would run the tank back to petco and just exchange it, nope Petco of spartanburg cust service Ashley informs me I need to come back tomorrow they inspect the tanks and that must be my fault..I like to had lost it in the store..they sold me some crap and didnt want to take it back not to mention i had already went home and had to come back...finally she calls the manager who says exchange it, but I cant believe that took that much and calling an off duty manager to figure out they should exchange something like that...I could see if I had busted the glass and said it was like that , but this is just the trim busted in the cornner so the tank wouldnt sit right had I tried to keep it...
I got a 29 Gallon from Petco
I got a 38 Gallon from peto
I like to had got screwed getting a 55 gallon from petco
I will check out petsmart next time..