Protein Skimmers not skimming?

[sprieto]

Anyone ever had their skimmer stop skimming?
Mine is a Berlin Airlift powered by a air pump (w/ a wood stone).
I actually have two, and 4 day's ago one of them stopped collecting stuff in the cup.
It as been clean and empty for almost a week and the tank quickly got cloudy.
The pump is working, and I replaced the stone.
There was micro bubbles escaping from the air stream, but that stopped.
It seems to bubble up just underneath the collection cup, but does not foam up like the other one I have that is working, when I say bubble up, I mean like a hot tub bubbles.
Any ideas, suggestions, or opinions.

 

[reefnut]

You can try lowering it into the water a little more to see if it will start skimming again. Is the new air stone the same as it had in it?? The wooden block??
I would also consider upgrading to a more efficient skimmer.

 

[fishieness]

has your salinity changed at all form a top off or something? A change in the specific gravity as well as how high up it is over the water will affect it greatly.
i would also recomend getting a much betterskimmer although i have considered getting one for my eclipse system since i cannot fit a normal HOB skimmer on there. has it worked ok before this insident?

 

[the reef]

Originally Posted by fishieness
has your salinity changed at all form a top off or something? A change in the specific gravity as well as how high up it is over the water will affect it greatly.
i would also recomend getting a much betterskimmer although i have considered getting one for my eclipse system since i cannot fit a normal HOB skimmer on there. has it worked ok before this insident?
does it have a air hose line cuz the same thing happend to me then I just put a new air hose on it now it is fine little bit of moister can get in the line and mold it causing it to slow down air flow

 

[sprieto]

Thanks for the responce.
I actually did lower it into the water as far as I could, no change.
It did work before, and suddenly one day stopped.
I am duing Hypo treatment on the tank for ich.
I had medicated the tank before hypo (I didn't have a refractometer yet, and I wanted to do something, the med ended up stained the tank).
I used carbon to remove most of it, and then turned the skimmer back on.
The first week it worked great, it was taking out a consintrated blue liquid, what I thought was still the medication.
It is a 60g with a XP3 canister, and a power filter. I had just changed carbon and sponges in the canister, and added a new "imagine" filter cartridge to the power filter (it has a carbon puoch on it).
The skimmer went from consintrated blue liquid to filling with water (only once), and then nothing.
I did also just perform a 10% water change.
It filled with water one time, I emptied it, and since then it has not filled with anything.
I have the same model on a 30g and it works great.
Technically I have a 90g skimmer on the 60g tank, but it is the same skimmer, just with a longer extension tube.
I also tried to shorten it, so the 2 skimmers are identical, but it did not help the problem.
I bought a Prism skimmer for a 90g I am going to set up, but I didn't think I needed a better one for the these 2 tanks (the 30 and 60).
There really is not any other good skimmers for small tanks.............opinions?

 

[fishieness]

you are doing hypo right now?!!....????!!! With a lower specific gravity would make your water lighting and therefore should make your collecton cup jsut overflow with water..... not the oposite!! nwo im realy confused......????

<hey! thats a new one! :notsure: