Skimmer for a Malawi tank???????

What do you think of a skimmer in a malawi tank?

 

Why the heck not?

Skimmers remove protien and organic build up, but your "regular" water changes should do that as well...

 

These malawis shit like hell. They have no table manners either.

 

Dont' skimmers only work in Marine water?

 

Maybe... I don't know... They make the water foam by injecting huge amounts of air into the chamber which causes the foam to move upwards and the waste into the skimmer cup.

I recommend large water changes regularly. 30 - 50% weekly.

 

No, there are specially designed skimmers for freshwater aquaria as well as for ponds...

 

Where can I get these skimmers?

 

Have a look a the following link.
http://www.tmc-ltd.co.uk/commercial/freshwater-skimmers.asp
I don't think anbody stocks freshwater skimmers in SA.

 

freshwater skimmers are not available off the shelf in this country.

I can easily import them for you. PM to discuss further.

 

Protein skimmers are used if you are feeding fishes with high protein diets such as frozen krill, and these foods leach proteins into the water which then causes decay and water quality deterioration. This often applies to marine fishes in which one feeds high protein foods such as krill.

You do not feed Malawis high protein diets, you feed them high vegetable diets that are purposely low on proteins, so you have no excess proteins. It does not matter what sort of shit they produce, this does not contain proteins any longer, they have absorbed them. Why do you want to bother with a protein skimmer?

I don't understand.....

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

To be fair, not ALL Malawis eat the same things - the open waters species in particular are predators, some feeding exclusively on fish. Malawi predators in captivity then would therefore benefit from being fed high-protein, high waste foods, such as sardine, krill etc.

Just as a side note, I've met somebody who's using this so-called freshwater skimmer. He has a tank consisting of predatory (and aggressive) New World cichlids, like Oscars and Red Devils. He feeds them regularly with meaty foods, and says that the skimmer helps a lot. It'd be of benefit to those who do use meaty foods to treat their fish.

 

To be fair, Salmon you are correct for those special Malawis.

However, the common Malawis are mostly fed on cardboard in any case (you will note that I am not a Malawi fan....) and then the protein skimmer is superfluous, you would agree.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

I think a skimmer for a malawi tank is Overkill.

A better solution would be an algea scrubber IMHO.

To will remove the organic and inorganic Nitrogen by products and Phosphate by products that will in turn cause less alge growth in the tank and healthier water.

It is also a hell of a lot cheaper than any skimmer. I have only recenty started experimenting with them (in MArine and fresh water), but my initial results are good.

Basically all you'll need are 2 cool white globes, some PVC pipe, a water pump and something that you can have the algea grow on.

 

What was your result in the freshwater setup. I also have java ferns & anubia in my tank. Will an algae scrubber effect plants?

 

The Algea scrubber should nog affect the Java ferns especially once they start growing out of the water.

The anubias glows slower and may be affected me thinks, since the algea grow at a phenominal rate.

I would try this on a tank with no other plants first (Mosty african cichlid)

Or a quarantine / holding tank.

I have seen some guy's / gals use an algea scrubber on a bare botomed thank to hold discus.

My malawi tank has valis spiralis (VERY fast growing plant) in it and they do not seem to be be overly affected by the algea scrubber.

Slow growers may be a different story though.