Nasty collection is skimmer cup?

[babyduke]

I've run my 55G FOWLR tank with a mere AquaClear 70 power filter for almost 1 1/2 year w/o any issue and finally added the Aqua Remora skimmer about a month ago. Skimmer's doing a great job collecting bubbles that turns into nasty green murky liquid which I dump out every few days.

Exactly what is that nasty crap and if that's what came out of my tank, how was I able to keep my tank running all this time without any fatalities?

[Hiker_]

Its called skimmate. It's all disolved and undisolved organic proteins that's in the water and some plankton.

[babyduke]

How does skimmate affect the water and the fish?

[njudson]

A skimmer pulls some organics (which are often created by the fish) out of the water and is generally considered good for the fish.

[jenjen]

Here's a great article explaining skimming, from the sticky at the top of the page:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/fm/feature/index.php

[KafudaFish]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/2/aafeature

[disciple]

Some fish can handle low quality water parameters. Your nitrate levels were probably on the high side. If you were doing constant water changes than you might have kept it from getting to high.

Also the live rock helped but there is usually not enough bacteria to take on much of a heavy load.

Some people will add prodibio or some type of bacteria additive to help boost the bacteria filter of the tank.

Cheto or macro algea will help pull out nutrients.