Skimmer Over Flow

MarkoD · #1 02-01-2012, 12:58 PM

I just checked my skimmer this morning and it overflowed. skimmer cup was full of water, and entire sump was filled with white foamy bubbles on the surface.

literally looks like bubble bath.

nothing has been dosed in the past few days except Kalk through the ATO

checked it last night before bed and it was doing fine.

anyone know what causes a skimmer to go randomly crazy?

DAVE · #2 02-01-2012, 01:02 PM

Funny, I just had the same thing happen to me the other day. I have no idea what happened.

What skimmer are you using?

MarkoD · #3 02-01-2012, 01:06 PM

Vertex in250

In about 8 inches of water

wingedfish · #4 02-01-2012, 01:07 PM

I just spent a week drying an area rug do to a skimmer. My problem was lack of maintenance. Haven't pulled and cleaned the skimmer in months and the needle wheel was collecting snails. I guess some came loose.

You may never find what caused it. Skimmers are very unpredictable. This is the reason for my lack of maintenance, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" it was working so well!

reefgirl189 · #5 02-01-2012, 01:29 PM

It must be skimmer week because the same thing happened to me. Mine was working fine and I was thinking to myself what a great job I did tuning it (haha!) Then, bam, overflow. No one had touched it in 4 days since the last cleaning either. Luckily I caught it before all the skimmate went back in the tank. I'm still not sure what happened as nothing had changed.

DAVE · #6 02-01-2012, 02:01 PM

You are lucky. Unfortunately all of my skimmate (about 10 days worth) made it back into the tank.

It has happened to me a few times now, there is nothing I can really do about it. When I am home I empty the cup every few days just in case, but since I have been gone for the past 2 weeks I didn't get a chance.

Hopefully the sps will be fine, it has happened in the past with no real ill effects (I do have about 400g of water though). When I get back home Thursday I will just do a bigger then normal water change.

Mine is a Vertex Alpha Kone 300.

Maverick00 · #7 02-01-2012, 02:05 PM

once again, same thing happen to me with the vertex In-100. I suspect mine was lack of maintenance as well.

MarkoD · #8 02-01-2012, 02:34 PM

My skimmer is a month and half old. I doubt there's maintence I need to do.

And someone please don't say is breaking in. It's not

Lampshade · #9 02-01-2012, 03:41 PM

I had a snail die in my tank that caused it. It was a big snail, but I guess it put off some nasty stuff, because my skimmer went from a very dry skim to overflowing until I pulled the snail out the next day.

Palmer · #10 02-01-2012, 03:53 PM

In my short 2 year history of having protein skimmers my only thoughts are-

- Your skimmer is fairly new so the composition of the skimmer changes as film etc build up and I found I had to dial my skimmer in more often in the beginning when first getting it.

- Also I had this happen when I either slightly repositioned the skimmer and caused a slight crimp in the air line or when I ended up getting some salt creep into the airline.

Hope you solve the problem!

Palmer