Colleen & Scotts 100g build

[Brighteyes_13]

and again im thinking of ditching this skimmer for a different one. GRRRRR.

Took out my filter socks to be cleaned and put in the new ones. Hubby noticed the skimmer going nuts. now nothing i do will slow down the skimmer. its bubbling out of control, causing micro bubbles in the tank and only producing clear, clean appearing bubbles to overflow into collection cup. it totally fills up within half an hour.

Left it off last night to see if it was just something from the socks, and plugged it back in today. Still going nuts :/
Pulled it out and cleaned it best i could and still bubbling over.

At this point i dont know if i should just let it bubble and dispose of whatever it collects or turn it off.

The crazy part is yesterday morning i had it turned all the way closed to try and get some skim with no success, now i cant open it enough to get it to slow down.

Are all skimmers this finicky?

[WarDog]

The one thing i have noticed with people with new tanks is they expect the skimmer to work flawlessly from day one. Firstly, there may not be enough junk in the water for it to even remove. My skimmer on my first tank took about a month before it started making skimmate of any measurable amount. Secondly, tuning a new skimmer on a new tank can take weeks. Make a very small adjustment and leave it for 24 hours, then adjust again and repeat. Also, make sure you are running it at the recommended depth. Thats half the battle right there. Good luck.

[Brighteyes_13]

lol, not concerned about flawless... the skimmer will skim when there's something to skim. however i am concerned that it goes from acting like there's nothing there to overflowing within seconds. What would cause that besides a major change in the water or setup?

The skimmer has been running in the tank for 2 and a bit weeks. It sits in 7.5" of water. I didnt have any instructions included with it when i got it but from what i can find online its best at 9.8" of water. If anything it should be running dryer, not wetter.
When i first fired it up i left it totally open (max flow min skim). there was silt in the water that it was helping pull out. over the first 5 days or so i emptied it of silty settlings i think twice. During week 2 i noticed my bubble level was sitting significantly lower in the chamber so i adjusted it a little bit per day. By Monday night it was at min flow max skim and the bubbles were still just barely coming up to the top of the cone/bottom of the neck. I was fine that it wasn't collecting. its a new tank like you mentioned and there's minimal algae in the water column or oils from feeding or bioload. I did want to make sure that if any started i would be on top of it.

What i am trying to understand is why it flipped on me in a matter of literal seconds. Id like to prevent from happening like that again. Id hate to have real skimmate reintroduced to the tank from an overflowing cup for some ridiculous reason that i didn't think of.

[iamfrontosa]

Maybe you stirred up detritus in the sump when you took out the old filter socks? Did you wash the new filter socks before you put them in? Are your new filter socks ones that you used previously ??

I always had similar issue with my skimmer whenever I do water change with Aquavitro salt mix.

[maron6977]

When ever I've had a problem like that it's usually from changing water height in sump , or using chlorine remover & I think new filter socks (but been a while). I just **** the cup on top of the skimmer (so it doesn't overflow in 2min) it will usually still skim the stuff out & run smooth after 24hrs.
Love the thread but let's face it - not enough pics . Lol
Did you enclose stand yet ? That will quiet down a lot of noise .

[maron6977]

Really !!!!
Another word for the **** , tilt .

[Myka]

Changing filter socks usually causes the skimmer to go nuts, but it usually calms down in about 15 minutes. When I change socks I clean the skimmer first, then remove the plug in the skimmer cup. I leave it like that for 15 mins, and then it's back to normal and I put the plug back in. I do find that using socks causes much more fuss than using filter pads.

[Brighteyes_13]

Last week after picking up the hermits we started feeding the tank as well. My levels all stayed right on track so this weekend brought a few new inhabitants into the tank. 2 clowns and chromis, along with last weeks GSP patch.

Today i also got the christmas present of a diatom bloom in the tank lol. It came sooner than i was expecting but none the less it has begun.

Last weekend also had the finishing of the hood. We still need to attach the decorative trim to complete it but it is functional.

[Myka]

Seems like a bit of a strong diatom bloom. Have you checked nitrate and phosphate with good quality kits? Just make sure they aren't too high or you will be dealing with hair algae in no time.

[WarDog]

Love the aquascape!