Skimmer going crazy: will it stop on its own?

[JeremyAN7]

Folks,
I recently (last saturday) did a tank overhaul, which included a lot of mucking up the sand, rocks, detritus, corals use of epoxy, and even placement of a newly cut leather....

naturally the skimmer is going crazy!

i did a water change on the day of the work, (the skimmer is a remora Pro, which used to fill the cup every few weeks)
It is now connected to the hose allowing it to overflow, and fills my bucket about 2 gallons of very light skimate a day......

The skimmer cup is at the highest (furthest) level meaning skimmate is as low as it can get... I can't turn it down any more...

1) will this resolve in a few more days (it's been 6) of the weak skimate coming off (is it actually removing crap)? I am replacing the lost water with newly made saltwater...

2) Is there anythign I can do to adjust the skimmer other than turning it off to stop this?

thanks

 

[JeremyAN7]

Does weak (lighter color) skimate mean it's not "working" or is it still pulling junk out of the water (It's still bubbles popping at the top of the skimmer column...

 

[JohnK]

It's probably out of adjustment at this point. Typically when a skimmer goes nuts as you describe after messing with the tank it is working but not ideally, basically there is stuff in the water that's causing it to overflow, but more often than not it's not a bad idea to let all that light colored skimmate get skimmed out as the skimmer settles in.

In your case (given that it's been a few days), I'd be willing to bet that something is clogged up with some sort of debris or crud that got stirred up in the cleaning. I would start with checking the air inlet/venturi, clear that and it might go right back to normal. If not, try taking the pump apart and cleaning that.

 

[CaptainAndy]

While it is always a good idea to regularly clean your skimmer it makes sense that this is all related to your work in the tank. You can always adjust skimmate production by decreasing air flow or decreasing resistance at outflow . There are reefers who actually do their water changes by increasing the skimmate

 

[JeremyAN7]

Well, first: I just cleaned the skimemr (as part of the overhaul) really well. It "appears" to be clean and clear, the pump is working well, and spraying hard (there is no air inlet for the Remora type, it sprays water at high velocity down a tube thus causing bubbles as the water breaks the surface tension where it is spraying....) and the bubbles seems to be plentiful....

SECOND: that answers a question, about using the light skimmate as an opportunity to "do a long slow water change".. I'd say I'm doing about 2 gallons a day, which is fine, I'd want to do that for a week or two any way....

 

[JeremyAN7]

although it's day 6 and no real sign of slow down.... you'd assume that eventually, whatever is causing the skimmer to go crazy would all be skimmed off?

 

[JeremyAN7]

I have figured out the mistery! THe problem of over-actibe Remora Pro is actually inherant to the design.... If you "fill" the skimmer using a bucket or hose prior to starting it, the water level in the middle column will be higher than designed and cause the bubbles to be MUCH closer to the skimmer cup. meaning it overflows... Simply shutting it off and letting the water levels equalize (about 5 minutes) then starting it up again... Boom, I get nice green tea skimmate.. weird eh?

 

[CaptainAndy]

Good for you!

 

[lex_lutha111384]

sweet man