- Today on BRStv Investigates,
we finally answer the question,
"Is dry skimming better than wet?"
but more importantly,
is it better in a manner
that allows you to test at home
on your own tank?
For anyone who wants the best performance
out of their skimmer,
you'll get your answer today.
(funky pop)
Hi, I'm Randy with this Friday's BRStv Investigates.
We put popular reefing gear,
theories, and methods to the test
by experimenting on our own tanks
so you don't have to experiment on yours,
and well, actually we do want you to experiment
on your own tank today,
and we've got a test that you can do at home
to help decide whether more air and wetter skimmate,
less air and dryer skimmate,
or somewhere in between,
is right for your tank and bioload.
But first, we're gonna show you the results
that we came up with on this BRS 750 XXL.
So, over the last handful
of BRStv Investigates episodes,
we've been on a journey of learning more
about the way our protein skimmers work
and better ways we can approach tuning
or adjusting them,
where during those tests, we discovered some well
defined lines between dry and wet skimming,
but there is still one large looming question
that we set out to answer today, and that is, can you
measure which skimming approach, wet or dry, removes
the most organics from your tank.
Well today we've got our answer for our heavily stocked
BRS 750 XXL and when we're done, you'll learn how
to use this same experiment on your tank and decide
which type of skim is right for you.
Let's show you how we did it.
Okay so using the results that we saw from our last
experiment on the BRS 750 XXL where we confirmed
that lower air draw speeds produce dryer,
thicker skimming foam, while faster air draw created a more
wet and watery skimmate.
For today's experiment, we took those results to the next
level by collecting all of the organics that our
regal 200 EXT recirculating skimmer removed in a 24 hour
period with the recirculating air draw pump set to
three different speeds of one, three and five,
which approximately worked out to be 440, 810 and 1,080
liters per hours air draw respectively.
After collecting the skimmate produced in 24 hours
at each of those different air speeds, we then mixed
each sample with enough RODI water to create one liter
solutions and compared them visually where we would
expect the most turbid samples to be the most
organically rich.
We should keep in mind here that our goal isn't a
peer reviewed scientific study, which almost
has no value to the reefer at home and their specific
gear, but rather the goal is to help those reefers
at home determine the best setup for their equipment,
livestock, and bioload.
We believe that diluting what the skimmer's actually
collecting from the tank might be one of the easiest
ways for the home reefer to quickly visually identify
the best way to tune their gear so with that,
here's what we found on our tank.
Using specialized lighting equipment available to us
in the BRStv studio, we were able to place concentrated
light behind each one liter skimmate sample,
and we arranged those samples with the lowest air draw
speed one on the left, middle air draw speed three
in the center, and the highest air draw speed five on
the right.
In our example, although the skimmate collected at speed
three and five are a bit close to each other,
to me it looks as though the middle of the road air speed
three is slightly more turbid than the other two,
and clearly, we see that air speed one seemed to collect
the least amount of organics since it lets the most
light through.
So we could stop here and draw some conclusions about
what we're seeing, but in an effort to refine today's
results by making them easier to read and at the same time
turn this into a fun experiment that you can actually
try on your own, since not everyone has access to
super bright studio lighting and laboratory glass
sample jars, we've taken this one a little further.
With that we diluted the skimmate samples
even further into one gallon, Mr. Chilly mixing jugs
and using the sun from outside, which provides us the best
evenly diffused light source, we compared the results
again by placing them in a window sill.
Looking at the samples again, we can now more clearly
see three distinctly different levels of turbidity
between the organic content from each, and this time
the consistency between air draw speeds three
and five are far more discernible to our eye.
I think today's results were obviously striking a
balance between the right amount of air and organics
really drives home the notion that more air and more
horsepower doesn't necessarily mean better performance,
and we're putting a little more thought into finding
that balance will help us optimize our skimmers
to their fullest potential, which is why today's question,
can you measure which skimming approach, wet or dry,
removes the most organics from your tank,
gets an overwhelming vote of ten out of ten for me.
With this simple at home experiment, using a few
containers like these clear mixing jugs that you might
already have lying around, I don't doubt that we can all
start to make better choices when it comes to choosing
a skimmer setting that eliminates common skimmer
tuning issues like overflowing or underperforming,
where in the end it's not about which protein skimmer
is the best, but rather what tuning method is the
best for your specific tank, bioload and feeding habits.
For instance, even if speed setting three and five
turned out to be the exact same, the thicker foam
and lower air velocity of speed three was actually
much easier to tune and manage.
The fact that in this case, not only did it remove
the most organics, but was also easier to adjust,
makes this more of a beneficial choice that this
particular skimmer has the ability to create wetter
and dryer foam with the simple push of a control button.
I think the next question that we all have at this
point, now that we have protein skimmer elements
of mechanical filtration dialed in, is what can we
reasonably expect from implementing proper mechanical
filtration like skimmers, filter socks, and media
reactors.
In all honesty, it's only worth doing if they produce
legit results, and in this episode of
the VRS wwc hybrid series, Ryan discusses what getting
each of these components right can do to help
us achieve the most stable, simple filtration
approach that will absolutely turn our dreams of
a stunning show tank into a reality.