Protein skimmer help

leesst200

leesst200

AC Members
Apr 9, 2007
228
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Notts, UK
Now and again my protein skimmer will go wild and overflow.
It did it today. Its been steadily bubbling away to itself producing brown liquid in the collection cup for a couple of days and this morning it was only 1/4full. tonight when i came home from work, it was verflowing with clear water.
When i stopped it and emptied it, then restarted it, it was like someone had turned up the flow on the pump.
I have turned the flow of the pump down and the air intake is at its minimum but why does it do it?
Its a TMC v skim 400.
 
My CSS65 does this too sometimes. My best guess is that its from the oils on your hands if you put them in the tank. The oils get skimmed out pretty quickly, and until they bubble over into the collection cup they reduce the surface tension of the water in the skimmer, so its harder for the bubbles to form and skim out the skimmate. So, you adjust your skimmer to this. Then, once the oils are all skimmed off, suddenly its a lot easier for the bubbles to form so the bubble level shoots up and you end up with an overflowing collection cup ful of clear water.
 
Blows out my theory. I have a V2 skimmer but mine is in the sump. I only asked because sometimes I'd set the skimmer and then for some reason the flow from the tank would increase and my skimmer would flood.
 
You might check your airline to the venturi as well. I was emptying mine this morning and just out of curiosity I capped the airline with my finger. Water was practically shooting up the neck of the skimmer. What I do is take a syringe and fill it with hot tap water and squirt it down the venturi line to try and dissolve any salt crust that forms in there.
 
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