Pros vs Cons: Wet Skimming vs Dry Skimming

[revhtree]

In my local club there was always a debate about Wet Skimming vs Dry Skimming with your protein skimmer. I would say that there are good and bad for either.

The traditional thought is this.

1. Wet Skimming skims faster but the skimmate is less concentrated.

2. Dry Skimming is slower but the skimmate is more concentrated.

How do you skim and what would you say are the pros and cons of each?

 

[Zoanthkid]

I'd say middle of the road with my CPR... it pulls out a light colored skimmate with "chunks" of more solid sludge floating around in the cup.

 

[impur]

I think there are other variables like type of skimmer you are using. I previously used an Octopus skimmer when they first came out and I did wet skimming. Now with my SWC skimmer, dry skimming works better.

 

[wysiwyg]

my skimmer prefers a dry skim and pulls alot of junk out

 

[mega_mike]

Dry skim dug! Because its what the pros do plus it dosent take unnessicary water leading to more top offs!

 

[revhtree]

Bump!

 

[Pkunk35]

I would think Dry skimming to be more efficient, but might not wet skim pull out more "junk" overall since it is pulling so much skim out?

Blech but who wants to empty cups of skimmate all the time? I def vote dry skim.

 

[ColaAddict]

How bout this, I use 2 skimmers, 1 dry skims and the other wet skims

 

[lakeviewink]

I used to wet skim but it affected my salinity and ato too much. I didn't see any advantage to it, now its dry baby.......

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Better skimming = wet skimming for me, just add some saltwater to make up, considering my skimmer is connected to a output waist tube, no containers.

 

[caudill187]

I skim on the dry side unless I have a reason to try and get stuff out of the tank more quickly (water treatments, etc.)

 

[Dublo8]

it affected my salinity and ato too much.

Yes, it can throw off your salinity by a good margin, especially on a smaller tank. I still like to skim a little on the wetter side though. It seems to be more effective at removing organics. The rate of removal is a little faster as well.

 

[Electrobes]

I have a 40Br and I've always skimmed wet. It's never affected my salinity by much or really any, if/when it did it was easily corrected with a water change. It just seems more effective to skim wet, catch as much as the skimmer can grab and avoid any of the funk getting thrown back into the tank.

 

[ItsNotaNemo]

I ran a dry skimmer on my old 120 and now I do somewhere in-between on my 30. But lord knows the dry skim gave me that lovely fish butter... great on toast.

 

[slice]

"Fish Butter"..LOL, I can smell it now...

I have my CPR set to skim as wet as possible. I'm sumpless with an HOB skimmer/fuge combo, so I need the skimmer to collect as much crap as it can. I feel wet skimming gives a better chance for the bubbles to get the chunks all the way up the neck and into the cup.

I still get plenty of "Fish Butter" deposited inside the neck and on the underside of the cup lid.

 

[sven.fischre.de]

Hi,

depends on fish only, mixed or coral I guess.

As skimming removes not just the unwanted ingedients for corals, some like to get a little dirty water. If you have just SPS, it's better to get prestine water quality by wet skimming.
In a fish only tank, especially much fish in small tanks, poor water quality is always present growing algae. So I think wet skimming is necessary.
In mixed tanks and if the corals need some nutrients, better try dry skimming...

Sven

 

[mega_mike]

To my understanding waste removal by protien skimmers can be represented by a bell curve. Too wet and all you're doing is taking out water too dry and you're missing removable waste.

 

[mega_mike]

The trick is getting as close to the peak as possible.

 

[Kbra]

Dry skimming here. Ive heard that wet skimming defeats the purpose of a skimmer and doesnt get the micro particles you would get from the foaming. Just what i heard. Nothing to back that though...

 

[pickupman66]

IM sort of a happy medium, but my MRC seems to perform best when dry skimming. it will build up a TON of "fish butter" on the top rim of the throat and the lid giving just a little water into the cup or the collection bucket. it is way too touchy to wet skim as it can overflow quickly and throw out 5 gallons of water quickly. it is cleaned monthly or so.