Skimmer tank issue

[Hungriee]

This week I've been having a tank issue. My skimmer tends to skim well for a few days lots of foam, then suddenly it skims all water and drains my sumps water out. My ATO kicks in then fills in and then its fine then skimmer again skims all the water out. Good thing i have 5G buckets where the skimmer drains to. Now my tank is running low on water and my return pump chamber is drained out and I ran out of water, causing the pump to making a bad noise.

Why does my skimmer make such a chaos? I have a MSX160. Return pump is an Eheim 1260. Good thing, someone was home to pull the plugs else all my equipment are fried being not in water. I can't wait to get home to fix all this.

 

[Harry_Y]

How long has this been going on?

I've had my MSX250 do that before, I'd say skim dryer as a start.

I set mine so the foam starts at the base of the tapered section.

Also Reef crystals will foam a lot just after a water change
if you dont mix it a least a week ahead of time.

 

[AZDesertRat]

Tap water conditioners make them foam like crazy as does many frozen foods like mysis shrimp.