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RE: Aquatic Plants Digest V5 #232
- To: <Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com>
- Subject: RE: Aquatic Plants Digest V5 #232
- From: "Lee Boon Chuan" <lee.bc at ellipsiz_com>
- Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 08:48:46 +0800
- Thread-index: AcIxuyQ8/JTAjM+SQaiK4LJ1Md+L4QAJH60Q
- Thread-topic: Aquatic Plants Digest V5 #232
~~~~
Michael Laflamme:
"Protien Skimmer (or Foam Fractionators) won't work in fresh water due to the
viscosity of the water. Salt water is much thicker (?) or more viscous than
fresh water, therefore it is much easier to produce foam. Look at a beach
versus a lake shore. You see much more foam at the sea shore. Objects in
salt water float much better, and higher in the water, then freshwater due
to this principle."
~~~~
To my knowledge, the viscosity of salt water and fresh water does not differ
too much. And foaming has got to do with surface tension rather ... or something
like that. But I thought it is the protein or organics in the water that causes
the foaming. (Objects floats better due to higher density of SW... not viscosity
...although in most cases higher density means higher viscosity... BTW, SW has the
SG of about 1.022... not very much higher.)
Like someone has posted, protein skimmer gets rid of the protein before it is
turned into NH3. Therefore, it will reduce the N level. In SW aquarium, it is
critical to keep the overall N low for some anemonaes. Although I am not sure
whther protein skimmer will work in the FW, IMO, it is not really needed in the
planted aquarium, since NH3 can be utilised by plants and is usually kept in
control.
BC (Singapore)