Coral Life Skimmer All the Sudden MEssed up

[Joester2k3]

My Skimmer was working perfectly until a few days ago. And all the sudden it started to much skim to fast. It looks like soap is in my water it makes those kinds of buddles in the basin and then starts to shoot them out the top. My water is now turning green since it has not been running and i dont know what to do. Ive taken it all down cleaned it and put it back together and it still wont work. Is it time for a new skimmer and if so what should i do till i can get one????

 

[Scottm]

It was probably because you had some kind of spike in your disolved organics. your skimmer was probably performing exactly as it was suppose to, provided that you mean the bubbles were coming out into the collection cup.

 

[Joester2k3]

yes
but i have the Skimmer turned the whole way down and yet it still makes huge bubbles into the collection cup ;/

 

[davebailey46]

Try filling the center cylinder body with more water. Could be there isnt enuff in there? I had to do that once after I really gutted mine.

 

[Joester2k3]

Right now i have ti running with a tube coming fromt eh collection cup letting it run because my water is green now. Should i make some water n do some water changes to try n help also??

Like soap bubbles are forming at the top of my tank. I think i hve to much organics int he water.??????

 

[FishFrik]

R u using the bubble diffuser box? Check if the sponge is clogged

 

[Marc118]

How long has the skimmer been running? Bubble in the collection cup is great, that means your skimmer is producing. But your getting microbubbles into the tank is what your saying? If its a fairly new skimmer, thats ok. If not, you may want to look into a bubble diffuser like FF said.

 

[Joester2k3]

Well Ive cleaned everything out and im still getting to many bubbles in the collection cup. The skimmer is turned the whole way down and yet its still forcing these huge skim bubbles up????? And it wont stop. I alos have a weird micro bubble issue. How should i clean the difusser maybe ive been doing it wrong??

 

[Marc118]

When you say turning it down, are you adjusting the air flow into the pump or are you adjusting the speed of the pump. I keep my pump at the same speed but I adjust how much it produces by adjusting airflow with a needle valve on the airline.

 

[Joester2k3]

ohhhh a needle valve
where did u place it on the air line and which airline????

When im talking about turning it down the only thing i have to adjust is the red knob on top of the diffuser hose

 

[Marc118]

Ok so your cutting back the flow from the pump directly. I have the valve at the very end of the line. I only have one line onmy bak pak, but you should have a similar line going into the power head.

Are you using the needle wheel or venturi skimmer?

 

[Joester2k3]

needle wheel

Now its producing a very very very thick skim. Must be doing its job but id like to know what caused this spike. I think my conister filter hose got kinked and wasnt filtering my water =/

 

[FishFrik]

Mayb ur returning hose is too down into the water. The opening of the hose should be at least .25in above ur tank's water surface. HTH

 

[clr_newbie]

Any time I ran into problems with my cup overflowing, it was because the return hose was to low in the water. I have my CSS 220 in sump and if my sump water gets to high, my return hose is then lower in the water and water will rush into the collection cup and overflow.

This is why I have my sump return pump and skimmer pump on the same power circuit, because if my sump return pump has a power failure, the backflow siphon will raise the level of my sump but my skimmer will be off as well. However, this only protects me from a power source failure, it is possible for my sump return pump to fail not because of power source issues and I would then be left my sump return pump failed and my skimmer pump running, resulting in an overflow. I have not figured a way to protect from this condition. HTH

 

[Joester2k3]

Interesting Thank you all

Mine is producing so much Skim its unbeleiveable i think i had an Organic Spike or something???????? CAuse its making very thick bubbles that are overflowing out of the cup.

 

[FishFrik]

If the bubbles are clear, then something is wrong with the skimmer. If the bubbles are dark i think something is going on in ur tank

 

[H0LLYW00D]

On the corallife model theres an adjustment knob right above the pump (grey and looks like a piece of the pipe)