near disaster AGAIN!!!!

[Texreefer]

this is the most trouble i have ever had with a skimmer :angry .. it's the Aqua C EV120... twice now it has gone nuts and dumped 5 gallons of water on my floor and my ro/di has replaced it with nice fresh water (of course while i'm at work for 10 hours :blink ). i don't get it..... it will run producing almost no bubbles and then out of nowhere skim out over 5 gallons in just a few hours. it is an injector style and i have tried overdriving it ,underdriving it.. it simply will not produce a stable foam.. its either nothing ,, or 5 gallons.... :wacko does anyone know if they smell bad when you set them on fire? it's 3am and i don't want to wake the neighbors

[OldSalty]

The first thing ya want to do is have it dump back into the tank, that way your floors are dry and your salinity is stable. My skimmer does this on occation. and after 2 floods on the carpet (boy does that make the wife mad :angry) I fixed it so it will dump back into the tank if this happens. My collection cup drains into a 3 liter bottle. I put an emergency drain on mine so if it fills up to the top it will then and only then dump the water back into the tank. It works real good and no more floods. Try it

Good luck
Kelly

[Texreefer]

thy bidding will be done!!! thanks, that should have been a no brainer

[jroescher]

I have the same skimmer and it works the same way for me, except not qute as much overflow as your getting. I can't remember the last time I actually saw it producing foam, but it pulls about 1 gallon a week out. It only does it when I'm not looking.

I set mine up the same way, if it overflows it just runs out back into the sump. I have a gallon milk jug on the end of the overflow tube.

[akm]

You could just buy a waste collector like this or have someone here build it for you which would be alot cheaper.

http://www.myreefcreations.com/psaccessories.htm

[matt]

What pump are you using for the skimmer, and is it in sump or external? If it's in sump, does your sump level fluctuate?

Personally I'm not a real fan of aquaC skimmers, but I bet you can get it set up so that it doesn't go too nuts. The overflow into the sump is a really good idea; either a fancy waste container or just the jug in the sump works great.

[Texreefer]

I fixed it so if it overflows while I'm gone it will overflow back to the sump..its plumbed with an external pump.. i can find no reason why it would go from producing nothing to over 5 gals in an 8 hour period

[mathias]

someone peed in your tank :)


jk

[matt]

What kind of external pump, like model? Is the skimmer in sump, or external? If it's external, does the drain go directly underwater, completing a circuit between pump and drain? I might be able to help you diagnose this, I know a few things about skimmers.

It's likely that something changed in your water to make the skimmer go a little beserk, there are lots of things that can change the surface tension, which really affects the foam. The aquaC injector system lets ALOT of air into the injector, (too much usually IMO) which tends to result in larger bubbles and more turbulence in a very small tube. This make them a little unstable, but you can adjust it to minimize this. It's best if you use a high pressure pump with a little less flow, and keep the air valve closed a little bit; it might look like you're getting fewer bubbles, but really you're usually just getting smaller ones that will build up a more stable foam head over some time. About the drain, if the drain is submerged into a fluctuating sump level, it has the same effect on the skimmer as opening and closing the gate valve. Maybe you already know all this stuff.

What I've seen before is aquaCs running on mag pumps in sump with the sump level going up and down with evaporation and top off, in fact that's how I used to run the EV90 I had for a while. It's really poor performance is one of the main things that got me into skimmer building.

[Texreefer]

my Aqua C sits above my sump, my discharge is above the water line so there is no siphon, I'm using a gen-X pump, cut back a bit with a ball valve. my water level in sump is constant, zero fluctuation. thanks for the help,, i had already made the adjustments you are talking about,i cut back the airflow and readjusted pump and it seems to be working fine now for about 24 hours so we will se what happens.. i placed nothing in tank to make it go crazy and all livestock is accounted for,, i do believe i now know what happened though.. i had just cleaned it and gotten it back on line with air valve open 100%... when it Kicked in it was producing LARGE bubbles and too much air was forcing it all out the top... and of course i had just left for work,,, heres a good tip never adjust equipment unless you will be around to monitor it for proper function afterwards ...we should be good now