skimmer gone wild!

[craig45]

My two year old skimmer (Won Brothers CU-75 (venturi type)) has recently gone rogue filling the collection cup with clear "wet" foam. The cup fills in about 20 - 30 minutes. No amount of adjustment of the outlet valve will slow the foam back to normal. I have cleaned it, and even replaced the pump with a smaller one - still massive amounts of flow. There has been no deaths, and nitrate reads near zero.

So, what did I do shortly before all this started? I bought a tube of Epoxy Putty from my LFS to keep some corals from being knocked off their rocks. The label listed aquarium repair as one of its uses. Do you think the Putty is causing the problem? I called the LFS and he said he didn't THINK the putty would be the cause. It has been two days and am still getting massive amounts of foam / clear skimmate when its plugged in. (I only run it when I'm in the room to keep an eye on it.)

Have any of you had similar troubles? Thinking about scraping off the putty and doing a massive water change?

Craig

 

[bleedingthought]

Various things can cause skimmers to go crazy, even food. I would just give it a couple of days to see if normalizes. It should. Just make sure the valve is set to the lowest point of bubbles meanwhile.

P.S. I thought I was going to see pictures of skimmers flashing you. :wink:

 

[Unarce]

I've always heard that the epoxy putty will cause skimmers to go nuts, but you would think it's because of the clouds of dust it produces. I'm not sure how it would cause a skimmer to excessively pull clear water.

Could it be, that the putty is effecting the size of the bubbles that the skimmers producing.

 

[Anonymous]

Prolly the putty - did you do a water change and use a new type of chlorine remover or add anything new to the tank? Soap on your hands?

I would do a regular water change and just keep my eye on it until it clears up.

 

[craig45]

Partial water change about a week before with no problems at that time. I do wash my hands before, and after, diving into the tank but I don't get this much suds even when washing dishes! Only additive I have been using is a few ml of iodine each day or so.

Thinking about buying a cheap hang-on power filter to use charcoal for a day or two.

Craig

 

[helipilot]

Mine did the exact same thing after using some of the coraline colored epoxy to secure some frags. I corrected mine by doing a 20% water change and ran the skimmer at a very low rate. It finally started working after about three days.

 

[Anonymous]

I have had the skimmer go nuts after using epoxy putty more than once .

I don't know how to fix it, it just calmed down eventually.

 

[craig45]

Helipilot and Laura,
Thanks for the comments and reassurance!

I went out and bought a power filter to run carbon (did not install the bio-wheels). Don't know if it will help. I plan to run it for maybe two days, and will run the skimmer whenever I'm in the area. The skimmer is mounted on the back and my wife would go crazy (again) if it overflowed onto the floor! Would love to mount a skimmer in the sump, but there isn't enough head room for this one.

Craig

 

[helipilot]

Glad to help. Mine is finally working great, but it took a couple of days to get it there and I was running carbon the whole time.

 

[saltank]

The epoxy I use says in the leaflet that it can cause skimmers to do what you are describing, especially if you use a considerable amount of the epoxy.

For that reason, when I use it I use as little as possible and only secure one or two pieces at a time. :wink: