Wet Skimmate Water Changes?

[JMBoehling]

Any of you ever do your water changes with wet skimmate via your Protein Skimmer? Just wondering if there is any benefit to doing it this way vs siphoning off 10 gallon of water, trying to remove detrius.

Thanks,

Jim

[Elliott]

I do it this way all the time, gets rid of more detrius per gallon of water changed. For larger water changes, more than 5-10 gallons, I still remove and replace using the standard method

[JHemdal]

I've advocated that technique for years. It has the advantage of removing more POC per unit of water. The disadvantage is that some people let their specific gravity get out of kilter because they forget they are removing so much seawater with their skimmate. AND it goes without saying that you must have a safety feature to keep your sump from draining should the skimmer overflow.

Jay Hemdal

[JMBoehling]

Thanks for the responses. I just did my 1st water change using this method. Did 10 gallon using extremely wet skimmate. Took about 7 hours to do 10 gallons using my Deltec AP600.

Thanks,

Jim

[JHemdal]

Jim,

Ahh, I do this a bit differently, collecting perhaps 10 gallons in a week's time from a medium sized aquarium. Was the skimmate you collected dark at all, or did it look like tank water?

Jay

[JMBoehling]

Originally posted by JHemdal
Jim,

Ahh, I do this a bit differently, collecting perhaps 10 gallons in a week's time from a medium sized aquarium. Was the skimmate you collected dark at all, or did it look like tank water?

Jay

Tea Colored. Here's my thougts... I am thinking the Foam Fractioning will remove more of the organics that I want removed from my reef than simply siphoning off 10 gallons of water. Not sure if there is any truth to this. Time will tell I suppose..

Thanks,

Jim

[aaron1987]

Interesting. I'm not sure I have the patience to let my remora siphon off water for my changes, but maybe I'll give it a try. I know they're certainly capable of pushing a lot of wet skimmate.

[plyr58]

Originally posted by JMBoehling
Thanks for the responses. I just did my 1st water change using this method. Did 10 gallon using extremely wet skimmate. Took about 7 hours to do 10 gallons using my Deltec AP600.

Thanks,

Jim

How did you add water back during/after the water change? Did you just drain out 10 gallons then add 10 gallons back, or add new water as the old water drained?

[JMBoehling]

Originally posted by plyr58
How did you add water back during/after the water change? Did you just drain out 10 gallons then add 10 gallons back, or add new water as the old water drained?

My sump is a 20 gallon tank and has about 5 gallons of water running through it. I add the new 10 gallons then skimmed off 10 gallons. This past change took about 4 hours to complete as I skimmed a little bit wetter.

Only 2 weeks into using this technique and I haven't noticed any positive or negative effects, then again it is early


Thanks,

Jim

[Gary Majchrzak]

Originally posted by JMBoehling
Any of you ever do your water changes with wet skimmate via your Protein Skimmer? Just wondering if there is any benefit to doing it this way vs siphoning off 10 gallon of water, trying to remove detrius.

Thanks,

Jim

I do this.
I've been doing water changes by this method for many years. (Previous posts on RC regarding this).
I use my skimmer to remove old water at a rate of aprox. 50 gallons over the course of 12 or so hours.
This water is replaced with new.

[spamreefnew]

something must be wrong with my skimmer,,,,50 gallons in 12 hours!!!??!!! i am lucky if i get 50 ml in 12 hours lol

[E.intheC]

I feel like that's an interesting idea. However, I'd be especially concerned with the salinity... in that it will be tough to tell how much is lost due to evap and how much due to the wet skimmate factor...

[JMBoehling]

Just to explain. All you do is raise the water column in your skimmer be restricting the exit flow from the skimmer or by increasing the height of the return (This is what I do) to create a very wet skimmate. You can speed or slow the process depending on how wet it is.. Your skimmate should be the same salinity as your tank. Now I do stop my top off from adding water so I will lose a bit do to evaporation over the 4 to 5hours, but not enough to make a big difference.

I think the theory to this process is the assumption that wet skimmate carrying more DOC's than just siphoning off equivalent volumes of water during water changes. Kind off hoping a Marine Bioligist would chime in and let me know

Thanks and Happy New Year to Everyone on RC!

Jim

[JMBoehling]

I failed to mention that I added a drain to my collection cup on my AP600 that runs to a 5 gallon bucket.. This is a must

Later,

Jim

[Gary Majchrzak]

the drain on my collection cup leads directly to a wash basin.

There's no doubt about the merit of this method. I usually feed the aquarium most heavily just prior to performing a wet skim water change. (I have a bioload that requires much food yet many of my Acropora demand a "clean" environment.)

[JMBoehling]

Thanks Gary! I'm on week 3... Sounds like your on year 3, 5 or 10... I think I'll stick with it

[Gary Majchrzak]

I can't recall how long I've been doing this but I know that I started it because it's a (relatively) easy way to remove water from any system plumbed to a protein skimmer.

[Elliott]

Gary, how do you measure the amount that is skimmed off to determine how much to replenish?

[Gary Majchrzak]

Originally posted by Elliott
Gary, how do you measure the amount that is skimmed off to determine how much to replenish?

I made a line with a marker on the side of my sump.
The process of removing old water with a skimmer is very similar to what you'd do if removing old water with a pump or drain.

[mysterybox]

I empty my cup twice a day, which in effect is a very slow water change. plus, I'll do a monthly water change.

[dagda]

How do you think this using wet skimmate compares to using the water directly from the overflow for water changes?

I just direct my overflow line to a basement drain and move my top off pump from fresh water to a saltwater barrel

[Gary Majchrzak]

Originally posted by dagda
How do you think this using wet skimmate compares to using the water directly from the overflow for water changes?

think about this:
would you use water from your overflow to set up another aquarium or...

would you rather use wet skimmate to set up another aquarium?

[reefer31]

How can you get so much wet skimmate? My skimmer is skimming pretty wet as is and im not sure if it would be able to do 10-15 gallons a week! I know I have an under rated skimmer for my tank, asm g1 on a 120, and hopefully getting to be able to upgrade to octo ex 200 soon But anyways, is the water level in the skimmer like less than an inch from the top? Mine is right where the skimmer cup sits, so about 2-3 inches from top of skimmer?

[Gary Majchrzak]

Originally posted by reefer31
How can you get so much wet skimmate? My skimmer is skimming pretty wet as is and im not sure if it would be able to do 10-15 gallons a week! I know I have an under rated skimmer for my tank, asm g1 on a 120, and hopefully getting to be able to upgrade to octo ex 200 soon But anyways, is the water level in the skimmer like less than an inch from the top? Mine is right where the skimmer cup sits, so about 2-3 inches from top of skimmer?

you basically raise the water level inside the skimmer neck so water is spilling freely over into the collection cup. Need a faster water change... how big is the drain on your collection cup?
MAKE IT LARGER

[reefer31]

thats a good idea. I guess if you think about it, it is better to do it that way than just taking out diluted water when you can take out more concentrated junk :P.