Beckett Bubble Blues

[JeffCo]

I have been using my dual beckett skimmer for over a year with no problems. A few days ago my collection container was full so it shut off the air flow through the skimmer. I shut down the skimmer for a day because I was painting and did not want the fumes to get sucked into the skimmer.

After I emptied the collection container and started up the pump again, I noticed the skimmer is now dumping tons, (I mean tons), of bubbles out of the 1.5" outlet. I took out both becketts and cleaned them, but to no avail. Everytime I turn it on, the bubbles come o' flyin. The skimmer is still working and when I open the air valves to the becketts the foam goes all way up the riser tube, (about 70"), but a massive amount of bubbles are also coming out of the outlet gate valve. Any ideas why this would be happening?

[matt]

Jeff, is this one of my skimmers? If so, send me a PM and I can have a look at it. Probably something's changed in the water chemistry to cause this. The only possible issue I can think of with the skimmer itself would be if somehow the big elbow on the inside of the drain fitting fell off. I can't imagine that ever happening, and if it did, it wouldn't increase the microbubbles in the output to the extent you're describing. Are you noticing more foam production than before? If your collection container filled with water or weak skimmate, I'd take that as an indication that something changed in the water to increase the foam production and it could be a lot of things, like medications, underwater epoxy, sometimes even newly mixed up saltwater can cause a temporary increase in foam.