Removing water by running skimmer WET, vs Siphoning

[waverider]

Lately I've been removing water from my system by running the skimmer wet vs just siphoning water out of my tank during water changes. I have a 65 gallon, and if Im doing a 10 gallon water change, Ive been experimenting with pulling 5 of the 10 gallons out through the skimmer into its collection bucket. I've managed to control my skimmer so that I can dial it in at will to pull 5 gallons in 24 hours, which is half of my water change removal. Im thinking that water is the water I want out. My thought logic is that the skimmate wet water will be more nutrient rich than water siphoned directly from display. And.....Regarding nutrient depletion, for the record I target feed my corals using a syringe feeding tube to each individual coral on a bi-weekly basis.. Thinking this improves the efficiency of nutrient removal.

Is removing water via the skimmer productive? Thoughts comments greatly appreciated.

 

[Idoc]

Your salinity is going to drop since the replacement 5g water will be coming from your ATO!

 

[joseserrano]

Some guys does this on his just thousands of gallon tank. At your scale I see issues with salinity. Not really concerned about waste. Feed more if you start to see pale colors.

 

[waverider]

Your salinity is going to drop since the replacement 5g water will be coming from your ATO!

Noooo. I replace water with fresh saltwater pre-mixed 24-48 hours. All water OUT thru Skimmer is replaced with new, aerated, pre mixed instant ocean.

 

[waverider]

My question: Is removing water via skimmer a more effective way of removing excess nutrients when making a water change. Obviously the replacement water is mixed, aerated, aged an fresh. but... the water coming out of the skimmer a better way of removing excess nutrients. On some levels I've wondered if I am stripping my system of nutrients. But I feed my corals using a feeding tube with Reef Frenzy, Reef Roids, Red Sea Reef Energy AB+....etc... directly and frequently. And since I feed them directly and frequently, Im ultra concerned about nutrient build up over time. Hence, removing water through the Skimmer by running it wet.

 

[joseserrano]

Sounds like unnecessary extra work on both ends. Keeping salinity stable will be a challenge. It just will. Removing more nutrients than necessary then mitigating it by feeding more sounds like just extra work and money.

 

[Anubisxii]

I sometimes unplug my ato and crank the skimmer to pull out about 5g it works great, takes 15 minutes and cleans gunk from the skimmer body. To do it over hours idk, I just do it in 10- 15 min. Once I replace the water I pulled out I turn the skimmer back to where it was and plug ato back in.

I have a manual neck cleaner on my skimmer so when I use it, it drops gunk that then gets flushed out when I pot those 5g's

 

[RocketEngineer]

The skimmer is only going to remove that which gets to it. Draining manually, I can target crud buildup anywhere in the tank. To me, targeted removal gets more gunk than the skimmer will. JMO

 

[Idoc]

Way more work than it needs to be. I doubt the difference between what the skimmer pulls out in 15min or so, or what you pull out selectively by vacuuming sand spots with debri can be calculated. I like to keep it simple... this makes my head hurt, lol.

 

[X-37B]

Skim to skim. Wc to wc.
Seems like alot of extra work.

 

[drblank1]

Seems to me this is a good compromise between manual siphoning and spending $100s of dollars for an automatic water change. Automatic water changes do not target waste/gunk build up. If you are looking to do more frequent water changes like we do with automictic water changes (i.e. Apex DOS), this seems to me to a reasonable way to do it without a whole bunch of extra work. But it would not not replace good husbandry (targeting the removal waste/crud build-up). As to the "good" nutrient removal, that would need more investigation.