My Red Sea Skimmer went crazy!

Westside Guy

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I have had my Red Sea RSK-300 running for a few months now and because of my low bio load it has been producing small amounts of skim on a regular basis. I returned home the other night and saw that my reservoir tank that I had just filled in the morning was half empty and I had never seen such a drastic change in my RO level. I then saw that the container of my Red Sea Skimmer was totally full of water and was overflowing from the openings in the lid and that there was skim splatter allover the inside of the doors and other areas inside of the cabinet. The water that filled the skimmer was practically clear and the amount inside the container probably accounted for what had drained out of the reservoir tank.

I had not made any adjustments to the skimmer's control knob for the longest time and the service guy from my LFS had told me that it was set properly. What could have caused this drastic change?
 

Ron Reefman

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Did you add anything to the tank water? Or feed with a new food? Both can make skimmers go crazy.

That's why some new skimmers have delay cycles (my has 10, 30 & 50 minutes) and some have float valves in the cup so the skimmer shuts off before it starts to overflow.
 
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Westside Guy

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No, the food has been the same and I have using Reef Pro A&B along with Acropower (amino acid formula for corals) for the longest time. I wish I had a shutoff mechanism in the skimmer. :confused:
 

Ron Reefman

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See the float valve in the collection cup? You might be able to set this up as a DIY project if you did a search for it?

 

X-37B

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Did you add anything to the tank water? Or feed with a new food? Both can make skimmers go crazy.

That's why some new skimmers have delay cycles (my has 10, 30 & 50 minutes) and some have float valves in the cup so the skimmer shuts off before it starts to overflow.
This is why I run tunze skimmers. They have an overflow feature built into the skimmer neck.
 
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Westside Guy

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Sounds like the change in salinity from dumping half of your ato reservoir may be what caused the skimmer to explode.
I have had this happen on my nano before.

I have the Red Sea float valve mechanism and double checked the amount of the drip immediately when I saw how low the reservoir tank was. It was where it had always been set and the float was functioning ok.
 

Kyuss414

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I'd double check that the air inlet on the venturi isn't clogged. Should be able to remove the inlet on the pump and then check the port where the air line feeds into. They can get precipitate build-up in them and restrict the airflow, which raises the water level in the skimmer and causes it to overflow.
 

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No, the food has been the same and I have using Reef Pro A&B along with Acropower (amino acid formula for corals) for the longest time. I wish I had a shutoff mechanism in the skimmer. :confused:
I got this one at BRS. It's expensive but I was tired of overflows in the cup

 
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Westside Guy

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I'd double check that the air inlet on the venturi isn't clogged. Should be able to remove the inlet on the pump and then check the port where the air line feeds into. They can get precipitate build-up in them and restrict the airflow, which raises the water level in the skimmer and causes it to overflow.

Thanks for the suggestion, I am as scheduled for my monthly service call with my LFS tomorrow and will have them check it out.
 

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