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hey all..ive been reading about skimmers..but what are actually skimmers?and whats the use of bio wheel and what is it?i havent seen one even after 10 years of fish keeping..thx..

Protein skimmers are devices that remove dissolved organic particles from water through foam fractionation. They are very helpful for getting excess nutrients out of tank water, but are really only effective on marine fish tanks or freshwater tanks with very hard water.

Bio-wheels are a type of hang-on-back filter. They are made by the Marineland company; you can see a couple of their bio-wheel filters [link=here]http://marineland.com/products/consumer/con_emperor.asp" style="COLOR: #808080[/link]. These filters are reputed to be extra effective because the wheels give lots of room for beneficial bacteria to grow.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Sirbooks says it all.

I have one addition though:

IMHO, Bio Wheels are not a good choice for CO2 injected tanks as they really create a large surface over which the water flows back into the tank. The CO2 would dissolve into the atmosphere much easier. For the same reason, surface agitation on this kind of tank setup should be kept at a minimum.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

so..is it important to have a skimmer in a saltwater tank?thx..

Skimmers are important to just about any saltwater fish tank, with the possible exception of tanks with organisms that need to feed on particulate matter and/or plankton. In these cases, the skimmer often removes the food matter from the water column before the animals can feed on it. Many of these types of animals are difficult to keep however, and are not common in the aquarium trade. In other cases, this problem can be circumvented just by directly feeding the animals with a turkey baster or similar device.

In marine tanks with large amounts of live rock, it is entirely possible to run a protein skimmer and no filter!

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."