Skimmer Problem

[nereef]

Hey guys. I haven't been on the boards for a while. But i have developed a technical problem, and here I am.
I have a needle wheel coralife super skimmer. sometimes it runs perfectly fine, and I have been pleased with the sludge it pulls out. However, sometimes the colllection cup will just fill up with tank water in a matter of seconds. If no one is home, it will end up pulling water out of tank until there are enough gallons on the floor to counter the water level adjustment and it stops skimming. I have seen it happen. It's like something gets plugged and the skimmer just starts pumping water into the collection cup.
Does the silencer need cleaned? Needle wheel pump? Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance
Patrick

 

[pesci]

This happend to me also, what was happening in my case was the air inlet (the small black plug looking thingy that attaches by airline to the inlet of the powerhead) was below water level. Once I raised the inlet above the water level of the tank (the higher, the better) this problem had stopped. I hope this helps. Coralifes are a good product whan set up properly, however its not as easy as it sounds. P.S. Do you have any problems with microbubbles getting into the aquarium? It took me a month to get that straight!

 

[nereef]

thanks for the reply, pesci. i''m late for class and will get back to you in a bit.

 

[jupoc911]

that happened to me yesteray. I caught it in time beford anything bad happen. The cup was was empty at 6 and by 7:30 it was full and overflowing with blackish water.

 

[nereef]

alright, when you say the airline inlet, do you mean the air tube from the powerhead that attaches to the silencer above the water? the silencer is above water level. should the powerhead intake be as close to the surface of the water as possible?
microbubles: i use the diffuser. i don't mind the big box up in the corner.

 

[zedx6]

Going to hop on board here as my skimmer has begun to act up after about 6 weeks of being up and running. Things have been great up until now, had the issue of the cup fill up in a matter of minutes one night but thought I caused it when I added top off water.
Did a water change this past weekend and now it fills up quick and creates severe micro bubbles in the tank even with diffuser.Any suggestions?

 

[pesci]

I want to tell everyone about this new skimmer I just bought lasr week. I cannot say enough about how effective it is! I hooked it up in about 5 minutes and by the end of the day I had a half a cup of frothy crap in the collection cup! There are virtually no microbubbles in my tank and the skimmer doubles as a biological filter as well, having a second chamber with bio media in it. It is a CPR BAK-PAK 2 and it is the

[hr]
! You gotta get one of these...
Check it out here. I highly reccomend it.
http://www.**************.com/produc...pc=1&N=0&Nty=1

 

[tim_12]

I had the same problem. I took the whole pump out and cleaned it. I also took the skimmer out and clean that too. I noticed on the skimmer right after the red adjusting valve, theres a small

[hr]
that sticks straight up, and that was plugged with salt creep. After cleaning that out and cleaning the pump, it works great again.
FYI: You should never have that silencer below water level. I used to have mine below water level and the power went out and it created a syphon. I ended up with at least a gallon of water on the floor before I noticed it. Not fun to deal with, trust me.

 

[jumpmaster]

Hello all. I have a Coral Life also, and have the same problems. The micro bubbles are driving me crazy. I am going ot do what I read on another thread here... replace the crappy floss in the diffuser and see if that works. If it does, I will pass it on.