Help!?

[jmsandy]

So I got home tonight at about twelve thirty and heard my sump making weird noises, so I opened up the stand door and much to my shagrin there was water everywhere and my pump did not have water over it so it was buzzing as no water was being returned to my tank.

At first I freaked thinking that my tank cracked and then I would be royally screwed, but then I realized that it was my 40 oz. Mountain Dew bottle which was where the water was coming from. The bottle has a hole drilled on the top through the cap so as to serve as a holding container for all the crap that the protein skimmer filters out. What the heck happened? Why did so much water go in the bottle? The skimmer was set at the appropriate skim and was funcitoning fine for days and two days ago I checked the bottle and it was low, then BAM within two days all that water! Why? What happened? What can I do to safeguard against this happening again?

Thanks for all your help guys! You never fail to give me good insight...


John

 

[Kasey]

What type of skimmer do you have? Did the power go out or your overflow get plugged? How is your sump configured?

A plausible cause: The skimmer return got clogged causing too much pressure, which results in the water in your collection cup filling.

 

[Anonymous]

Naw, what happen'd was something that caused the skimmer to go into overload. Like something died or was spilled into the tank.

Basicly it sucks lots of water instead of skimming.

 

[mr_X]

that has happened with my skimmer before when adding some new food or something. i suggest getting rid of that bottle and just checking it more often.
i keep everything in the sump incase that happens, so if it was to overflow, it would just go back in the tank.
i would not suggest moving the 2 liter bottle in the sump, because if this happened again, that's an awful lot of skimmate to put in the water all at once.

 

[Anonymous]

I forgot that oily or foods soaked in Selco/Selcon would also cause this problem. Thanks X.

 

[jmsandy]

thats exactly what happened, I just got fish food for my clowns and Misos shirimp.......SOOOOO X, you would suggest just letting all that crap and sludge drip back into my sump/refugium??? Doesnt that defeat the whole purpose of skimming the crappy stuff out of my system?

 

[jmsandy]

thats exactly what happened, I just got fish food for my clowns and Misos shirimp.......SOOOOO X, you would suggest just letting all that crap and sludge drip back into my sump/refugium??? Doesnt that defeat the whole purpose of skimming the crappy stuff out of my system?

 

[Anonymous]

Only if it happens repeatedly.

A good rinsing of the food prior to feeding will take care of the skimmer overload.

 

[jmsandy]

How do you rinse fish flakes?

 

[mr_X]

thats exactly what happened, I just got fish food for my clowns and Misos shirimp.......SOOOOO X, you would suggest just letting all that crap and sludge drip back into my sump/refugium??? Doesnt that defeat the whole purpose of skimming the crappy stuff out of my system?

anytime you feed new food, know what it will do to your tank. watch the skimmer. i don't suggest dumping skimmate into the tank, but it's better than the alternative.
the best thing is what i do...know the foods i am putting in the tank and what they do. if i really want to use this food and i know if overflows the skimer for somecrazy reason, i'll watch it and dump it accordingly.

 

[jmsandy]

hmm well I used flakes and shrimp, will it do this everytime I put food in the tank!?

 

[mr_X]

it's possible. you might try a different food. only certain flakes do this to mine.

 

[mr_X]

shrimp? you mean frzen misis? if i don't thaw it and get the nasty water out of it before i put it in the tank, it does it to my skimmer.

 

[jmsandy]

sorry x that is what i meant.. Ok so dethaw one of the cubes before I throw it in the tank? I iwll do that the next time I feed my fish mysis