New skimmer keeps overflowing. (tank still cycling)

[Nroddot]

Hi,

I have an Octo Regal 150SSS skimmer. My 90 gallon system is in the middle of its cycle. As a beginner to the hobby, I thought it'd be a good time to familiarize myself with the protein skimmer and "break it in" before adding livestock. I've been running it for about a week now and it just overflows with foam. It does not matter how I adjust the control valve on the skimmer -- it will overflow with foam regardless.

I've read number of different posts from people having similar problems, but I still can't figure out what is going on with mine.

A few points I'd like to make,

1. Yes, the skimmer is at the right height. I even bought a Reef Octo stand for it.

2. I understand new skimmers need to break in, but a week of constant overflow with foam? Is that a bit excessive?

3. I've done two 20% water changes so far. After the first water change, the skimmer stopped overflowing with foam and was running normal for a time. I figured additional water changes would solve the problem. But nope, after the most recent water change, it didn't make a bit of difference this time. The skimmer kept overflowing. Could something be leeching into the display tank that is causing the skimmer to go crazy?


I have 60 lbs of Caribsea liferock.

40 lbs of Caribsea arag-alive sand.

And a bit of Instant Ocean hold-fast epoxy for holding the rocks in place.

I've heard that liferock and hold-fast can cause issues with overfoaming, but they've been in the tank for three weeks. I read that after a week or two in the tank, they should stop causing issues?

I'm just worried I'm not going to get this thing figured out by the time my tank is cycled and I'm ready for livestock. Someone told me to run carbon, so I started to and all this white stringy slime started showing up in the sump. So I stopped the carbon until I can figure out what was going on with that.

 

[AZMSGT]

You don’t need a skimmer during cycling. Shut it off till you add live stock. Also don’t do water changes till the cycle is finished. Then once done a water change should be done and add first fish.

I had a skimmer overflow for 3 weeks. It happens.

 

[MTBake]

Open the gate valve all the way and pull the cup off the skimmer, or set your drain line to go right back into the tank if you have a drain line. Let it run like this for a week. This took care of the same issue I had with a Deltec.

Hope it helps.

 

[Neoalchemist]

No skimmer is likely to settle down during cycling, too many organics in the water

 

[Neoalchemist]

You can open the gate valve all the way so the skimmer just oxygenates the water rather than removing waste. That way you are breaking in the skimmer and promoting gas exchange. But you really dont want to remove those organcs anyway, you want them to break down and feed the microbes.