Pfffff……..
In situations where you do not see improvement in your pet you tend to spend money on things that are probably not going to solve the issue. But then at least you can say to yourself that you tried.
So to make myself feel better I ordered a brand new
freshwater protein skimmer including a water pump. Crap cost me 290 Euro in total! Of course I only bought it because I want to use it also for my next enclosure. It all has a capacity that is for my current enclosure to much so hopefully I can make it work.
- Tornado-II-for_E.jpg (83.1 KiB) Viewed 4758 times
The system will add significant flow, improve filtration and adds massive amounts of air to the water. Hopefully this will help my TSN to feel better. Of course I have no found arguments to say that this is a solution. But I believe it will certainly make some improvements. And I can only hope that it is sufficient to get some improvement in the health of my TSN.
The protein skimmer is a Tornado II including air pump, bio carrier filter media and flow meter. With a total price of 198 Euro’s. Normal price without the mentioned extra’s is 199 – 249 Euro’s. For a second hand they ask approx 125 Euro.
There are better, but also more expensive, protein skimmers for koi ponds but they are actually way too large for my purpose and some advised that, aldo the tornado is more sensitive, if set properly, I would probably have better results with this one. It also is more energy efficient because it has no venturi.
The results with the Tornado II for koi ponds are diverse. Therefore some consider them poor and others excellent. But the same counts for very expensive ones.
Product description internet:
The Tornado II Protein Skimmer is the New improved version of the popular Tornado protein skimmer. No more pressure loss on the inlet due to the absence of a venturi. Water goes straight into the filter. Air is blown into the 4mm air inlet through a supplied flowmeter to ensure a continuous flow of 0,5 l/m (30 l/h). This pressure ensures the separation of the produced foam through the foam outlet pipe.
The Tornado II Protein Skimmer is a combination of three different filter systems. The Tornado II Protein Skimmer filter operates biological, mechanical and chemical.
The Tornado II Protein Skimmer principle operates as follows: The surface of an air bubble attracts dissolved substances out of the water. Because of the adhesion of the bubbles these substances, like chemicals, waste particles, colourants and algae, are concentrated. By means of an air pump, air is mixed with water.
By forcing this mixture through the bio rings to a lower part, there is a long contact between air and water. This changes the surface tension of the water continuously and creates a thick foam. This foam will be separated from the cleared water by a perforated cone and exits through the foam outlet. Dissolved substances like; phosphates, ammonia, humus acids, colourants, proteins and a number of heavy metals, are filtered out of the water and separated together with the foam.
The extraction of dissolved substances is not possible with normal filters and can only be done if chemicals are added.
The Tornado II Protein Skimmer filter has various advantages:
• Stabilizes pH
• Removes colourants
• Increases dissolved oxygen
• Not dependant on bacteria, works as soon as the pump is running.
• Total height 74cm, Ø16cm. Water inlet Ø25mm
• water outlet Ø40 mm,
• foam outlet Ø25mm.
• Pump capacity max. 5m³/h.
On the internet I read that the pump capacity should be at least 1500 l/hr for the Tornado II and as indicated above max. 5000 l/hr.
Pump:
Lately I have been checking different brands, prices and efficiency of pumps. The efficiency is difficult because often they do not meet what they promise and some build up more pressure and others gain more flow.
I felt most confident with the Aquaforte DM series looking at energy efficiency, quality and price.
Below an overview that I made of this series:
As with most pump series from any brand you see that they become less energy efficient as they become larger. The overview show my calculations that indicate that the biggest is roughly 32% less energy efficient compared to the smallest one. Probably there are reasons why you can’t look at it in this way but to the best of my knowledge I try to interpret the figures and come to these conclusions. Don't consider it scientific.
My preference would have been the 6500. But this one is just one size too big for the Tornado so I didn’t take that change and bought the 3500. Not the 5000 because it looks like it is 11% less efficient. So I also decided that within my filtration system I will use this pump only to feed the skimmer. So considering it runs 24/7 every Watt in absolute figures will count. And the smallest is still big enough for the Tornado.
I have no ideas how to make this equipment fit on my current tank but I will do my best to figure something out. Hopefully I will have the equipment around Wednesday.
