Skimmer change of behavior....why?

rbarr110

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My tank is still pretty young, only had livestock in it for about 4 months. I have an Aquamaxx FC-180 skimmer for my 125 gallon tank. It was working well until this weekend when I screwed up a little with some programming of my Apex.

I had just installed my AFS auto feeder and was set up for once a day feeding using its default code. Since my tank is young and low stock, I wanted to make it feed every other day and was editing code. I was simulating code for automatic feeding using temporary "fake" virtual outlets. I was working on it in my office which is upstairs and away from the tank and somehow my "fake" outlets were triggering the auto feeder. I ended up dumping A LOT of pellets in the tank. Once I discovered this, I quickly vacuumed out the majority of the pellets and changed the filter socks.

I also found that my skimmer was overflowing. I turned off the skimmer while I vacuumed up the excess food. Turned the skimmer back on and the foam was not rising up very far. I had to make serious adjustments to get the foam up. After about 12 hours I had to readjust as the skimate was too wet. I turned it back to level it used to be set up before the feeder accident. However, the foam isn't rising up like it used to.

Is this a result of the water surface tension being affected by the excess food? Is the water too oily from the food? I had just done a large water change before the food accident and it is looking like I need to do another. Any thoughts?
 
needs time to adjust after the mishap. skimmers remove docs and you basically “polluted” your water when you over fed. give it time to settle back in.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

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  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%

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