Skimmer on the fritz! Could use some advice.

Aaron Davis · Feb 28, 2017

Hello all!

I have a flame angel that had a couple white spots on his tail fin (which are gone now). He also had a couple tears on his fin from either my clown hitting him or my lobster. Probably the clown. Anywho. I treated my tank with some Melafix. Don't have a quarantine tank setup yet, hence the reason I treated the DT. The bottle said it wouldn't affect my skimmer, but not 2 mins after I treated the tank, my skimmer went nuts. Overflowed like crazy. Tons of bubbles and it won't stop. It's been 3 days. I've had it off. Nitrates have gone up. I've done a 15% water change with another coming tomorrow. Any tips on how to get my skimmer back to normal? I tried opening the flow to be able to leave it on while cutting down on the overflow with no success. Thanks!

Aaron

Piranhapat · Feb 28, 2017

It will take a few days. WC will help, but it might take a lot of times to empty the cup. Dial it down to the lowest setting. Each day increase it a little. That don't work in a few days. Rinse and clean the skimmer.

Aaron Davis · Feb 28, 2017

When you say dial it down to lowest setting; are you saying open up the flow all the way or restrict the flow as much as possible to make the skimmer work harder? Open or close the valve? Thanks for the response!

Piranhapat · Feb 28, 2017

No, so the skimmer is not working hard. Since it's making bubbles so easy it will full up your cup. By turning it off your not removing the Melafix. You got to have it on and keep emptying cup.