Skimmer Hyperdrive

[justahobby]

Saturday evening I fragged 5-6 zoas (5 polyps each) and applied minimum amount of superglue. My octo NW 150 has been going crazy since. Water is shooting, rushing out of the riser tube w/ lots of micro bubbles. I'm not getting much skimmate either. I expected it to quit after the first day and now I'm beginning to doubt. My tank is a 58 display with 20 gallons in the sump. I did a 7 gallon WC on Monday and the problem persists.

[cbianco]

Saturday evening I fragged 5-6 zoas (5 polyps each) and applied minimum amount of superglue. My octo NW 150 has been going crazy since. Water is shooting, rushing out of the riser tube w/ lots of micro bubbles. I'm not getting much skimmate either. I expected it to quit after the first day and now I'm beginning to doubt. My tank is a 58 display with 20 gallons in the sump. I did a 7 gallon WC on Monday and the problem persists.

Hey Justin, hate to sound silly but what's your question, LOL? :hypnotyized:

Some skimmers have the tendency and need, to be babied. Could it be that you have to adjust your skimmer? Have you "fiddled" with it yet?

Give us some more details buddy! :)

Christopher

[justahobby]

Sorry, I down with the flu and not all cylinders are firing. I guess my question is, does this happen to anyone else? Seems like I should be able to mod something to prevent this in the future.

[ErikH]

you can't mod a skimmer from freaking out. Unless you make a larger hole or multiple holes so the water can release fast enough out of the cup. Then you have to have a 5g bucket standing by to catch the skimmate. Then you have to pray your ATO is off. Then CRASH!

Sounds like something got in there that your skimmer doesn't like. Put in some fresh carbon, a clean high micron filtersock, and let it do it's thing. I imagine Phosban would probably come in handy too.

[cbianco]

Sorry, I down with the flu and not all cylinders are firing.

Hope you feel better! The flu sucks.

I guess my question is, does this happen to anyone else?

This happens to just about everyone that has a skimmer. Chemicals/additives/corals/tank food all have a tendency to reek havoc on a skimmer, causing it to overflow.

Seems like I should be able to mod something to prevent this in the future.

It is hard to prevent it but you can contain it. I am a big fan of the following: Have your riser tube (the tube that goes up into the skimmer cup), shorter than your cup height. This way, instead of immediately overflowing, your skimmer effluent will "leak" back into the riser/skimmer body.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, I'm often wrong. :D


Christopher

[justahobby]

you can't mod a skimmer from freaking out.

Blasphemy! :cry_smile:

[justahobby]

I was calling the tube that water exits the riser tube.... water rises out of of it

[justahobby]

Thanks for the well wishes Chris. I changed out the carbon and crossed my fingers

[cbianco]

I was calling the tube that water exits the riser tube.... water rises out of of it

I believe that's called the water outlet, I could be wrong though.


Thanks for the well wishes Chris. I changed out the carbon and crossed my fingers

Carbon is always a good preventative, IMO.

Santa comes in less than a week. Get rest and fluids, you have presents to open.

[justahobby]

Words of wisdom.

...Less than a week, uh-oh.. (----- That's the sound of me not having purchased one single present yet.

[cbianco]

Words of wisdom.

...Less than a week, uh-oh.. (----- That's the sound of me not having purchased one single present yet.

I haven't shopped for my wife yet. I usually shop the week before Christmas seeing how I have the week off (actually two weeks) and all. It IS pretty funny that I wait so long for just her. It keeps her in massive suspense, as if I would forget her...she wouldn't let me forget. :D

Christopher

[jroescher]

I've never had super glues cause that, but epoxy make my skimmer go crazy. It usually only last for a few hours though.

[justahobby]

The super glue must have been a big coincidence. I finally had time to mess with it today. After running like this for 2 wks I knew it couldn't be super glue causing the problems. I pulled the muffler off the air intake tubing and pinched off the air flow. After several tries my skimmer returned to normal and has great froath w/ minimal micro bubbles being release.