Skimmer maintenance

Lavey29 · Apr 2, 2022

I have an Eshopps S200 skimmer. It has been working fine the past year but now over the past few weeks not so well. It fills completely up with rapid bubbles and overflows into the cup. I have air intake and water outlet wide open. The skimmer is on a stand so water height is not an issue. I have done regular routine maintenance.

I found some algae on the water exit grate and when I scrubbed it off with a toothbrush the situation slightly improved. It's basically behaving like a new skimmer breaking in again and I can't figure out why.

Is there any specific area to be cleaned? Do you have to soak the thing in citric acid or something else like vinegar?

blaxsun · Apr 2, 2022

How often do you remove it to strip down and clean completely? If the answer is never, then that's probably the answer. Skimmers benefit from a total cleaning every 4-6 months.

Glenner’sreef · Apr 2, 2022

Filling up with water can also be caused by brand new filter socks or new out of the bag filter pads. Try to have your skimmer close to your drain hoses or pvc then these socks/pads down stream closest to your return pump.

Lavey29 · Apr 2, 2022

blaxsun said:
How often do you remove it to strip down and clean completely? If the answer is never, then that's probably the answer. Skimmers benefit from a total cleaning every 4-6 months.

I do it at 6 month interval.

Lavey29 · Apr 2, 2022

Glenner’sreef said:
Filling up with water can also be caused by brand new filter socks or new out of the bag filter pads. Try to have your skimmer close to your drain hoses or pvc then these socks/pads down stream closest to your return pump.

Correct, I have experienced this previously but not related to current situation. My sump is socks first then refugium then skimmer chamber and finally return chamber.

blaxsun · Apr 3, 2022

Lavey29 said:
I do it at 6 month interval.

I've got a Nyos Quantum 160, and when it acts like this one of two things is the cause:
* It was dirty and I completely cleaned it top to bottom, thus requiring me to fine-tune it again.
* I added something that temporarily caused it to react. I haven't had this particular scenario happen for 6 months, though.

Is it possible something passed from the refugium chamber into the skimmer chamber? The only two suggestions off the top of my head are taking out the skimmer for inspection and looking at the skimmer chamber itself.

Lavey29 · Apr 3, 2022

blaxsun said:
I've got a Nyos Quantum 160, and when it acts like this one of two things is the cause:
* It was dirty and I completely cleaned it top to bottom, thus requiring me to fine-tune it again.
* I added something that temporarily caused it to react. I haven't had this particular scenario happen for 6 months, though.

Is it possible something passed from the refugium chamber into the skimmer chamber? The only two suggestions off the top of my head are taking out the skimmer for inspection and looking at the skimmer chamber itself.

Yes occasionally I see some algae or chaeto strands floating in the skimmer chamber which may get sucked up. I thought my regular 10g water change would have cleaned up anything in the water that was messing it up but nope. It seems to have a partial blockage somewhere. I can't raise it any higher either to alleviate the problem. Does calcium ever build up in the air line?

One change I have made recently is auto dosing alk and calcium into my skimmer chamber but it's on the outlet side and I had been hand dosing previously for many months in that chamber with no skimmer problems.

blaxsun · Apr 3, 2022

I do see a bit of calcium buildup in the suppressor and air line, but nothing approaching blockage levels.

I dose into either my return pump chamber or the overflow chamber in the sump.

Lavey29 · Apr 3, 2022

blaxsun said:
I do see a bit of calcium buildup in the suppressor and air line, but nothing approaching blockage levels.

I dose into either my return pump chamber or the overflow chamber in the sump.

I'm thinking I need to soak this thing. There is probably some tight intake or exit port that has buildup that a standard tooth brush scrub and rinse doesn't reach. Some videos show taking the pump completely apart too so I may have to do that although I don't think the pump is causing this.