Octo essence 130 in a Red Sea reefer 250 keeps overflowing

[konatown]

So I put this skimmer in and had to prop it up to get it to stop overflowing. Recommended 7-9 inches of water. Sump level was correct, however I propped it up about 3 inches and adjusted the gate to break it in then it was working perfectly, after about a week of breaking in I adjusted the knob that lets water out and lowered the skimmer.



Running perfectly until something in my tank caused a bacterial bloom possibly, now I have cloudy water and the skimmer will just absolutely not work. Constantly overflowing. I have the thing sitting in like 3 inches of water and still overflows.



The bubbles fill up fast, come through the top and run down the side on the most open setting, and I have no adjustments for water flow or air in the skimmer. Any ideas what I could try? Thanks!

This is after being on for maybe 5 minutes, flow valve open, and propped up

 

[PeterC99]

How old is your aquarium and how old is the skimmer?

 

[konatown]

How old is your aquarium and how old is the skimmer?

Two year old tank, moved one month ago. Have 2 year live rock (60 lbs in a 65 gal) added new substrate and mini cycle over. Ammonia 0 nitrate 3 (nyos). Phosphate 0 - .25 (api)

Bought skimmer and installed a few weeks ago, broke in, ran perfectly for a while. I feel like it’s something in my water because I’m dealing with this bloom and my water is cloudy.

I added a uv little over a week ago and realized the next day the bulb was bad....but also had REALLY bad cloudy water, like you couldn’t even see to the back of the tank. It’s like I didn’t rinse the uv well enough and something was on it. From then on out the skimmer started overflowing like a science project volcano. I’ve done a couple water changes.

 

[PeterC99]

Great - can now rule out new tank or skimmer syndrome.

Something has gone out of wack with your water. How are the fish and corals doing?

 

[konatown]

Great - can now rule out new tank or skimmer syndrome.

Something has gone out of wack with your water. How are the fish and corals doing?

The fish seem good. The corals are mostly ok. Some things like my big mat of gsp and a gsp rock are not opening much. I have something growing on some corals and things that looks like hair algae, but it’s mostly white, not green. And then the fuzz that’s on a lot of things in the original post.



I have a feeling something was on that uv light. It was instant after that. I rinsed but may have missed something. NI’ve done some small water changes but I am thinking I need to do a couple big ones.

 

[blaxsun]

Does your collection cup have an outlet for some tubing? If so you could temporarily empty your skimmer back into your tank until this sorts itself out.

 

[PeterC99]

Are you running any charcoal?

 

[konatown]

Does your collection cup have an outlet for some tubing? If so you could temporarily empty your skimmer back into your tank until this sorts itself out.

It does. And I thought of trying that, I just seem to have a problem with the bubbles foaming so much and pushing the lid off/overflowing down the side. I will give it a shot and see if it helps!

Are you running any charcoal?

I am, just a small bag. But I have pretty much always kept a bag of charcoal in the tank. I can take it out and see what happens

 

[PeterC99]

When was the last time you changed the charcoal?

 

[konatown]

When was the last time you changed the charcoal?

It’s only about 2-3 weeks old

 

[powers2001]

@konatown try turning off your skimmer and emptying the cup. Then turn it back on and note how long it takes to fill the cup. If it takes several minutes then your skimmer might be working perfectly, it could be nothing more than an adjustment problem. If a skimmer is tuned in and properly sized to the bioload of the tank then you should be emptying the cup often. Maybe 3 times a day at the most to begin with. Then around once a day to once every 3 days. If your problem is an adjustment one, then you will have to set the dial at the highest number setting and work the dial down slowly one notch at a time until there is a column of pea sized bubbles with it’s base at the bottom of the neck of the skimmer. If this doesn’t give you foamy skimmate then contact Coralvue.

 

[powers2001]

The consistency of the foam of the skimmate in this picture looks good although it is hard to tell from a picture.