Skimmer Issues

Albertan22 · Nov 5, 2020

So after years of flawless service I am having a hard time keeping my Bubble Magus Curve 7 running properly. I ran it on a 120g tank for years. Then about 10 months ago I upgraded to a 180g tank. I figured I would start with this skimmer then upgrade later if needed. My tank is fully stocked now and I’m having a weird issue. The cup fills with foam then starts overflowing. The weird thing is that the bubbles in the foam don’t pop, it remains foam in the cup and I don’t get liquid skimate. If I run it real dry I can get a black skimate, but once the cup is about 1/4 full the foam pushes up the lid and it overflows again.

Is this the behaviour of an undersized skimmer? I have it in the back of my head it’s maybe time to pull the trigger on a bigger skimmer but would it solve my problem?

Flippers4pups · Nov 5, 2020

Sounds like either the skimmer is setting too low in the water or a pump that's acting up, (clogged or dirty impeller or pump is failing)

Albertan22 · Nov 5, 2020

Flippers4pups said:
Sounds like either the skimmer is setting too low in the water or a pump that's acting up, (clogged or dirty impeller or pump is failing)

It’s definitely not too deep in the water, but the pump hasn’t been cleaned in awhile so there may be something to that. I’ll pull it tonight and clean it up.

derekgoude · Nov 5, 2020

I searched on the internet and other people have had this problem as well.

From what I saw comparing a few posts is that your dissolved organics are high. You mentioned you got a tank a big ago, maybe new rock?? My pukani rock was really dirty and took a few rounds of cleaning it. Even then it was rich in old nutrients.

Solutions I saw were water changes and raise the skimmer up and shut the gate valve extra. Get the skimmer processing less water at a time and it will get the bubbles to pop again. As it gets back under control set the skimmer back in the recommended water level.

Albertan22 · Nov 5, 2020

derekgoude said:
I searched on the internet and other people have had this problem as well.

From what I saw comparing a few posts is that your dissolved organics are high. You mentioned you got a tank a big ago, maybe new rock?? My pukani rock was really dirty and took a few rounds of cleaning it. Even then it was rich in old nutrients.

Solutions I saw were water changes and raise the skimmer up and shut the gate valve extra. Get the skimmer processing less water at a time and it will get the bubbles to pop again. As it gets back under control set the skimmer back in the recommended water level.

The skimmer has worked great on this tank up until about two months ago. The change coincides with roughly a couple weeks after adding a group of 5 anthias and doing a chemiclean dose. The skimmer took a few weeks to even function after the chemiclean but I did get it back under control after pretty much draining 40 gallons out of the skimmer cup over the course of a day. That event and the increase in bio load were pretty close together so I’m not sure which of the two might be a trigger. As noted above, I haven’t done a deep clean of the skimmer in about 6 months so that could be it too, maybe the impeller is dirty and the bubbles are just too big?

Albertan22 · Nov 5, 2020

Well I gave it a deep clean tonight and it didn't fix the issue. One thing I noticed as I tried to re-tune it after the cleaning is that I couldn't get the water level up to the neck. The water level is staying lower than I figure it should then the upper part is filling with dry foam. I tried raising the water level in my sump and it helped a little but not a lot. I can't get wet skimmate if I try because I can't get the water level high enough.

I'm questioning whether the pump is going on it. The skimmer is probably 7-10 years old so it's probably due for pump issues. I have been getting lots of low wattage alarms on my Apex for the skimmer but I've been ignoring them as they resolve half a second later. Maybe it is time to pull the trigger on the upgrade and get the next size up.