the_dizzy52
New member
that's funny..doing the dishes ay?
Wet Skimmate Water Changes?
- Thread starter JMBoehling
- Start date
killagoby
New member
seabayaquatic
New member
This method should be renamed the Lazy Man's Water Change. You'd get more detritus removal if you got off the couch and just vacuumed the sand!
:lol:
In 14 years of reefing, I've never vacuumed sand once.
In 14 years of reefing, I've never vacuumed sand once.
JMBoehling
Premium Member
Wet Skimmate water changes work best with a barebottom system where you keep all your detritus suspended with water flow, hence all is removed via filter sock or skimmate.. Works great for smart, lazy people 
Jim
Jim
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
I'm with Randy: I never vacuum the sandbed in a reef aquarium.
It's not because I'm lazy, either. My sandbed is loaded with valuable microfauna that vacuuming would remove.
Do you leave the sandbed alone 100% of the time or do you manually disturbe it from time to time?
Also what are your recommendations for clean up crews?
Thanks.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
debates on cleanup crews and stirring the sandbed are best left for another thread but routinely 'storming' the aquarium with a powerhead/pump to disturb/lift any settled detritus is a good idea IMO/IME.
Such a storming is very effective when done prior to (or during) a wet skim water change
Such a storming is very effective when done prior to (or during) a wet skim water change
Ok thanks for the opinion. I have one too and don't see a disturbance as a bad thing in a reef since it is a natural phenomenon.
reefdogg1107
Steve
Wouldn't a "disturbance" be something like storming with a powerhead?? Vacuming in an aquarium is very different from a disturbance since you are removing these organisms from the aquarium. In the ocean fish and other animals are free to move where they want in order to find micro organisms, where as in your aquarium if you remove them they are unable to find them. JMO
Wouldn't a "disturbance" be something like storming with a powerhead?? Vacuming in an aquarium is very different from a disturbance since you are removing these organisms from the aquarium. In the ocean fish and other animals are free to move where they want in order to find micro organisms, where as in your aquarium if you remove them they are unable to find them. JMO
Yes I meant taking a PH and blasting the rocks and sand bed to help suspend the detritus in the water column and it eventually making it to the skimmer or filter sock etc.
As far as meiofauna they can be found in the sand at depths far greater than the average sand bed in our aquaria so how deep one goes is relative. Plus how many people clean their entire sandbed everytime?
Sorry to hijack and I won't disturbe this thread anymore.
If we were to run a skimmer on the "wet" side and empty, say... a half gal. of light tea colored skimmate each day (which would be less than the evaporation rate of the system), should we replace an equal amt. (equal to the skimmate that is) of new salt water, maybe everyother day or so? An ATO would be functioning as well.
yes, however the ATO should be set up to automatically replenish the volume of skimmate removed from the system with fresh seawater
Then how would you replace the evaporation?
I have a separate reservoir of RO/DI water that is on a steady drip to estimate evaporative loss, if my salinity goes up I turn it up a bit and vice versa
jeepguy242
New member
+1 on that, its easy enough to test salinity on a regualr basis, and adjust by adding more fresh ro, if needed
This is totally funny I've done this by accident a bunch of times where I turned my skimmer up too much because it wasn't doing anything then the next morning i have a flood on my floor even though it drains into a 5 gal bucket it still overflowed. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all, need a bigger drain bucket though! LOL
Newreeflady
New member
This seems interesting for sure. I would worry though about forgetting and having it overflow. One possibility is to employ a float switch. So, perhaps:
1) add water to a safe level in your sump to where if the power shut off it would not overflow.
2)Then, divert the skimmate to a reservoir putting a float switch in at the level where the water collected would equal the water added.
3) connect that float switch to the skimmer pump to be sure it shuts down before pulling out more water than was added in.
I'm going to think about how I might employ such a system...
1) add water to a safe level in your sump to where if the power shut off it would not overflow.
2)Then, divert the skimmate to a reservoir putting a float switch in at the level where the water collected would equal the water added.
3) connect that float switch to the skimmer pump to be sure it shuts down before pulling out more water than was added in.
I'm going to think about how I might employ such a system...
