Why is my skimmer going nuts?

[jason604]

My new tank has just been set up n there nth in it but live rock(was cycling rock in a bin that was been acid/bleach washed) and live sand with about 5lbs of live rock from my other tank. Skimmer was working perfectly for about 4 days until yesterday when I found it overfilling n going nuts. It's been a day and it still going crazy. I tuned it to make it lowest possible lvl but still not good. What's going on that's causing this? All I've been is dosing some vodka n vinegar to jumpstart my bacteria count. Also used fijicrete 3 days ago but it was fine the day after. Skimmer is a vertex IN 180

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/9D9E2895-4C70-4D65-BD79-DB497146EED4_zpshnq40xxn.jpg (http://s1292.photobucket.com/user/kosin604/media/9D9E2895-4C70-4D65-BD79-DB497146EED4_zpshnq40xxn.jpg.html)

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Its very possible that the carbon dosing and the bacteria bloom from it making your skimmer go crazy.
How much of each do you dose every 24 HRS period.
If you dissolved some FijiCrete into the water line that will do a little affect but not few days later.

[jason604]

Just dosing 0.4mL x2 a day for a 110gal tank. I doubt it was the fijicrete but I did put a piece of live rock that I crete together and fully hardened in the return compartment of my sump the morning of the day skimmer went crazy.

[Ryanerickson]

Too much soap

[jason604]

Too much soap

Lol it's like a whole bottle. Took my pump out n cleaned it as wel but still no luck. Pump didn't look dirty either

[intarsiabox]

Just let it run and overflow into the sump for a couple of days and the foaming likely stop.

[Myka]

Did you use a dechlorinator?

[freeze]

How new is the filter sock?

[jason604]

How new is the filter sock?

I wash it daily. Using the easy washable nylon 1. There's litterly nth in my tank but very very clean rock and live sand

[Skimmin]

Same thing happened to me when i set up my eshopps s 200 with new Pukani dry rock. It settled down in a couple days. Now that I've gone with a recirc skimmer nothing, including dosing causes it to fluctuate. Just set it and forget it. I've also been dosing vinegar since day one.

[kien]

I would just let it overflow for a few more days as intarsiabox suggested. I don't know what it is but clearly some reaction has occurred in your tank. Another suggestion is to simply raise your skimmer a few inches. Create a shelf out of egg crate or PVC tubes. This will help with the overflowing and should allow you to adjust your skimmer water level better.

I've found that if a skimmer is too deep in water for its own good it can be more susceptible to overflow. Raising it can give you a larger margin for error and adjustability.

[Myka]

Did you use a dechlorinator?

Yeah, that. ^ You don't mention using RO/DI water. Many dechlorinators/ammonia blockers will make skimmers overflow like mad until they are entirely out of the system.

[asylumdown]

It looks like that skimmer cup has a drain line on it. I'd recommend directing it out of the tank to a large bucket and keep an eye on it for a bit. It will start to drain your tank, but if there's nothing in it right now you don't need to worry too much about a mild fluctuation in salinity, and you can just add some salt to the sump as needed. If you don't have an ATO system that will replace what's lost with fresh water, you can just make up a batch of new salt water and add as necessary (though if you add something like Prime to the new water, it might just make it go nuts all over again). The bacteria won't care much about a small drop then rise in specific gravity, if one is even detectable.

Whatever is making the skimmer go nuts needs to get out of the tank. Dumping what ends up in your skimmer cup until it stops going crazy is the fastest way to the do that.

[lastlight]

what i do when i treat my tank with chemiclean is i intentionally have my skimmer cup resting on the neck tilted with a huge gap so plenty of foam runs into the tank. this lets me skim the chemical out when under normal circumstances (cup fully on and skimmer already adjusted to driest setting) the thing overflows immediately. this will let you get whatever it is, out.

[jason604]

Yeah, that. ^ You don't mention using RO/DI water. Many dechlorinators/ammonia blockers will make skimmers overflow like mad until they are entirely out of the system.

Yup I only use ro/di water

I would just let it overflow for a few more days as intarsiabox suggested. I don't know what it is but clearly some reaction has occurred in your tank. Another suggestion is to simply raise your skimmer a few inches. Create a shelf out of egg crate or PVC tubes. This will help with the overflowing and should allow you to adjust your skimmer water level better.

I've found that if a skimmer is too deep in water for its own good it can be more susceptible to overflow. Raising it can give you a larger margin for error and adjustability.

Actually my water chamber for the skimmer is pretty deep. Not home to measure as of right now but I would say it's about 14" or so. I did try to physically lift my skimmer higher up n held it there n the water lvl In the skimmer did lower to the correct lvl. Wouldn't egg crates or pvc tubes make it super noisy by the pump vibrating.

It looks like that skimmer cup has a drain line on it. I'd recommend directing it out of the tank to a large bucket and keep an eye on it for a bit. It will start to drain your tank, but if there's nothing in it right now you don't need to worry too much about a mild fluctuation in salinity, and you can just add some salt to the sump as needed. If you don't have an ATO system that will replace what's lost with fresh water, you can just make up a batch of new salt water and add as necessary (though if you add something like Prime to the new water, it might just make it go nuts all over again). The bacteria won't care much about a small drop then rise in specific gravity, if one is even detectable.

Whatever is making the skimmer go nuts needs to get out of the tank. Dumping what ends up in your skimmer cup until it stops going crazy is the fastest way to the do that.

I don't think I can do this cuz what's coming out into the skimmer cup is like 90% water and 10% water. Will prob fill a 5g bucket in about 5-10mins. My ato is currently on my other tank that I will swap over on the big swap day

[kien]

Actually my water chamber for the skimmer is pretty deep. Not home to measure as of right now but I would say it's about 14" or so. I did try to physically lift my skimmer higher up n held it there n the water lvl In the skimmer did lower to the correct lvl. Wouldn't egg crates or pvc tubes make it super noisy by the pump vibrating.



Whoa.. I don't know about your specific skimmer, but 14" seems very deep to me. My last two skimmers have sat in about 6-8 inches of water. My newest skimmer I had at about 8 inches but then raised it another 2" by sticking two 2" pvc pips underneath it. I don't notice much additional noise. The water does a decent job of dampening. Plus my sump is enclosed in my stand.

if noise or vibration becomes and issue just try dampening with foam sheets (that you can get at Michaels. I have those under my other pumps (return and biopellet reactor).

[jason604]

Whoa.. I don't know about your specific skimmer, but 14" seems very deep to me. My last two skimmers have sat in about 6-8 inches of water. My newest skimmer I had at about 8 inches but then raised it another 2" by sticking two 2" pvc pips underneath it. I don't notice much additional noise. The water does a decent job of dampening. Plus my sump is enclosed in my stand.

if noise or vibration becomes and issue just try dampening with foam sheets (that you can get at Michaels. I have those under my other pumps (return and biopellet reactor).

Ya I made it deep CUZ I'm planning to use my final chamber in my sump as a frag tank/return pump so I needed it to be as deep as I can. Gonna take ur advice to use pvc n egg crate now

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Yup, at 14" deep you'll never stop overflowing your skimmer. The vast majority of skimmers require 8-10" of stable water level to function optimally. Since this is going to require a long term solution, make sure your "box" is very sturdy or it may tip over or make a vibrating noise.

[jason604]

Yup, at 14" deep you'll never stop overflowing your skimmer. The vast majority of skimmers require 8-10" of stable water level to function optimally. Since this is going to require a long term solution, make sure your "box" is very sturdy or it may tip over or make a vibrating noise.

What should I use to dampen the vibration? Right now I'm cutting 4 pieces of pvc then prob cut some teeths under it so water can flow through to not trap crap later on n zip tie them to egg crates n put skimmer on up. But I suspect massive vibration

[andestang]

I'm having almost the exact some problem with my Vertex 200. It's been running now for almost 3 months. It's at 9 1/2" just like they recommend. I haven't added any chemicals or anything except for some vinegar dosing which I stopped a month ago. I still don't have it functioning right, the bubbles are usually more like when you add Alka-Seltzer/Eno vs what should be the nice slow big bubbling. I try not to adjust it much anymore, it's fine one time (rarely) then the next check it's overflowing like yours. If I used the drain adapter on my tank it would be fresh water in the matter of days. My old little Euro- reef skimmer would kick this things ass, but I paid so much dam money for this thing so just has to work right lol ? :lol:

[freeze]

Every skimmer I have operates like crap at the recommended water level. If it's overflowing and running like crap, raise it up. You want super fine bubbles but when at the right height those then into a nice foamy head.

[reefwars]

Every skimmer I have operates like crap at the recommended water level. If it's overflowing and running like crap, raise it up. You want super fine bubbles but when at the right height those then into a nice foamy head.

This :)

Just about every skimmer I have ever ran runs better in less than recommended , problem is if your making a sump you can't lower a skimmer but you can raise one up so we tend to make the baffles higher and recommend putting something underneath

I run my csc450 in 5" of water and have 90 degree fitting on the inputs so it can draw water lower and not suck in air.

14" is unheard of .....

[kien]

Every skimmer I have operates like crap at the recommended water level. If it's overflowing and running like crap, raise it up. You want super fine bubbles but when at the right height those then into a nice foamy head.

This :)

Just about every skimmer I have ever ran runs better in less than recommended , problem is if your making a sump you can't lower a skimmer but you can raise one up so we tend to make the baffles higher and recommend putting something underneath

I run my csc450 in 5" of water and have 90 degree fitting on the inputs so it can draw water lower and not suck in air.

14" is unheard of .....

+2

I too have noticed that the recommended water levels (for the 4 skimmers that I've owned) have been crap. I've always had to effectively run them at a lower water level (or raising skimmer).

K.

[andestang]

Mine starts to surge if it's taken to far from the 9.5"

Every skimmer I have operates like crap at the recommended water level. If it's overflowing and running like crap, raise it up. You want super fine bubbles but when at the right height those then into a nice foamy head.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I run both of mine at about 8" of water.

A piece of neoprene (wetsuit material) would dampen any vibration of your stand. Without dampening, the noise from the vibrations may be annoying especially since your tank is in your living area, not in a fish room or garage.

[jason604]

I run both of mine at about 8" of water.

A piece of neoprene (wetsuit material) would dampen any vibration of your stand. Without dampening, the noise from the vibrations may be annoying especially since your tank is in your living area, not in a fish room or garage.

Gotcha. I'll use extra pieces of my pond liner.

[jason604]

K u guys r awesome! Moved it up so skimmer is about 8" in water n it now works perfectly!! Barely any noise with egg crates plus it's in my fish room so can't hear in living room. But I will still put some pond liner on it TMR so it's fully silent.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/035DC34F-B56D-4A9A-9A1F-18F830F25FA7_zps5pvremhg.jpg (http://s1292.photobucket.com/user/kosin604/media/035DC34F-B56D-4A9A-9A1F-18F830F25FA7_zps5pvremhg.jpg.html)

[reefwars]

Mine starts to surge if it's taken to far from the 9.5"

What do you mean by starts to surge ?

[andestang]

You see the water level in the neck going up and down and you can also hear it from the pump.

[jason604]

You see the water level in the neck going up and down and you can also hear it from the pump.

Mine was doing that. Goes up down n super hard to fine tune. Even adjusting the tuner by a hair line will cause huge fluctuations in skimmer lvl. Found out that my pump was not in straight it was a lil crooked. It now doesn't fluctuate by tuning it is so hard. Is this normal for vertex IN series? Litterly 1 hair turns makes it either g half way down in bubbles or super overflowing

[jason604]

ok this skimmer is rly stressing me out.. it literally takes only 1 hairline of a turn for it to overfill like mad or bubbles to drop all the way down. when i do find the perfect spot it will work great for like 5-8 hrs then when i come back to look at it the bubbles drop all the way down again... what am i doing wrong? i raised the skimmer another 1' so its at 7" of water now and i have to tune it to nearly a fully closed air tuner for it to have bubbles near the top of the neck which i normally have for my other tank

[e46er]

ok this skimmer is rly stressing me out.. it literally takes only 1 hairline of a turn for it to overfill like mad or bubbles to drop all the way down. when i do find the perfect spot it will work great for like 5-8 hrs then when i come back to look at it the bubbles drop all the way down again... what am i doing wrong? i raised the skimmer another 1' so its at 7" of water now and i have to tune it to nearly a fully closed air tuner for it to have bubbles near the top of the neck which i normally have for my other tank

mine does that i also have a vertex in180 its in 8" of water.
I get about an inch in the container over a week or so but the smallest turn and it overflows in 20 min.
I have a small bioload so i figured it was fairly normal since the 8" is the reccomended height IIRC but im sure I didnt guess when I made my stand for it.
so if i run it in say 6" of water you guys are saying I should have a easier time finding the sweet spot?

[e46er]

i also had the orignal pump crap out a few months ago and am now using a sicce psk1000

[jason604]

yea i thought vertex in-180s r good skimmers.. im rly having doubts mybe i should switch b4 my system is in full action

[jason604]

i also had the orignal pump crap out a few months ago and am now using a sicce psk1000

So I did some research n it seems like almost everyone who had this skimmer had this problem. But the problem is not with the skimmer design itself but with the cheap chinese pump that comes stock with it. A lot of ppl says the bubble blaster 3000 works great with the skimmer but a new bubble blaster cost more than what I paid for the whole skimmer n pump so I dunno. So the sicce is having the same problem with with ur original pump as well?

[e46er]

It pulls more gunk out now that with the original pump probably double. But I have 6 fish biggest one is a 3-4" so boiload is Small

[jason604]

Any1 happens to know what pump works great with this skimmer other than the bubble blaster and he siccce pak1000?

[jason604]

Would the jebao 4000 work with vertex in-180? Would the Venturi on my stock pump fit on the jebao as wel and how would modding it work?
Here's the http://m.fish-street.com/jebaojecod_dct4000_water_return_pump?search_string =Jebao+dc

Need help as my skimmer is litterly doing nth

[Aquattro]

Maybe just buy the pump you've been told works?

[jason604]

Maybe just buy the pump you've been told works?

Lol very good advice ima order proven pump now

[The Guy]

K u guys r awesome! Moved it up so skimmer is about 8" in water n it now works perfectly!! Barely any noise with egg crates plus it's in my fish room so can't hear in living room. But I will still put some pond liner on it TMR so it's fully silent.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b578/kosin604/035DC34F-B56D-4A9A-9A1F-18F830F25FA7_zps5pvremhg.jpg (http://s1292.photobucket.com/user/kosin604/media/035DC34F-B56D-4A9A-9A1F-18F830F25FA7_zps5pvremhg.jpg.html)
I have a Vertex Omega150 and have it sitting on 6 stacked egg crate pieces, kinda the same as what you have there. It's in 8" of water and works great, I ran it in vinegar mix when new for 24 hours to remove any oils etc. before I put it into operation in the sump.

[jason604]

Ok so I went n bought a vertex omega 150 skimmer put it in 7.5" of water and it's doing the exact same thing as my previous skimmer!!! Either overflowing, come back couple hours n bubbles drop all the way down.. Vice versa. Are the skimmers acting like this because I have no bio load other than super clean rocks and new live sand? My tank is ready for the move but I'm afraid to swap everything from my old tank over till my skimmer problem is fixed. Was thinking about going to buy some fish n try it since I cannot catch any fish in my old tank CUZ they keep hiding in my sps corals

[The Guy]

Ok so I went n bought a vertex omega 150 skimmer put it in 7.5" of water and it's doing the exact same thing as my previous skimmer!!! Either overflowing, come back couple hours n bubbles drop all the way down.. Vice versa. Are the skimmers acting like this because I have no bio load other than super clean rocks and new live sand? My tank is ready for the move but I'm afraid to swap everything from my old tank over till my skimmer problem is fixed. Was thinking about going to buy some fish n try it since I cannot catch any fish in my old tank CUZ they keep hiding in my sps corals
Just to get it straight are you using this skimmer in the same sump that's going to be used for the new tank or what? Also is this vertex a new or used one? If new I would vinegar bath it for 24 hours to help with break in.
Sounds to me like you have nothing to skim yet, I never ran a skimmer for at least a couple of weeks after I set up my 90 g and moved all my livestock from my 50 g tank into the 90 and let the load build. Not sure there's a magic set waiting time before you fire up the skimmer, but it worked for me.
Maybe others can chime in. :smile:

[jason604]

Yes it's in the sump of my new system. I bought it used but almost new. Gave it a vinegar bath and scrub.

[WarDog]

I just had the exact same learning curve as you. My skimmer was running for one month with no bio-load and didn't seem to be working either. Added 1 damsel, fed twice, and boom... Now its starting to make sludge. Just need to tune it perfectly now.

Give it more time. Your system sounds too new. Once you start adding fish waste into the water you will start to see results, guaranteed.

[dcw1sfu]

I have the Vertex 150 and its a great skimmer however can be touchy at times. If I add anything like epoxy to the system it goes nuts and will continue to overflow for days. I find the way to fix this is let it skim out what it wants by overflowing into a pale and replacing what its drained with fresh salt mix. Basically a water change via skimmer.

[jason604]

Picking up a blue tang and a blue throat trigger today to start the skimmer off. Does any1 have any experience with keeping blue throat triggers? I did some research on them n majority of the people who had them doesn't rly havr a problem with them eating either clean up crews(shrimps, nails, and hermits). I have 4 shrimps n lost of hermits n few snails. Would it be a smart idea to keep this trigger in my tank? They look so cool lol

[jason604]

Ur right Warhog. Been 1 day since I bought two fishes for the new tank and the skimmer is working perfectly right away.