Protein skimmer making micro bubbles in display HELP!

[ajremington68]

Did you do any water changes as well or just the carbon?

Hey, No for my 65gallon system, I got 2 Chemi Pure Elite bags from petco, Washed them with RODI water and put them in my filter sock, and I let the skimmer overflow back in the tank for 2-3 days and then plugged the drain and then started emptying it daily until it came back around which was maybe 2-3 more days. End verdict JB water weld epoxy messes up skimmers hard, but my scape I made is all still holding well.

 

[ajremington68]

Why does the water change help? Just curious what element in the water causes this.

Imagine you pour bleach in water and you're at a 100% concentration of bleach in water. Then you do a 25% water change you effectively take out 25% of the bleach, leaving you with 75% in the water. then the next water change if you do a 25% you're taking out about 15-20% bleach due to it being more diluted. But with persistent water changes, it will slowly go more and more and more down to the point of no bleach in the water, that is what you're doing with the epoxy run off, or fumes, or whatever messes up the equipment taking it out and putting clean water in with water changes. The bigger the amount of water you can swap the more you pull out, but this can also affect your major elements like Mag, Ca, Alk, and Nitrate, Phosphate. If you don't do big water changes in your system it will throw off your stability and can effect fish and corals drastically causing bleaching, or browning, or corals to close up and be mad for days to weeks.

 

[trevorpaulz]

Imagine you pour bleach in water and you're at a 100% concentration of bleach in water. Then you do a 25% water change you effectively take out 25% of the bleach, leaving you with 75% in the water. then the next water change if you do a 25% you're taking out about 15-20% bleach due to it being more diluted. But with persistent water changes, it will slowly go more and more and more down to the point of no bleach in the water, that is what you're doing with the epoxy run off, or fumes, or whatever messes up the equipment taking it out and putting clean water in with water changes. The bigger the amount of water you can swap the more you pull out, but this can also affect your major elements like Mag, Ca, Alk, and Nitrate, Phosphate. If you don't do big water changes in your system it will throw off your stability and can effect fish and corals drastically causing bleaching, or browning, or corals to close up and be mad for days to weeks.

Just wanted to update you. I was doing a water change so i turned off my return pumps. My skimmer was sitting in one chamber of the sump and i threw carbon in that one chamber. My skimmer started acting fine within 5 min. Seems like the carbon extracts stuff fast. Thanks again!