Skimmate?

[kingfisherfleshy]

Im running a remora on my 75g...its been a great skimmer, and it picks up TONS of fluid. My water quality is awesome, and it shows in my corals and other inhabitants. Recently, the skimmate has been a lighter and lighter colored fluid. Its almost completely transparent now, it just looks like water.

Whats going on here? Is this a reason to be concerned? Should I make some adjustments?

Thanks

 

[lazyreefer]

Hey Kingfish, not wanting to give you bad information - since I have never used that skimmer - but my skimmate fluctuates depending on whats in the water. For example, if I feed my corals my skimmer tends to overflow. When it overflows you obviously have a much lighter skimmate - or what's commonly referred to as a "wet" skimmate.

I have a EuroReef with a gate valve modification which I have to adjust depending on what I want to accomplish. I don't want a bunch of meaty coral foods spoiling my water so when I turn my skimmer back on after feeding, I want to skim wet and get all that x-tra food out of the tank. In that case a light skimmate is fine.

Now if you don't have an "easy" way of adjusting your skimmer, then you might just leave it the way it is and see what happens. If you are concerned about whats making the skimmer "overflow" so to speak, there's a bunch of stuff to look at.....

Maybe something died or too much food, maybe something stirred up the sand bed, maybe there is nothing to skim out 'cause your water is as pure as an Irish Spring.....

I would keep an eye out for any red flags, I tend to be overly cautious whenever something out of the ordinary occurs in my tank. JMHO

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

Things have calmed down...it was right before a water change, but quality was good...was not overflowing either, just a really light color. After water change its gone back to normal coloration. I do tend to feed heavily, just because my ammonia nitrate, and nitrites are so low, why not give more food. Must have just been overloaded. Partially just wondering if having a light skimmate was a sign that it was slowing down or not properly working, but that makes sense. Thanks