Skimmer overflowed and nutrients decreased?

[Skippy The Meh]

So i accidentally put my skimmer into feed mode instead of turning it off and dosed flucanozol, so i came home from work to my sump looking like a bubble bath and the skimmer cup flushed back into tank. I assumed my nutrients would spike, i did water tests to see how bad the damage was and to my surprise they were lower than before. Tank is 120 G capacity. Any reason why the addition of skimmate to the water column would decrease nutrients? I did notice an uptick in all algae. So possibly consumed? Or maybe bacteria in skimmate chewed through nutrients? Any ideas?

 

[Idech]

It sounds odd. Maybe testing error ? How big was the difference ?

 

[Dan_P]

So i accidentally put my skimmer into feed mode instead of turning it off and dosed flucanozol, so i came home from work to my sump looking like a bubble bath and the skimmer cup flushed back into tank. I assumed my nutrients would spike, i did water tests to see how bad the damage was and to my surprise they were lower than before. Tank is 120 G capacity. Any reason why the addition of skimmate to the water column would decrease nutrients? I did notice an uptick in all algae. So possibly consumed? Or maybe bacteria in skimmate chewed through nutrients? Any ideas?

What did you test? What brand of test?

 

[Skippy The Meh]

It sounds odd. Maybe testing error ? How big was the difference ?

Heres my logs of tests and tank maintenance. I dont test nitrates very frequently they typically stay at 15 ppm and phosphate is typically rock solid at .03-.05 unless my gfo starts to wear down.
4/20 (bottom right) is tests from after skimmer overflowed.

 

[Skippy The Meh]

What did you test? What brand of test?

Day of i tested everything. (Tank logs above) i use a hannah marine master photometer. I also do monthly icp tests to make sure my hannah is within an acceptable margin of error.

 

[Dan_P]

Day of i tested everything. (Tank logs above) i use a hannah marine master photometer. I also do monthly icp tests to make sure my hannah is within an acceptable margin of error.

Based on your records, the nitrate level could declined before the skimmer incident. By the way, the 4/13 measurement precision is higher. Did you use a different test?

 

[Skippy The Meh]

Day of i tested everything. (Tank logs above) i use a hannah marine master photometer. I also do monthly icp tests to make sure my hannah is within an acceptable margin of error.

Based on your records, the nitrate level could declined before the skimmer incident. By the way, the 4/13 measurement precision is higher. Did you use a different test?

Nope, same test, what makes you say its higher precision? That day it was a but high so i replaced my reactor media.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’m not sure if it is a generally significant effect, but adding surfactants and getting increased skimmate can pull other organics into the overflow and thereby possibly reduce N and P.

 

[ClownSchool]

So i accidentally put my skimmer into feed mode instead of turning it off and dosed flucanozol, so i came home from work to my sump looking like a bubble bath and the skimmer cup flushed back into tank. I assumed my nutrients would spike, i did water tests to see how bad the damage was and to my surprise they were lower than before. Tank is 120 G capacity. Any reason why the addition of skimmate to the water column would decrease nutrients? I did notice an uptick in all algae. So possibly consumed? Or maybe bacteria in skimmate chewed through nutrients? Any ideas?

Have you considered that all the nutrients are in the skimmit foam in your sump and will rise as it mixes back into the water table?

 

[Skippy The Meh]

So i accidentally put my skimmer into feed mode instead of turning it off and dosed flucanozol, so i came home from work to my sump looking like a bubble bath and the skimmer cup flushed back into tank. I assumed my nutrients would spike, i did water tests to see how bad the damage was and to my surprise they were lower than before. Tank is 120 G capacity. Any reason why the addition of skimmate to the water column would decrease nutrients? I did notice an uptick in all algae. So possibly consumed? Or maybe bacteria in skimmate chewed through nutrients? Any ideas?

Have you considered that all the nutrients are in the skimmit foam in your sump and will rise as it mixes back into the water table?

By the time i got home im pretty sure it was well mixed in and had been for a while. The tank was cloudy. Also i run moderate to high flow through the sump- about 2000 gph - so it likely mixed in pretty quickly.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Oh, it overflowed back into the tank? If so, I expect the result is more likely just random variation.

 

[Dan_P]

Nope, same test, what makes you say its higher precision? That day it was a but high so i replaced my reactor media.

There was a 0.09 entry on 4/13