Freshwater Protine skimnming

["Adam N." <adam at xhaos_org>]

I am in the process of setting up a peristaltic (dosing) pump that will feed
a dilute nutrient mixture into my tank.  When I set my tank up I placed the
plumbing in the basement because I hate noise and then also ran PVC to the
set tub to facilitate the drain fill process for partial water changes and
maintenance.  The peristaltic pump will be house in the basement and feed
water into the tank at about 1 gallon per day, which is in excess of the
evaporation rate.  I am going to set up the drain that goes to the set tub
as an overflow thus skimming the tank.

Because I inject CO2 in before my pump (I have no filter) I get masses of
tiny bubbles both from the CO2 and from plant respiration. Before I set up
the return drain to my pump up with a skimmer I developed a tick protein
film on the surface of the tank water.  I will remove the pump drain skimmer
and now the overflow drain will skim into the set tub in the basement, thus
removing protein from the system permanently.  I believe that the extremely
low pH likely at the surface of the CO2 bubble, possibly aiding in the
protein bonding process.  In essence I am turning my whole tank into a giant
very pretty protein skimmer.

Adam