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Bumping this old thread to see if anyone has improved this water change method using the new controllable DC skimmers. I just setup 2 Reef Octopus Elite 200-INT skimmers in my 2 systems, and believe they will be perfect for continuous automated water changes without any adjustments.
I found that when the skimmer is at its max setting, it begins wet-skimming whenever the water level in the sump is above ~7". Once the level in the sump drops to the magic level (seemingly determined by bio load), the skimmate becomes dry. If I slowly add water to the system, the skimmate becomes wet again, and the discharge rate increases to match the rate being added. I believe that I could use a dosing pump to provide a continuous feed of new water, and let the skimmer extract excess water at the same rate.
Obviously, safe-guards would be critical, especially for salinity and equipment failure (overflows). However, assuming an "ideal" implementation with no failure points, how certain can I be that continuous wet-skimming wouldn't actually degrade water quality in some way? Do skimmers ONLY remove unwanted "stuff", or might wet-skimming result in a lower concentration of beneficial "stuff"?
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