Is there a topic on skimmate color

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twilliard

twilliard

What next?
Joined
Jun 11, 2005
Messages
867
Location
Ellensburg, WA
Hey all

I have been pondering this since I added my BM 200 skimmer

It does its job WELL
the question I have it the color of the skimmate.
Mine comes out a dark brown. I have seen several skimmers pull out a dark green skimmate.
Why does mine come out a dark brown?
Is there a thread about this some where around here about the different colors VS what it is pulling out?

Thanks
 
I knew there were a few threads here where people talked about their skimmate color and showed pics. I know the darker thick stuff is usually considered dry skimmate and when it gets lighter in color almost like a bit of urine in there, is usually considered wet. I'll see if I can find a link or two for you... :)
 
Thanks Krish

Its DARK BROWN and man does it STINK!

Why is it not green??? thats my big question of the day.
Thanks all!
 
That would be awesome Krish if you can find a post.

I dont know what is up in my tank and I think skimmate will tell me a lot.
I happen to have a SPS that is starting to brown out on me.
Hmm brown skimmate.. brown SPS.... just a thought.
 
Do you run phosban?


Very interesting topic. I never put much thought into it until now. My BM 250 on the 120 pulls light green skimmate and the Euro reef RS-80 on my 40Br. pulls a more brown skimmate.. I feed them pretty much the same food less nori on the 40Br.

Here are the diffenences:
120-SSB, 40Br BB
120-180Lb LR., 40Br- 25Lbs LR
120- Extremely heavy bioload, 40Br- light Bioload
120- remote fuge W/ DSB and cheato, 40Br- sump fuge W? LR and cheato


I happen to have a SPS that is starting to brown out on me.
Click to expand...
Just one or a bunch of them?
My BM 250 is pulling near 3X as much as my ASM G-3 daily and my corals really dont look much different than before. I am however, feeding heavier and dont have to worry about cyano.
 
I bow to you!! Im not crazy!

Yes it is just one coral browning on me. I run phosgaurd HEAVY. Sorry dont know the name of this coral. I just lost my blue Oregon tort. STN got it and I need to figure this out.

Im hopeing that some one will point me in the right direction. I love my tank but the color has always been poor.
I have dumped thousands into this and still have not been satisfied.

What gives? Brown VS green. This HAS to be a sign.
 
I guess no one else finds this interesting...... Oh well. Twilliard, on another issue, your lackluster colors.

The only two things I can bring up concerning pale colors are DKH levels and BB.
Ive seen two BB tanks in the last two years that just dont have it. Ive done alot of frag trading with these two tanks and the corals get more robust in my tank or lose it in theirs depending on who they came from. I dont actually know if thier BB tanks have anything to do with it.
Also on my frag system my Dkh has always ran near 7-8. The corals barely survived. I recently upped the Dkh to 11-12 and increased the flow to 100x turnover. The corals are growing like weeds and coloring up quickly.

FWIW, my oregon blue died on me as well. It was simply never happy in my tank and I couldnt find the issue. I have many other torts that are growin like weeds.
 
Yes. I am BB

I would have to remove ALL my rock (and coral) to pull out the stand off base. I have thought about it but it would be a HUGE task to accomplish.

I typically run my Dkh at 10

Im sure skimmate has to be an indicator of water conditions.
Any one have a lab ;)
 
I think the brown vs green topic is very interesting but I can't explain it. When I had my BM200 it tended to pull brown skimmate but I remember once or twice it was more green than brown. The skimmer I have now also pulls brown skimmate.

Anyone with green skimmate, do you dose phytoplankton by any chance?
 
Hey Jan how did you like your BM200?

I think I have more detritus than anything. Im not sure if that is why the skimmate tends to be brown.
I have a closed loop with a dart pump and a PCX40 return and man the tank turns over but I just cant seem to keep stuff from settling on the rocks.
I thought I have read an article about green skimmate and it stated that the green was due to pulling the only traces of planktons we have.
 
Well, I think the model I had was not as good as the later versions of it. It's now on design #4 and I had design #2. Also, I bought a "second," it had a flaw in the plastic of the neck which caused it to leak.

Anyway I think most people love their BM200's but I didn't love mine so I got a different skimmer.
 
thanks scott. hey, what color is your skimmer gunk. mine is a dark brown, i run this wet on a ps150ext octopus extreme. some days it would pull dark green then most days it will pull a cloudy brown color off my 90 gal reef. on a cpr bakpak on a 20 gal it pulls green, almost phyto color on a refugium.
any info on color differences?
 
Usually color is determined by how dry/wet you skim, less water darker it will be, more water, it should be lighter. What your doing when you skim wet is remove detritus quicker lees time to decay so that will affect what colors your seeing. Also depending on what is in the water column can affect it, lots of poop, lots of food or whatever is abundant that the skimmer catches. Just like making blended mush food, after a while it all turns brown LOL
 
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