Brief pictorial intoduction to skimmer mechanics

[blueheaven]

Hi guys, I've just started my holidays so I decided to do this brief intro for new reefers about how a skimmer works. This is really brief and if you want to learn more, there's a great article by Randy on RC.

Firstly, I'll intoduce the amphiphilic molecule. Most proteins, soaps, fats, etc. have a portion of the molecule being hydrophilic (loves water) and a portion being hydrophobic (hates water). Such molecules are known as amphiphilic molecules and these are the stuff that gets skimmed out.

[blueheaven]

Therefore, in our systems, we have an air-water interface at the surface of our tanks.

The hydrophilic portion of the molecule will want to be in water but the hydrophobic portion wants to get away from water. Therefore, they form a layer on the air-water interface with the hydrophilic portion in the water and the hydrophobic portion out of water in the air as that is the only place without water.

This is the surface scum that some reefers encounter

[blueheaven]

By understanding the reaction of these molecules in air-water interfaces, the skimmer works by the same concept.

The bubbles in the skimmer provides a air-water interface and the amphiphilic molecules would react the same way and the hydrophobic portions would want to be in the bubble as it is the only place without water. Thus, these molecules actually cluster all around the bubble with their hydrophobic portions in the bubble. For those science students, I'd like to think of it as an inverted micelle.

This also explains why we want to increase the surface area of this air-water interface by either having smaller bubbles or more bubbles.

The stuff that are collected in the bubbles are then deposited into the skimmer cup.

[Interesting]

Interesting! pls cont,thz for e efforts of posting e diagrams too.

[alanseah]

kindly please go and read the orginal artica. Which give a better clearer understanding rather then been misunderstood by extract posting...

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-08/rhf/index.php

[blueheaven]

Yeah the article by Randy is good and I recommend as stated in my introduction.

This is just a brief walkthrough from what I understand of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry and just as a disclaimer, I am not extracting from his article.

This is just for new reefers who might be interested to know and for advanced reefers like you, it might not seem too impressive

[Achilles Tang]

BH,

Carry on, education is good. Glad to see you have the heart to share. Hope others will have the heart to learn. And some others the heart to appreciate your gesture.

[Reefaholic]

kindly please go and read the orginal artica. Which give a better clearer understanding rather then been misunderstood by extract posting...

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-08/rhf/index.php

Time on..... Nacho.......... Yah...

[madmac]

The stuff that are collected in the bubbles are then deposited into the skimmer cup.

Not if they burst prematurely... before it reaches the top and out of the neck? No.?

just as a disclaimer, I am not extracting from his article.

ok thank goodness, not.

.... seriously joking, that was in jest... the last line, i mean. Good effort and reef on bro!

[Sapp]

Saw a video clip from a link in another forum with a reefer explaining skimming with regards to water molecules. Below is the link if fellow reefers are interested.

Reef Video

[blueheaven]

I'm not really sure the extent of whether the amount of scum collected on the bubbles would actually affect the bubble bursting prematurely. Maybe someone can share some info on this?