Salinity and protein skimming

[enufsedtoy]

Does the higher or lower salinity of the water change the way the protein skimmer works? Would more or less salinity give you more foam or less? if so what gives you the most foam/bubbles what number 1.0##?

thank you

 

[Simon Garratt]

Im no chemist so i couldnt say for deffinate from a chemistry point of veiw exept to say Id assume that the answer is yes, dependent on the concentrations of certain molecules.

From a physics aspect though, Id say yes, a higher salinity would make a difference. Generally speaking, the higher the density the smaller the bubbles that can be produced by a given pump assembly..(fill a skimmer with fresh water and you'll see what i mean)...with low density, bubbles are large, as you increase density you compress the same volume of air into a smaller volume, so the overal density of bubbles you can create for a given volume increases as you raise salinity.

would this be a good reason to increase salinity above normal levels...Personnaly id say no...The biological stresses an increased salinity level might cause on some organisms especially higher ones such as fish is imo not worth any marginal increases in skimmer activity gained


Regards

 

[Keith P]

Agreed. I ran my skimmer in RO to "break it in" and it made almost no foam. I brought the water up to 1.025 and a nice head of foam developed.

 

[sharkbait69]

agree on higher sal. The higher the sal the easier it is for the tensile strength of bubble to hold shape while proteins stick the surface of the bubble without rupturing.
Sound good?