Nature’s Skimmer in Action

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Was at the shore this morning. We have had several days of big pounding waves from the nor’easter that just passed. The water is quite clean here at the very tip of Cape Ann in Massachusetts, but the frothing waves have still generated a lot of light brownish foam that can be seen to the left of the breaking wave in the photo below.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Very cool, Randy!

 

[Dkeller_nc]

I've seen this exact thing after one of the many storms off of Cape Hatteras. One nerdy-but-interesting scientific question would be "how much of the dissolved organic carbon content of ocean water is deposited on land by wave action, and how much is simply digested by ocean bacteria and other organisms?".

I have to think there's at least some academic study examining this sort of question....

 

[mtfish]

There is a electric power cooling lake that takes water from the Laguna Madre and dumps it into one of the back bays. It is a great fishing site during the cold winter days (not up north cold!). I should take a picture and post some time. It would put any skimmer to shame and quite nasty. You could lose your kayak in it if you don't move it up wind!

 

[Dom]

I believe that this called Foam Fractionation. Isn't it?

I've observed this same brownish, soapy-like foam along the shore line here at the entrance of NY Harbor. I was thinking that if there was some way to replicate that in a tank (other than the chamber of a skimmer), you could eliminate a skimmer from your setup.

 

[philosophile]

I believe that this called Foam Fractionation. Isn't it?

I've observed this same brownish, soapy-like foam along the shore line here at the entrance of NY Harbor. I was thinking that if there was some way to replicate that in a tank (other than the chamber of a skimmer), you could eliminate a skimmer from your setup.

You still need a way to take it out of your system.... skimmers do just that. Otherwise you could just have a chamber in your sump with a really strong air bubbler, and it will do the same thing.... make foam.

 

[Victoria M]

Was at the shore this morning. We have had several days of big pounding waves from the nor’easter that just passed. The water is quite clean here at the very tip of Cape Ann in Massachusetts, but the frothing waves have still generated a lot of light brownish foam that can be seen to the left of the breaking wave in the photo below.

Looks like a great day on the shore/beach!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I believe that this called Foam Fractionation. Isn't it?

I've observed this same brownish, soapy-like foam along the shore line here at the entrance of NY Harbor. I was thinking that if there was some way to replicate that in a tank (other than the chamber of a skimmer), you could eliminate a skimmer from your setup.

The best that most folks do in this regard is use an overflow to take water from the main tank then into a skimmer, with the whole surface area of the display and any bubbles that rise to it acting as a place to help remove organics.

 

[Edp251]

I took these a few weeks back at the entry of the gulf in Cohasset. Normal drainage of the gulf river on a cool morning

 

[fcmatt]

This type of observation is how the skimmer was invented. I think it was the brownish foam/debris at the top of the under gravel filter where the air bubbles popped.

"Another major innovation of the 1960's was the protein skimmer, which was the result of an observation made by a hobbyist in Solingen, Germany in 1963. After noting that brown foam formed at the uplift tube of his undergravel filter, he devised a system of celluloid tubes connected to an inclined tube, which drained the foam into a cup. He sent a record of his work and observations to the Max Planck Institute for Ethology. Norbert Tunze and Erwin Sander simultaneously began further research on the idea and later/soon thereafter introduced the first commercial protein skimmers under the brand names Tunze and Sander, respectively. "

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rv/feature/index.php

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I believe that this called Foam Fractionation. Isn't it?

I've observed this same brownish, soapy-like foam along the shore line here at the entrance of NY Harbor. I was thinking that if there was some way to replicate that in a tank (other than the chamber of a skimmer), you could eliminate a skimmer from your setup.

Anyone remember the Carlson Surge Bucket? Not that it would skim

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

This type of observation is how the skimmer was invented. I think it was the brownish foam/debris at the top of the under gravel filter where the air bubbles popped.

"Another major innovation of the 1960's was the protein skimmer, which was the result of an observation made by a hobbyist in Solingen, Germany in 1963. After noting that brown foam formed at the uplift tube of his undergravel filter, he devised a system of celluloid tubes connected to an inclined tube, which drained the foam into a cup. He sent a record of his work and observations to the Max Planck Institute for Ethology. Norbert Tunze and Erwin Sander simultaneously began further research on the idea and later/soon thereafter introduced the first commercial protein skimmers under the brand names Tunze and Sander, respectively. "

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rv/feature/index.php

Anyone remember the plankton safe skimmers