Hang-on skimmer is overflowing question.
 

I woke up to discover my skimmer spewing waste from the collection cup back into the chamber (essentially into my tank). My skimmer will randomly create very wet skimmate, and cause the collection cup to fill up. Before, I thought it was a water level issue (water level changing from evaporation) but now that I am using a sump, the water level int he diplay is always at the same level. The skimmer will work good for sometimes months, and then all of a sudden it will overflow the cup...

What could be causing this?

Anything spawning (snails, bristle worms, algae....) will make the skimmer go crazy

they are placing extra load in the water column?

what brand of skimmer?

Older redsea prism backpack

I have heard of people drilling a small hole in the bottom of the collection cup to run some airline tubing to a can or bucket, for just such emergencies, so if the waste gets to high it trickles into the can. just a thought.

it comes with an airline. The problem being, it goes back into the intake chamber. i imagine about 1 percent of the sludge is re-skimmed before being tossed backinto the tank. maybe that is what i need to do though, get a longer tube and have it go into a buck for emergencies. Thanks

dont take my word for it! its just an Idea maybe get some confirmation from some one with some experience i.e. not me lol

well it is definately better than having the sludge go back into the tank. I doubt it could fill up a bucket if it happens while I am at work. it is easily changable so if I leave for an extended period of time, I can just place the hose to return any overflow back into the skimmer and take the hit on the off chance it does overflow that one time.