sweatervest13
Active Member
I have a Reef Octopus skimmer for my 125g reef tank in the sump. I did a big WC two weeks ago and cleaned the sump a bit (and cleaned the skimmer). It was running fine but the production was a bit low for what it usually does. I tweaked it by turning the gate valve just a fraction more open. I did this for the last two weeks. Maybe a total of 3 or 4 minor tweaks. I would say that in total I turned the gate valve 1/8 of a turn more open. Each time I tweaked I would observe it and see if the skimmate was increasing. It would by just a little.
Well, yesterday I came home and had a bunch of stuff going on. My wife and oldest daughter are out of town and I stayed with my 20 month old. Got her feed and to bed, then watched some TV. Had to feed the fish, so I went down to the basement, the first thing I do is check out the sump in the fish room. HOLY COW!!!! The skimmer had gone crazy!! There was foam about 2" thick in the entire sump. I have a pretty big sump (48" X 18" X 18") and foam was almost coming out of the thing right next to the skimmer. The cup was about a 1/4 full the day before and it emptied the skimmate in the sump and just started skimming harder with the extra gunk.
I was lucky that I had started mixing water for a WC two days before. It was 11 at night and I was about ready for bed. But when the tank calls you gotta answer.
SO, I cleaned the skimmer and shut off the return pump to isolate the sump. Cleaned the sump again. I used a quart sports drink bottle that I had been using to store top off water for my QT tank and drained about 12g out of the sump. The bottle worked very well to surface skim, I just dipped it down and let all the foam drain into the bottle and dumped it into the tote I use for WC's. Have you ever done a WC and took water out 1 qt at a time?? It is no fun. But I figured that it needed to be done.
Once I was done I put the skimmer back on line and left it at the same setting. The thing went nuts again. I had to tweak it for the next hour to make sure it did not do it again. I ended up turning the gate valve 3/4 of a turn back.
The only thing I can think of is that something blocked the intake for the pump on the skimmer and came off. Any other ideas on why it want crazy??
Moral of the story for me... Check the tank as soon as you get home.
Well, yesterday I came home and had a bunch of stuff going on. My wife and oldest daughter are out of town and I stayed with my 20 month old. Got her feed and to bed, then watched some TV. Had to feed the fish, so I went down to the basement, the first thing I do is check out the sump in the fish room. HOLY COW!!!! The skimmer had gone crazy!! There was foam about 2" thick in the entire sump. I have a pretty big sump (48" X 18" X 18") and foam was almost coming out of the thing right next to the skimmer. The cup was about a 1/4 full the day before and it emptied the skimmate in the sump and just started skimming harder with the extra gunk.
I was lucky that I had started mixing water for a WC two days before. It was 11 at night and I was about ready for bed. But when the tank calls you gotta answer.
SO, I cleaned the skimmer and shut off the return pump to isolate the sump. Cleaned the sump again. I used a quart sports drink bottle that I had been using to store top off water for my QT tank and drained about 12g out of the sump. The bottle worked very well to surface skim, I just dipped it down and let all the foam drain into the bottle and dumped it into the tote I use for WC's. Have you ever done a WC and took water out 1 qt at a time?? It is no fun. But I figured that it needed to be done.
Once I was done I put the skimmer back on line and left it at the same setting. The thing went nuts again. I had to tweak it for the next hour to make sure it did not do it again. I ended up turning the gate valve 3/4 of a turn back.
The only thing I can think of is that something blocked the intake for the pump on the skimmer and came off. Any other ideas on why it want crazy??
Moral of the story for me... Check the tank as soon as you get home.
