Blue Skimmate

[Arcu2]

I was checking in my sump today and noticed my skimmer was pulling blue skimmate lol anybody know why it’s blue??? I don't dose anything and did a water change a few days ago. The only thing I can think of is that I changed food to some formula 2 pellets from my LFS

 

[Joe31415]

If the only things you ever add to the tank are food and water, then I'd guess the food. I saw some other people mention something to do with blue corals dying, but the fact that you just switched to Formula 2 pellets and those same pellets were mentioned in an old thread I found, I'd guess that's it. Though there must be *something* else going on or this would be a lot more common.
I suppose you could test out the theory by continuing with the Formula 2 for a few days to see if it stays blue, maybe even overfeeding to see if it gets bluer, then go back to your old food and if it's the food, I'd think the blue skimmate would clear up after a few days.

You didn't mention how long the tank has been up and running for. I did see other's bring up, in the case of purple skimmate, some coraline die off from adding live rock.

If you have any copper tests laying around, I'd probably do that, just for peace of mind. That's a very close match to the color of oxidizing copper.



Here's the thread I found:

Blue Skimmate being produced, Why? - Reef Central Online Community

Blue Skimmate being produced, Why? Reef Discussion

www.reefcentral.com

but reefcentral appears to be down at the moment, so here's the cached version

Google Search

though I don't know if that link expires and if so, when.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Maybe you have one of these guys and he squeezed too hard?

 

[Joe31415]

Something else, not a diagnosis, but a possible fix. When my skimmer seems to be pulling something odd out of the water, I'll skim really wet for a while. I'll normally add a bunch of new saltwater so the ATO doesn't kick on, then bring bring it back to the correct level by pulling water out with the skimmer (either a cup at a time or with a hose from the cup to a bucket).
I figure that's going to selectively pull out the dirtiest water as opposed to a regular water change that just pulls out the water near the drain line.
Where my skimmer normally needs to be emptied a few times a week, I'll skim wet enough that it needs to be emptied every few hours.

 

[Arcu2]

If the only things you ever add to the tank are food and water, then I'd guess the food. I saw some other people mention something to do with blue corals dying, but the fact that you just switched to Formula 2 pellets and those same pellets were mentioned in an old thread I found, I'd guess that's it. Though there must be *something* else going on or this would be a lot more common.
I suppose you could test out the theory by continuing with the Formula 2 for a few days to see if it stays blue, maybe even overfeeding to see if it gets bluer, then go back to your old food and if it's the food, I'd think the blue skimmate would clear up after a few days.

You didn't mention how long the tank has been up and running for. I did see other's bring up, in the case of purple skimmate, some coraline die off from adding live rock.

If you have any copper tests laying around, I'd probably do that, just for peace of mind. That's a very close match to the color of oxidizing copper.



Here's the thread I found:

Blue Skimmate being produced, Why? - Reef Central Online Community

Blue Skimmate being produced, Why? Reef Discussion

www.reefcentral.com

but reefcentral appears to be down at the moment, so here's the cached version

Google Search

though I don't know if that link expires and if so, when.

Has to be the food then. Tank has been up for about a year now. I actually had the skimmer off for 2 weeks and just turned it back on. During that time I changed the food. This morning was skimming a lighter blue.

 

[Joe31415]

Has to be the food then. Tank has been up for about a year now. I actually had the skimmer off for 2 weeks and just turned it back on. During that time I changed the food. This morning was skimming a lighter blue.

So it may actually be a combination of whatever is in the food that's causing it having a lot of time to accumulate before the skimmer pulled it all out at once. It's likely if that same amount of blue skimmate was pulled out over the course of a week or two it would have been diluted enough that you wouldn't notice it.
Too bad the other thread(s) I found were so old, it might be nice to ask them if they also had their skimmer off/lower before having it turn blue.
That combination of things happening, the food, the reduction/removal of the skimmer, [some other factors that may affect this], then turning the skimmer back on may be why this isn't more common.