Hi BRS folks! I love your videos, I even watch the ones aimed at more beginner type reefers or equipment I’m not planning to buy or replace any time soon, just because I always find something useful.
However, in your recent Reef FAQ on protein skimmers, you made a pretty important mistake in your scientific description of how skimmers work. You said:
“The reason this works so well is because much of the undesirable waste in your tank has an electrical charge which causes it to naturally be attracted to the surface of the water and in the case of a skimmer that surface is an air bubble.
Those pollutants which are attracted to the bubbles surface are called hydrophilic, meaning they are attracted to water. The waste’s natural charge forces it to gravitate towards and collect on the bubbles surface to create that filthy foam head which is then removed via the collection cup.”
The skimmer fractionates out amphipathic molecules, that is ones that have both hydrophobic (repelled by water) and hydrophilic (attracted to water) parts on the same molecule. These are attracted to the surface of the air bubbles because both parts of the molecule can be where they prefer, out of the water for the hydrophobic part, and in the water for the hydrophilic part. This works well since most biological waste, proteins, and contaminants are amphipathic.
The electrical charge bit is actually exactly wrong, since electrical charge is not drawn to the bubble surface but rather into the water; most electrically charged molecules (like water) are hydrophilic and don’t fractionate out at all. The bit about hydrophilic molecules being attracted to the bubbles is also wrong, for the same reason
The next part where you mention that hydrophobic contaminants like oil from your hand mess with skimmer foam is correct, since it gives the amphipathic molecules something else to form around besides air bubbles, with their hydrophobic parts facing in toward the clump of oil molecules, and their hydrophilic parts facing out toward the water.
Anyway I realize this is a bit “sciencey” but I just felt like if you were going to explain it, it should be correct, since you probably have the largest audience of reefers in the world, and many hang on your every word as gospel. Plus the real science of it is actually pretty cool. My fear is that now we are going to have a generation of reefers who will be incorrectly correcting people online whenever this comes up for the foreseeable future, lol.
Anyway, thanks again for the videos, and please keep them coming!
@Ryanbrs
@randyBRS
However, in your recent Reef FAQ on protein skimmers, you made a pretty important mistake in your scientific description of how skimmers work. You said:
“The reason this works so well is because much of the undesirable waste in your tank has an electrical charge which causes it to naturally be attracted to the surface of the water and in the case of a skimmer that surface is an air bubble.
Those pollutants which are attracted to the bubbles surface are called hydrophilic, meaning they are attracted to water. The waste’s natural charge forces it to gravitate towards and collect on the bubbles surface to create that filthy foam head which is then removed via the collection cup.”
The skimmer fractionates out amphipathic molecules, that is ones that have both hydrophobic (repelled by water) and hydrophilic (attracted to water) parts on the same molecule. These are attracted to the surface of the air bubbles because both parts of the molecule can be where they prefer, out of the water for the hydrophobic part, and in the water for the hydrophilic part. This works well since most biological waste, proteins, and contaminants are amphipathic.
The electrical charge bit is actually exactly wrong, since electrical charge is not drawn to the bubble surface but rather into the water; most electrically charged molecules (like water) are hydrophilic and don’t fractionate out at all. The bit about hydrophilic molecules being attracted to the bubbles is also wrong, for the same reason
The next part where you mention that hydrophobic contaminants like oil from your hand mess with skimmer foam is correct, since it gives the amphipathic molecules something else to form around besides air bubbles, with their hydrophobic parts facing in toward the clump of oil molecules, and their hydrophilic parts facing out toward the water.
Anyway I realize this is a bit “sciencey” but I just felt like if you were going to explain it, it should be correct, since you probably have the largest audience of reefers in the world, and many hang on your every word as gospel. Plus the real science of it is actually pretty cool. My fear is that now we are going to have a generation of reefers who will be incorrectly correcting people online whenever this comes up for the foreseeable future, lol.
Anyway, thanks again for the videos, and please keep them coming!
@Ryanbrs
@randyBRS
