Skimmer overflowing

[bluecheese]

Skimmer had been up and running for a few years now with zero issues.

Went to do my weekly water change and maintenance on the tank, when I realized the skimmer cup was full of clear water and over flowing. Nothing has changed with this skimmer or the tank recently.

The water level in the skimmer body is the same as it has always been. I have not adjusted the airflow at all. It’s a Red Octopus 110 EXT, so the water level is adjusted by a gate valve, not by its height placement in the sump.

I just checked it and the cup was full of clear water again and overflowing.

This is a video after I emptied the cup.

The cup fills up 10 minutes after I empty it.

Any ideas?

 

[PharmrJohn]

Wow. No clue. Good question. The ONLY thing I can think of is that you unintentionally aerated the water column by dumping in water and the skimmer picked up on that, creating more bubbles in response.

 

[bluecheese]

Wow. No clue. Good question. The ONLY thing I can think of is that you unintentionally aerated the water column by dumping in water and the skimmer picked up on that, creating more bubbles in response.

Not sure. The tank is at my work. No o r was around all weekend. I noticed the cup overflowing before I did the water change.

 

[PharmrJohn]

Not sure. The tank is at my work. No o r was around all weekend. I noticed the cup overflowing before I did the water change.

Ohhhhh! Missed that. Apologies.

 

[LucentFish]

might be late, but by any chance was the skimmer left on during the w/c? Return goes off, sump fills, skimmer fills. I'v made that mistake before :)

 

[jcmjoe]

Is it getting enough air, I’ve had my skimmer get calcification over the fresh air hole where the hose attaches and makes it overflow. Are you seeing the normal amount of air bubbles in the body underneath the cup? Follow the hose from the silencer down to where it attaches to the intake and make sure that hole didn’t close up with calcium deposits

 

[bluecheese]

might be late, but by any chance was the skimmer left on during the w/c? Return goes off, sump fills, skimmer fills. I'v made that mistake before :)

Its wasn't anything like that. The water level in the sump doesn't impact the water level inside this skimmer.

I'm not sure what happened, because it somehow self-corrected and has been working perfectly.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Was anything recently added to the tank? Like Microbacter 7? OR phytoplankton? THose make my skimmer go crazy if I forget to true it off for a period after adding these things.

 

[bluecheese]

Was anything recently added to the tank? Like Microbacter 7? OR phytoplankton? THose make my skimmer go crazy if I forget to true it off for a period after adding these things.

Nothing new. But everything seems to have settled down with the skimmer. Must have been one of those fluky things.

 

[reeftivo]

glad it's back to running normally

i've had a few similar issues over the years and figured them out after the fact. Once i came home from a trip and immediately smelled nasty skimmate in the house. OH GREAT i thought, what now? The tank was running and the DT seemed okay but when i opened the cabinet there was literally a foam head like beer throughout the sump that was over the top lip. Turns out before i left i should have made sure to empty my skimmer cup because while i was gone there was a power outage. I dont have a battery back up so what must have happened was the outage caused the sump level to rise a few inches higher than the skimmer was set to run. When the power came back on, the skimmer immediately fired up but the sump level took a while to lower down to operating level and for just a minute or so it caused the skimmer to overflow enough to push skimmate back down into the neck. That started a smorgasbord of foam which ultimately dumped everything back into the sump then into the system. The other times were when i forgot to shut off the skimmer before i powered down for WC's.

Live and (yet to) learn for me i guess LOL

happy reefing