Blue Skimmate! What is going on?

[pwoody]

I have encountered a rather odd situation I haven’t come across before and can’t find any info on.
My skimmer is pulling blue liquid and I can’t figure out why.
Any ideas?

Alk is around 9
Calc 440
Mag 1440
Temp 27°
conduct. 35
pH avg 8.2
Very very low phos and nitrates close to 0. Starting to stock the tank so need to get those up.

I’m dosing all for reef to keep values in check, using tropic Marin pro salt with 10% constant auto water changes (though I’ve stopped that today temporarily due to low values for po4 and no3).

Got some lps and sps and just running with reef roids.
Running radions, roller mat, protein skimmer (not required right now but wanted additional oxygenation).
Nothing else goes into the tank, let me know if you want my other info but that’s pretty much everything.

 

[Uncle99]

Was it pulling beige before that green blue, or just installed it and that’s the colour of the first skim mate.

You recently resealed your tank, some residue from that process?

 

[Tamberav]

Following along, never seen that but I want to blame the dyed rock.

 

[bosi1965]

To the risk of sounding stupid, could it possibly have skimmed out some phythoplancton?

 

[Dan_P]

I have encountered a rather odd situation I haven’t come across before and can’t find any info on.
My skimmer is pulling blue liquid and I can’t figure out why.
Any ideas?

Alk is around 9
Calc 440
Mag 1440
Temp 27°
conduct. 35
pH avg 8.2
Very very low phos and nitrates close to 0. Starting to stock the tank so need to get those up.

I’m dosing all for reef to keep values in check, using tropic Marin pro salt with 10% constant auto water changes (though I’ve stopped that today temporarily due to low values for po4 and no3).

Got some lps and sps and just running with reef roids.
Running radions, roller mat, protein skimmer (not required right now but wanted additional oxygenation).
Nothing else goes into the tank, let me know if you want my other info but that’s pretty much everything.

Looks green.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree it looks like phytoplankton.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I would guess that if you scoop up a bunch of tank water, it is blue too... algae bloom of some kind.

 

[BeanAnimal]

ohh wow - that was weird, I did not see the other responses... well mine was redundant. Sorry.

 

[pwoody]

Was it pulling beige before that green blue, or just installed it and that’s the colour of the first skim mate.

You recently resealed your tank, some residue from that process?

I have not resealed my tank, I restarted it incase that was a typo.
It was running normal on previous tanks and then for a week or so on this tank.

 

[pwoody]

Didn’t thi

Following along, never seen that but I want to blame the dyed rock.

Hadn’t thought of that!

 

[pwoody]

To the risk of sounding stupid, could it possibly have skimmed out some phythoplancton?

This is a good point and I thought perhaps yes, the tank did have a nice cloudy bloom when I added my last torch and candy canes. Could be phyto?

 

[pwoody]

Looks green.

Yeah sorry Bluey greeny…lighting doesn’t help.

 

[Joe31415]

I can't imagine what the source would be, but that color, at least to me, says copper. Did you recently change food and/or start overfeeding? I do see other people saying they use Formula 2 pellets and it does something similar to their skimmate.

 

[Miami Reef]

Didn’t thi

Hadn’t thought of that!

What type of dyed rock did you use? I never saw phytoplankton that color before.

 

[pwoody]

I can't imagine what the source would be, but that color, at least to me, says copper. Did you recently change food and/or start overfeeding? I do see other people saying they use Formula 2 pellets and it does something similar to their skimmate.

unlikely copper, but it also crossed my mind.

 

[pwoody]

What type of dyed rock did you use? I never saw phytoplankton that color before.

AF dry rock

 

[exnisstech]

I do see other people saying they use Formula 2 pellets and it does something similar to their skimmate.

I've fed formula two pellets in multiple tanks for years and never experienced anything like that when I ran skimmers.

 

[OrchidMiss]

The only times I've had my skimmate look this way after adding spirulina to my foods.
Is anything you're feeding high in that ingredient?

 

[pwoody]

The only times I've had my skimmate look this way after adding spirulina to my foods.
Is anything you're feeding high in that ingredient?

Yes, algae flakes for herbivorous fish!

 

[BeanAnimal]

If you have died rock.. I think you found your answer. As for why? Maybe pH or other reaction has allowed some of the dye to be released.

Again - the think to do would be examine a few cups of water from the tank in a clear glass to see if it is blue as well.