How important is wet skimming in BB tanks?

[hobbzz]

I'm having the hardest time getting my skimmer to wet skim. It's a nw-150, new model. Water level is 8in. It does a great job dry, but I cant get anything from it when trying to skim wet. If I set the water level above the bottom of the cup, the foam doesn't form enough to climb up into the neck any farther to make it into the cup. I run a filter sock 24/7 and change it every couple of days, so there isn't any large particulate matter for the skmmer to collect anyway. Would dry skimming and running a filter sock be ok? I've been reefing since '99 but this us my first bb tank.

 

[wetshirt]

Why do you want to wet skim anyway? High nitrates maybe? If your prams are all good, don't fix your system until it's broke. Seems like your good to go.

 

[plankton]

And what size tank? In smaller tanks (< 50G) and especially if you have an auto topoff using RO/DI, wet skimming leads to drop in salinity.

Dry skimming is actually easier since you just let the gunk build up on the walls then once a week wash it off. Easy. And, little impact on salinity.

 

[hobbzz]

Everything I've read about bb tanks says to skim wet. But, its been my understanding that is for the purpose if removing large particulate matter...which my filter sock is already doing. It's a 40b with 40b sump, so about 60-70 tsv.

 

[plankton]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'large particulate' matter but yeah I'm running a 200 micron filter sock and anything larger than about 200 um that makes it over the over flow is getting trapped in the sock. Change socks every week. Stuff that is too heavy and doesn't make it over the overflow gets siphoned when I do a water change every two weeks.

The purpose of the protein skimmer is really to fraction out the proteins that you cannot see and haven't broken down biologically yet. The wetter the skiim the more you are getting out.

Again, you can wet-skim if you wish just watch your salinity.

 

[hobbzz]

Large particulate matter would be anything a filter sock would take out. Uneaten food, fish poo, dead pods etc. That's why I'm wondering if dry skimming with a filter sock will be fine. I know what a skimmer does. There is apparently a necessity to skim wet with bb tanks. It's different than with other traditional setups. I'm looking for some input from someone with experience with bb tanks. I do appreciate the input though. Recommending the same husbandry for bb and sand tanks is not the best. They are different. I already adjust the salinity.

 

[plankton]

Yes, dry skimming with a filter sock would be fine. Yes, I'm running BB as well.

If you have actual references to threads, posts whatever where someone recommends wet skimming for BB tanks and why that would be helpful...

You didn't mention how long your skimmer has been running for. I'm assuming you are not a newbie and know that a skimmer takes awhile to 'break in' to develop a bio film and produce foam that makes it all the way up and over the cup. It is possible that you just have not let the skimmer skim enough to produce nice wet, yellow skimmate.

Good luck with your tank man...

 

[hobbzz]

No problem. "How to go barebottom" is the biggest thread that comes to mind. The last post was early last year though. Any other decent sized thread on these forums about barebottom recommends high turnover, large oversized skimmer, manual regular detritus removal, and wet skimming as standard practices. My skimmer has been running three months. I waited two months before cleaning the body, and I now clean the cup/neck 1-2 times a week depending on skimmate. The neck gets coated regularly, just not much makes it into the cup. Thanks again.

 

[dixiedog]

I don't think it's necessary to wet skim a BB tank. I never got that memo I guess.

Skimming is skimming if you ask me. I run a sock about 50% of the time, maybe less. I'll put a sock in every 2-3 days, when I'm giving the glass a good cleaning, since that gets the detritus all stirred up. I'll usually blow off the rocks at the same time and run the vortech at full power for a few minutes until everything clears up. After a few hours I usually pull the sock out, but not always ... it's really quite random. The tank more or less tells me what it wants.

I should add that my skimmer is pretty dramatically oversized, in that I run a NWB-110 on a system totaling about 30 gallons of actual water.

 

[ivans75]

Why would you want to have a bare bottom tank? For fish only with no live rocks? Live rocks got messy sometime, detritus come every minute, no matter how often you clean, you will get dirts on your bottom. I never understand why some people wanna have a bare bottom tank in marine aquaria. I agree it looks neat and all but the hassle and the difficulties to maintain is beyond my understanding...but again...this is an advance topic forum so ... i am just having a hard time to sleep ... oh well...back to watching my tank who knows I see some different worms tonight on the sand...saw a big long red one yesterday...

 

[barjam]

Why would you want to have a bare bottom tank? For fish only with no live rocks? Live rocks got messy sometime, detritus come every minute, no matter how often you clean, you will get dirts on your bottom. I never understand why some people wanna have a bare bottom tank in marine aquaria. I agree it looks neat and all but the hassle and the difficulties to maintain is beyond my understanding...but again...this is an advance topic forum so ... i am just having a hard time to sleep ... oh well...back to watching my tank who knows I see some different worms tonight on the sand...saw a big long red one yesterday...

Actually I have found BB to be far, far easier to keep and far cleaner. When I moved to BB it took over a year for rocks to stop shedding all the accumulated garbage that they had taken on during the time I had sand. Another advantage to BB is you can really crank up the flow for corals like SPS without worrying about a sand storm. So in my opinion the only advantage of sand is for creatures that require it and for aesthetics. I would not argue that a sand bed looks better. My tank is an in wall tank that is fairly high up so you can't really see the bottom most of the time anyhow.

How is the reef tank hobby in Indonesia? That's where most of our corals come from so I am guessing you guys have some really neat stuff?

 

[wmilas]

Why have a BB tank? Cause after 3 ish years the sand becomes a giant pain. It calcifies. It locks up nutrients. It blows around under high flow. Its just a giant mess.

Took me 3 solid days to remove 800+ lbs of sand from my system. Oh and a chisel and hammer. I've never been happier.

 

[Fish Bowl]

Why would you want to have a bare bottom tank? For fish only with no live rocks? Live rocks got messy sometime, detritus come every minute, no matter how often you clean, you will get dirts on your bottom. I never understand why some people wanna have a bare bottom tank in marine aquaria. I agree it looks neat and all but the hassle and the difficulties to maintain is beyond my understanding...but again...this is an advance topic forum so ... i am just having a hard time to sleep ... oh well...back to watching my tank who knows I see some different worms tonight on the sand...saw a big long red one yesterday...

I have a BB FOWLR and it's honestly almost maintenance free +/- WC's. Detritus isn't much of a problem with high flow rate in the right areas (I have 2 in the back and 2 in the front on opposite heights and can't see any visibly showing detritus)

Anywho, wet skimming isn't required since your floss/sock or whatever you use is there to handle any particulate matter/Free floating detritus.

 

[ivans75]

Actually I have found BB to be far, far easier to keep and far cleaner. When I moved to BB it took over a year for rocks to stop shedding all the accumulated garbage that they had taken on during the time I had sand. Another advantage to BB is you can really crank up the flow for corals like SPS without worrying about a sand storm. So in my opinion the only advantage of sand is for creatures that require it and for aesthetics. I would not argue that a sand bed looks better. My tank is an in wall tank that is fairly high up so you can't really see the bottom most of the time anyhow.

How is the reef tank hobby in Indonesia? That's where most of our corals come from so I am guessing you guys have some really neat stuff?

Ah probably yes if u run a good WM on the bottom it can sweep away all the detritus, didnt think of that. How's reefing here? Well...honestly...we are dissapointed lol cus most of the good corals are flown to the US hahaha

 

[Motish]

Would you guys recommend bb for a newbe?

 

[Allmost]

Would you guys recommend bb for a newbe?

bare bottom, has less maintanace, cause there is no sand to clean /siphon

but keep in mind, some fish sleep in sand, so no sand = no yellow wrasse for example.

I personally like the look of sand, so I keep up with the maintanance, siphon it weekly, and move it around during the week.

 

[dixiedog]

For anyone considering a BB tank, may I enthusiastically recommend a starboard bottom?? I love mine. MUCH more natural looking than glass. You don't really even notice the tank is barebottom.

 

[plankton]

+1 BB with starboard but can be bouyant so weigh or silicone down. I can't remember what color you can get starboard in but I recenly used 1/8" black acrylic to protect bottom glass and it looks really nice.

 

[dixiedog]

Yeah it's slightly buoyant, but most of us put rocks in our tank anyway.

All in all I'm very happy with owning a BB tank. I never get cyano anymore (this was what drove me to BB in the first place), and I'm able to keep a heavier bioload than I ever could with a sand bottom. I went completely fishless trying to beat the cyano, now my tank is FULL of fish and still zero N/P's.

And with the starboard bottom negating most of the aesthetics issue, the only real drawback is that I can't have certain fish, like the wrasses mentioned above, or a shrimp/goby combo.