Skimmer Disaster

[jejton]

I'm running an Octopus NW150 Recirculating skimmer via gravity feed on my 65 gallon reef. I epoxied a few frags into place last nite and the skimmer started going crazy do I unplugged it but did not close the intake valve as its a pain to readjust it ( I think I botched the PVC cementing ). I came home just now and went to topoff the tank ( about 3/4 gallon ) and then went to plug in the skimmer when I realized that the bin its sitting in ( thanks Autoponicz for that advice ) was full of water. Apparently the venturi tube acted as a siphon ( thankfully it was a slow one ) to suck water out of the skimmer via the pump's venturi. So that means I added too much FW. I checked the SG and it was 1.024 ( normally its 1.025 ) but I'm going to give it a couple of hours to equilibriate and test again. I did try plugging the skimmer back in but its still going crazy. So now:
a.) How long does it take after using epoxy before I can turn on the skimmer?
b.) How do I prevent this from happening again? Granted next time I shut off the skimmer I'll close the intake but lets say something lodges in the skimmer pump or some other malfunction when I'm not there.
c.) How big a problem is the SG change and how fast should I bring it back to normal?

Thanks

 

[KathyC]

Next time use ICGel and you won't have to worry about the skimmer flipping out when you use epoxy (hey, it's a thought!)

Don't worry about the SG...it will come back up when you do your next few water changes. You didn't have that much of a swing that it should impact the tank.

If your venturi acted like a siphon but your sump didn't overflow..then why worry about it?
Was ut finished siphoning when you got home?
It would help if you put up a pic here to show how it is hooked up and I'm sure someone will chime in with a thought of what you can do to stop the siphion from happening again (if that is possible with your set up)

 

[autoponicz]

one way to stop the water from flowing out of the tube is to keep the tube above the body of the skimmer....(at least to the bottom of the collection cup)...

 

[jejton]

Kathy - The skimmer is gravity fed and sits outsite the stand in its own tub and drains into the sump.

Autoponicz- There is no way to keep the tube that high as its a rubber flexible tube so it only sits as high as the holder on the skimmer which is below the collection cup.

Why is the skimmer still going crazy? I'm running carbon in a reactor so shouldnt it be fine by now? Its about 24 hours since I put the epoxy and it wasnt that much to begin with.

 

[pecan2phat]

Replace the air intake tube with a longer one.

 

[MO~IDOL]

this happen to me the first time i use epoxy, even after 50% WC skimmer still going crazy! i had to shut of the skimmer for 3 days....hope this help good luck.

 

[jejton]

Replace the air intake tube with a longer one.

The problem isnt the length of the tube. Its the fact that the tube holder is on the neck of the skimmer so I can't place it any higher than that as whatever is above the holder just hangs down.

 

[pecan2phat]

jejton,

Not quite understanding. Most skimmers have a air intake holder but it does not limit the length of the hose utilized. Here's some pics of my four skimmers, maybe you can grab the concept:

AP902

AP702

AP600

A200

You see how the top of the air intake hose is above the highest point of the water level in the skimmer body column.

 

[autoponicz]

wow...nice deltec collection:inlove:

jejton...you can use a longer hose and keep it above the body of the skimmer like in the pics.....i used to have the hose loop through a hole in my stand ....just be creative...

 

[jejton]

ok thanks. ill have to be creative.

 

[jejton]

Ok so I left the skimmer off for a few days while I was away, thinking it should be fine now. I turned it on and again its overflowing like crazy. Everything is set the same as before using the epoxy so I'm not sure what to do. In the meantime I have the cup outflow tube emptying into the sump hoping that it will normalize after running for a little bit. I've been running carbon but dont know what else to do. In the meantime I came home to a massive reddish slime algae ( i think cyano ) outbreak and dont know if shutting off the skimmer did it. Any suggestions?

 

[Solace Aquatics LLC]

Try this -

Reduce the amount of water coming into the skimmer dramatically and see if you can keep it from overflowing. If you can even get just a little of water through it, it is better than nothing.

Is it possible to pull the epoxy out of the tank? If possible take the epoxy out and give it a kick to the curb. If so, vinegar the skimmer and do a water change and run aggressive carbon through a reactor

Careful with large water changes, you do not want to throw your system into a mini cycle.

 

[jejton]

The ball valve on the intake to the skimmer is set as low as possible. I cant take the epoxy out as it was used to put a couple of small frags onto rubble pieces. The odd thing is that I've already used the same epoxy for a few other frags, though I did leave them sitting in my quarantine tank for a few days, without having this problem.

 

[MO~IDOL]

does it over flow if u shut off the air intake?

 

[jejton]

Ok so this thread should be officially renamed MR Jackass of the Year Candidate. As I was plugging the venturi tube with some cotton to see if it would help ( did when I first set up the skimmer ) I noticed that gate valve on the output was turned OFF. Well no wonder the water had no choice but to overflow out the venturi and skimmer cup output... Well thats been adjusted and the venturi has been taped to the collection cup for good measure and it seems to be working fine - skimming a bit wetter but that could be because I just fed the tank and there are fish now and a week's worth of crap buildup. Mixed up some SW to do a water change tomorrow and hopefully between the two my slime algae will be abate.

As an aside, something was good about all this as all my corals, including some little SPS frags, (I know I wasnt planning on them but they were thrown in as almost freebies ) have really opened up and a the snails have been :bunnies: because there were a few sets of egg masses laid. From the looks of it at least two species were up to it because one type was the long zig zag string and the others were just shapeless globs of eggs. I also have been finding little tiny purplish masses that contain what can almost be made out to be tiny eggs. Any clue?

 

[Solace Aquatics LLC]

Good to hear everything is under control!

 

[JHOV2324]

:lol2:

 

[2slo4me]

Replace the air intake tube with a longer one.

i noticed when i did that my skimmer didnt seem to work as well i cut the tube much shorter and its foaming away.

 

[BHDMC]

My downdrafts skimmer goes crazy even when I change the filter sock and that even after I flush the sock with RO/DI water before it go in. I just open up the output valve of the skimmer before I put in anything in the tank or sump and wait a few hours for it to clam down.