Skimmers infront of Wet/Dry=less or nitrates produced?

[L.Foley]

A few Manufacturers of Wet/dry/protein skimmer combo filters are claiming that if all of the water coming into the filter goes through the skimmer first, then into the wet/dry, that all or most of the organic particles will be removed before they break down into ammonia and are converted to nitrate. This will lead to lower nitrate levels in the main tank and thus make it ok to use their wet/dry/protein skimer combo on a reef tank.
Now after saying that I belive it is a sound theory, but I'm in no way thinking of puting a wet/dry on my reef tank, but if it does work out, having lower nitrates in my fish only systems with wet/drys would be great.
What are everyone's thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Leland Foley
Mainstream Aquatics

 

[randy holmes-farley]

Certainly using a skimmer to remove organics will reduce the amount of ammonia that is converted into nitrate, and may result in a reduction in the nitrate level.

Fromt he stnadpoint of soluble organics, putting the skimmer right in front of the wet dry makes no difference, IMO, compared to putting it anywhere else. The wet dry is converting ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. It does little for organic levels. The wet dry does not convert organics into nitrate in a single pass. Consequently, the level of organics in the water going to a wet dry will have little impact on the reactions producing nitrate in that wet dry.

Likewise, skimmers do little for ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate directly. Consequently, any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate pass through the skimmer for processing at the wet dry, and most organics pass through the wet dry for processing at the skimmer (or elsewhere).

Consequently, at a fist approximation I'd say their relative positioning makes little difference.

Perhaps they mean that a skimmer takes out detritus (you did say particulates) that gets stuck in a wet dry and decays. That might have some merit. I don't know what portion of organic particulates are actually removed in a signle pass through a skimmer to know if that is an important consideration or not.

 

[AF Founder]

Another consideration is that skimmers efficiently remove phytoplankton, and phytoplankton consume certain organics in the process of photosynthesis.