Protein skimming:Wet or Dry

[bribo12]

Just wondering who skims wet and who skims dry? I feel like I've been skimming wet and pulling a bunch of crud but what are the benefits of dry over wet or vice versa?

 

[54seaweed]

do you mean wet dry filter? never heard of dry skimming

 

[bribo12]

No I mean wet vs dry skimming. Wet is where you pull out more water with the skimmate while dry takes longer to pull stuff out but doesn't pull as much water. Basically they depend on where you set the water level below the collection cup. Just want to know how everyone goes about it

 

[Redwolf91]

As stupid an answer as this may be, I've tried both ways, and try to keep right in the middle

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[mr_X]

I would never say that skimming less is better than skimming more. That's what we are saying here, right? Turning the water level down is most certainly skimming less. I don't see a single benefit to it, unless you have a lack of D.O.C.'s.....that is.

 

[Redwolf91]

This is pure speculation, but I think wet takes more of things we don't really want to skim out, and dry does not remove enough fast enough of what we want out, so I try for in between... Collection cup doesn't fill every other day that way also

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[mr_X]

How do you know it takes out what you don't want skimmed out? Do you know how big of a skimmer you would need to make a dent in essential elements? It would be like a 500 gallon skimmer on a bio cube.
I say this because I have had skimmers break and continued testing while the replacement was on the way, and saw no changes (more than normal usage) on the major elements.

 

[Redwolf91]

I don't, hence speculation. Just go by what the tank seems to respond to best, and I'm not a believer in over skimming, so I try for somewhere in between

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[bribo12]

So basically the wetter you skim, the faster docs get pulled out and the cleaner your water is. But you dont want to skim so much that it is so dilute. Correct?

 

[Redwolf91]

No, I'm saying how I run mine, just an opinion as I said, I think sometimes they remove to much, that's all I'm saying

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[bribo12]

No, I'm saying how I run mine, just an opinion as I said, I think sometimes they remove to much, that's all I'm saying

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Gotcha I feel mines right about in the middle as well. Does your skimmate always smell exceptionally gross?

 

[Redwolf91]

Makes me want to puke sometimes, always bad smell. I tried going wetter, but didn't seem to get dark production, kind of in between, with little smell, and the cup filled often

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[bribo12]

Makes me want to puke sometimes, always bad smell. I tried going wetter, but didn't seem to get dark production, kind of in between, with little smell, and the cup filled often

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See that's what I'm getting. It never really makes me want to puke lol. Whenever I see friends skimmers and the nastiness it makes me want to puke. Hmm maybe ill dial it back a little.

 

[Redwolf91]

When it finally produced the "wife hates skimmer cleaning time" level of yuck, was literally when I finally got it right between wet and dry... I wondered if maybe it kept pushing stuff to the top of the bubble column a bit longer before it hit the cup, pulling more out, but I don't know the science of it. As long as it makes me make that face when I clean it, I'm thinking it's doing that I want.

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[bribo12]

I think to each their own. Until some type of study is done on it, no one will really know which way is for definite better. I guess the next couple days ill tweak it Til I get a good level. At the moment I'm pulling an almost full cup every 3-4 days

 

[Redwolf91]

Mine is about the same, time wise. I'm thinking about diluting some (1/100) skimmate with water to try on some of the plants outside, it might make a great fertilizer if I can get the ratio correct. Let me know how yours does after you tweak it some, maybe between us we can figure some of the effectiveness of it both ways

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[Redwolf91]

This is two days worth in the cup, if it tells you anything

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[bribo12]

Sounds good. That's actually a great idea about using it for plants. Don't think I'd trust using it in my dart frog viv though :/
Edit: gross haha, ill get a pic of mine up in a few

 

[Redwolf91]

I wouldn't either, they are beautiful little creatures, but a bit fragile if memory serves

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[bribo12]

They definitely are, I've had mine a little over a year now. Here's what my skimmers skim looks like