Can a saltwater filter-skimmer be used for freshwater?

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XimeD

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Sep 1, 2010
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So, I've had my 20gal for 3 months and decided to upgrade to a 75gal (LFS sold me fish that will get too big and this gave me an excuse to get a bigger tank :D)

I bought a 75gal acrylic tank on craigslist and it came with a CPR Cyclone Bak-pak 2R filter. So I am going to betray my ignorance here and ask whether I can still use this for freshwater and if so do I need to supplement with another filter?

I also have a more specific question, if proteins skimmers actually remove harmful organic comps and lighten the bioload why don't we just use those for freshwater too? Is it not worth it cost-wise? overkill maybe?

Thanks,
 
Skimmers don't work in FW .... From what I read, you need a certain level of specific gravity for the foaming action to work. So unless you have a cichlid tank with super hard water (so the sg is like that of SW), you can't get the skimmer to skim.
 
I won't use it then even though I do have pretty hard water (gH is 200-400ppm or 18 drops on the API liquid test kit, I am not sure what that makes the sg since I don't have a hydrometer).

The guy at the LFS said to disconnect the air on the skimmer and buy some bio-media (like fluval biomax) and put that inside what would have been the fractioning column of the skimmer. Any thoughts on this?

I will probably see if I can either sell or trade it.
 
Traded it for a Rena Xp3 filter at the LFS =)
 
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