Skimmer going nuts

[Chad]

Ok, last night I fragged some Xenia, and replaced some carbon in my filter. The skimmer started going nuts, it filled my collection cup to the top with water in the span of about 2 hours. Any clues? It was fine before I fragged but I have never had this happen before.

TIA

[CHEAPREEF]

Carbon does that, changes the water surface tention. Once all the fine carbon dust is gone(whatever you missed on rinsing) it should be fine. Give it a day or so.

Clinton

[Scavenger]

Hey Chad,

Being new to reefing, I can't tell you exactly what is happening or what to do about your skimmer. I can however let you know about VERY similar situations and things I did on my tank.

I have one of those Lee's air driven skimmers on my 20 gallon. It is very finicky about settings and tuning. Every time I change the water perameters of my tank,(water change, top off, dosing, fragging ect.) I must adjust the skimmer. The two main non skimming conditions I get are no skimming with little foam and none rising up the tube or exactly what you described, what I call "blowing over".

I have noticed that carbon or the reef additive I use, affects the ph for a breif period and the skimmer goes nuts like you described. The same thing happened when I fragged some softies too. My cure for the skimmer "blowing over" was to raise the skimmer in the tank thus increasing the hieght of the foam column and regular skimming occurs.

If I have the little foam and no rising, my cure is to lower the skimmer, decrease water flow and or increase air supply.

I don't know what type of skimmer you have or if you can do any of these adjustments, but if so, this should get you by until your water perameters stabalize.

I have literaly spent an entire day tweaking and playing with my skimmer and have found that water perameters are a HUGE factor in how a skimmer performs.

I hope this helped.
Ken

[IslandReefer]

Carbon does that, changes the water surface tention. Once all the fine carbon dust is gone(whatever you missed on rinsing) it should be fine. Give it a day or so.

Clinton

The carbon and not increase DOC from xenia slime?
Just askin'?? wet foam vs. inc dry reg. foam? hence inc. water in cup?
John

[StirCrazy]

Carbon should not affect skimmers, but fragging your Xenia will, did you frag it in the tank?

Steve

[Chad]

Yes, I fragged it in the tank.. I have done it before with out this happening.. But then my skimmer didn't have the lime wood air pump I shoved in there to make more bubbles..

I am doing a water change today.. I assume this should clear things up? Also, I added the carbon because of the fact I fragged the Xenia in the tank.

TIA

[Namscam]

Chad I think its because you cleaned the skimmers so thats why it build up so fast...It happened to me b4 too...I bet the skimmate in the cup was not as dark as you ve usually had it.. also that lime wood airstone might also make it work fast too. oh yeah you ARE using the wooden air stone arent you because I ve made the mistake of using the other blue air stone and it just went crazy overnight,..when I woke up in the morning I ve had like at least 5 gallons on my hard wood floor....which just totally warped my floor. :sad:

[Chad]

Chad I think its because you cleaned the skimmers so thats why it build up so fast...It happened to me b4 too...I bet the skimmate in the cup was not as dark as you ve usually had it.. also that lime wood airstone might also make it work fast too. oh yeah you ARE using the wooden air stone arent you because I ve made the mistake of using the other blue air stone and it just went crazy overnight,..when I woke up in the morning I ve had like at least 5 gallons on my hard wood floor....which just totally warped my floor. :sad:

The skimmer was cleaned the day before.. And was running without a problem. It happened after you left and I had put some new carbon in my canister to clean up the toxins in the water from the Xenia fragging. So I am not all the sure what is going on.. I have just turned if off for now until I do a water change and see what happens. So far the rest of the inhabitants seem fine. No ill effects there..

[Chad]

If I have the little foam and no rising, my cure is to lower the skimmer, decrease water flow and or increase air supply.

I don't know what type of skimmer you have or if you can do any of these adjustments, but if so, this should get you by until your water perameters stabalize.

I have literaly spent an entire day tweaking and playing with my skimmer and have found that water perameters are a HUGE factor in how a skimmer performs.

I hope this helped.
Ken

Unfortunatly I have a sea clone skimmer, there are no height adjustments.. I have the PH output as low as I can get ATM... I use a wood airstone with a pump to get some extra bubbles.. Its all turned off right now.. I will see how it goes after a water change.

Thanks for your advice Ken :biggrin: