Can't get my established skimmer under control.

[gideon2086]

Tank is about a year old and the skimmer has suddenly gone haywire throwing out tons of foam. I'm not totally sure what caused this.. the only recent change was a new batch of calcium chloride from BRS. I've lifted it. I've done two 30% water changes in a week. I took it apart and gave it a citric acid bath. Running out of ideas here...

 

[Garf]

Looks like it’s doing it’s job. You put any prime in, or regenerated purigen etc?

 

[Mical]

Let it overflow for a couple of days back into the sump. It'll settle down over time.

 

[Yellow Coris Wrasse]

When the skimmers go nuts like that, one trick is to put a piece of scotch tape over the skimmers air intake and poke a small pinhole in it. By restricting the incoming air to almost nil you will be able to build a more normal foam head. As your tank works it out, you can add more holes to increase the airflow and then remove the tape

 

[gideon2086]

Let it overflow for a couple of days back into the sump. It'll settle down over time.

It's been a week.

 

[gideon2086]

Looks like it’s doing it’s job. You put any prime in, or regenerated purigen etc?

I have not.

 

[Uncle99]

Something organic has entered your water.
It’s not the skimmer, it’s the water, it’s like dumping a ton of food in or using expoxy.

That’s oddly timed with the start of the CC.
Continue water changes and restart.

 

[gideon2086]

I'm worried about changing too much water. I think I'll replace the carbon and recharge the purigen.

Something organic has entered your water.
It’s not the skimmer, it’s the water, it’s like dumping a ton of food in or using expoxy.

That’s oddly timed with the start of the CC.
Continue water changes and i

 

[gideon2086]

Well, I did a 30% change and this time I drained the water by draining the skimmer into buckets... tedious process but it's worked for me in the past. Not this time though. So that makes multiple water changes, new carbon, regenerated purigen.. and no progress.

Running out of ideas here. Keep changing the water? I'm worried about moving too much, too often.

Calling in the pros... @ReefSquad

 

[reeftivo]

It's been a week.

looks like some sort of surfactant may have been introduced. they can linger in a system for quite a while unless removed. Did you wash or rinse any filter socks recently and put them back online? i use a little bleach on mine on speed cycle, then hot rinse them twice. What you're experiencing has happened to me a few times when i forgot to take a rinsed filter sock out of the washer. My wife hadn't seen it in there and put some laundry on top and washed the darn things with detergent. She put the socks on my shelf in the garage and i thought they were free of soap. THEY WEREN'T!! I had to pull the socks quick and leave the cup on and watch it fill several times until things settled down after 30 minutes to an hour. Ran fresh carbon too but dumping the skimmer cup frequently was the trick. just have some fresh mixed salt water handy to make up for what you remove.

 

[HockeyRooster]

Choke down the air intake with a valve. It will get better and you can slowly open the valve and then remove it.

 

[gideon2086]

looks like some sort of surfactant may have been introduced. they can linger in a system for quite a while unless removed. Did you wash or rinse any filter socks recently and put them back online? i use a little bleach on mine on speed cycle, then hot rinse them twice. What you're experiencing has happened to me a few times when i forgot to take a rinsed filter sock out of the washer. My wife hadn't seen it in there and put some laundry on top and washed the darn things with detergent. She put the socks on my shelf in the garage and i thought they were free of soap. THEY WEREN'T!! I had to pull the socks quick and leave the cup on and watch it fill several times until things settled down after 30 minutes to an hour. Ran fresh carbon too but dumping the skimmer cup frequently was the trick. just have some fresh mixed salt water handy to make up for what you remove.

I skimmed out 30 gallons. I can't just let it run, it overflows in seconds :|

 

[gideon2086]

Choke down the air intake with a valve. It will get better and you can slowly open the valve and then remove it.

Do you happen to have a picture of what you're explaining? I can't envision how to do this (mostly because I'm not exactly sure what parts would be involved).

 

[HockeyRooster]

I have a bubble Magnus and attached the tube side of this to intake. On the Magnus it’s a red cap that is part of the silencer. Let me know if that makes sense.

 

[gideon2086]

At the recommendation of BRS (called them since the only link I have is the CC I purchased from them) I am dosing peroxide daily.. we'll see how this goes.

 

[msdraglox]

Mine did that a few weeks ago. It did it for 3-4 weeks. I ended up turning it off for the nights and on when I could watch it. I did 10percent water changes every 3 days. Then I gave up and it came under control about a week later. Turns out it was a combo of red sea ab+ and epoxy (a lot) that I think started it all. Now when I dose ab+ I have to keep skimmer off for like 12hrs or more to avoid it happening again. Good luck I hope it starts to settle out

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

I found a half dried tube of Instant Glue in my tank, yeah my skimmer overflowed.

 

[polyppal]

new skimmer took weeks and a significant bioload to stop overflowing even on its lowest air/intake settings