Skimmer Overflowing

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colin779

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 23, 2007
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413
Location
Bremerton, WA
So i got home at lunch today and my water alarm was going off. The tank was full so i looked in the cabinet, turns out my skimmer was overflowing. No real amount of water in the cabinet, just the spray from lots of bubbles popping on top of the lid.

The question is why the heck was it overflowing?? It never has before, and I haven't changed the setting on it. Last night i did add some new rock to the aquarium (it has been sitting in my garage completely dried out for 2 years). That is the only thing i can think of that it could be, but i'm not sure how that would cause it.

I had to leave it unplugged because it started to overflow again within 10 minutes after being cleaned. Any ideas??
 
many things make this a possibility, a spawning event, algae going sexual, and most likely saltcreep in the air intake of the skimmer
 
Interesting. I suppose of those things the only one i can check for is salt creep in the air intake =)
 
I would think that salt creep in the air intake would reduce the amount of air getting in (and therefore make it less likely to overflow).

Do you control the water level by controlling the air intake for your skimmer?
 
a pump is rated for x amount of gph, when you add air to this the gph drops as there is less water to pump, when the intake of air is reduced the volume of water or gph is increased raising the height of water in the skimmer pushing it closer to the riser lip, skimmers water levels are (mostly) controlled with a gate valve or restriction of some type so only x amount of water can physicaly leave the skimmer by the exit. (This I know because mine does this weekly haha)
 
I bought a swc 160 cone a couple months ago, that is the skimmer that overflowed. I had been controlling the water level with the gate valve and just had the air intake on full open, never was an issue. I did clean out the intake but still had the same issue. Last night i just had to fine tune the air intake and the gate valve. Apparently for some reason i can no longer have the air on full open... I am getting better foam now though then i was before =)
 
My skimmer use to do this every so often and I couldn't figure out what caused it myself. Nothing changed or adjusted and it overflows. Hope you got it sorted out by now. The rock you added although dried out if not rinsed off really good before adding it to the tank could possibly be the reason. I've seen everything from dust to spiders come off of rocks I had drying out. :)
 
a pump is rated for x amount of gph, when you add air to this the gph drops as there is less water to pump, when the intake of air is reduced the volume of water or gph is increased raising the height of water in the skimmer
I guess it depends on the type of skimmer, and what exactly overflows. When mine has overflowed in the past, it was wet foam that was overflowing. Reducing the air would reduce the amount of foam (and stop the overflow).

skimmers water levels are (mostly) controlled with a gate valve or restriction of some type so only x amount of water can physicaly leave the skimmer
I always considered controlling the water height in the skimmer with an obstruction (gate) on the outflow side to be a recipe for disaster. The least little thing can get caught on the gate and reduce flow too much. I would much rather have a larger pump and control water height with a gate valve on the input side.
 
I always considered controlling the water height in the skimmer with an obstruction (gate) on the outflow side to be a recipe for disaster. The least little thing can get caught on the gate and reduce flow too much. I would much rather have a larger pump and control water height with a gate valve on the input side.

I like that idea! learn something new everyday, now as water height is the "fine" tuning how do you find this with controling the pump vs the traditional gate?
 
A gate valve between the pump and skimmer is wonderfully adjustable. Just make sure to use a gate valve and not a ball valve.
Ball valves are trickier to adjust.
 
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