My ASM G3 Skimmer occasionally goes out of control.

[Ugla]

Last night my skimmer was about 3/4 full. Tonight it was overflowing anad the tank is full of micro bubbles. I had to drop the level all the way down to get it to stop overflowing. It takes over a week to fill the cup normally. This seems to happen every few months. Nothing has changed, water params are all good. Any ideas what happens? Now I have a cup of gunk back in my water and my sump is filled with dirty foam.

 

[Peppie]

Sorry to hear you have sump gunk. I know you need to figure out what is causing the problem before you can correct it. I am sorry to say I dont have a clue. But I would suggest adding an over flow tube to the cup. and run it to a separate container to keep the gunk out of the sump.
Skimmy may know the solution.

Good luck, Peppie

 

[Ichthys]

I have a Bubble Magus BM100 that does the exact same thing. Cruising along for a month with no issues, skimming nice dark crud, then BAHM it goes nuts and skims GALLONS of water in a few hours. It used to cause havoc with salinity and chemistry because i would not always have salt water mixed at temp ready to replace the 2-3 gallons it pumped out into the 5 gallon bucket that my skimmer cup drains into. I havent figured out what causes it to suddenly skim like mad, BUT i have figured a work around to stop it. My skimmer cup drains into a 5 gallon bucket, I have a dual float switch in the bucket and in the event the skimmer goes mad, after about 1 gallon of over skim the float switch turns OFF my skimmer and i can turn it back on and tweak it when i get home from work. So.. i didnt answer your question, but you may be able to use my idea to help eliminate any crud overflowing back in your sump. One lesson I have learned in this hobby, float switches are your friends, have them EVERYWHERE.

 

[IPisces]

I find this kinda happens to me when ever I add a little too much food, or additives for feeding coral like Cyclopeeze. Could someone have added more food with out your knowing?

 

[Ugla]

I am the only one who feeds the tank I feed the fish the same amount every day. Been doing it for years the same way. It is quite strange. I don't have an overflow container on the skimmer cup, so it just goes into the sump.

 

[IPisces]

I was thinking about it later last night and was wondering what the possibility is that it is caused by a change in chemistry of some kind in the water? Excess proteins in the water from a possible spawning of some kind or something died like a snail? Chemical warfare between corals?
Just throwing some thoughts out here.
I remember when I got a couple skimmers and I was cleaning them and testing them to see where they worked better as far as water level. Between the cleaning with freshwater and testing in saltwater, I noticed that the skimmers created more bubbles or foam the higher the salinity of the water and the dirtier the water. When testing I used fresh saltwater first and it did not seem to get the bubbles up into the collection cup no matter how I adjusted it. I used water from one of my tanks in doing a water change and it created plenty of bubbles and worked great. That's why I would think that excess nutrients might cause something like that to happen.

 

[Ugla]

It is certainly a possibility. It has been 3 weeks since my tank swap there is a bit of cycling going on at the moment. I have more algae on the glass than before the swap. Had to turn the skimmer off. Oh the mysteries of reefing.

 

[Skimmy]

well, a couple things here...
first for instance, I have to clean the venturi on my SWC skimmer every 2 weeks
or the salt creep will clog it slightly and cause it to occasionally freak out in the middle of the night...
also, if you have the skimmer level set too high in a low nutrient system and all of a sudden(for whatever reason)
there is nutrient in the water, it will freak out and overflow.
installing a float switch in a collection bucket or even the collection cup is a great idea. you can rig some ATO's to do this.