Alpha200 issue

[rbnice1]

Need a bit of help here. Its been running outstanding for a month then this morning started puking non stop. It does this when I change a filter sock for like 10 seconds but for some reason now its not stopping. When it started this morning I went ahead and changed filter socks thinking the old sock was causing a issue but now it isnt stopping. Nothing has changed no additives or dosing of any kind. I have a carbon reactor but havent changed the carbon in 3 weeks and I have a calcium reactor.

Sump lvl is the same as its always been. it doesnt appear that anything has died. The only thing thats new is we took the hood off to paint it yesterday and put it back on before we went to bed.

Cant really tell from the pics but itrs kicking foam out at about a gallon a minute.

 

[Jeremy B.]

This isn't an Alpha 200 issue, but rather just an issue with the filter bags being changed. The same thing happens to me on different systems using various skimmers. Sometimes it's worse than others. Start soaking your filter bags in RO water after you clean them for a day or two and see if this helps out.

As far as getting this skimmer to calm down just completely remove the wedge pipe and "T". this should lower the water level enough inside the skimmer body so that it's not constantly overflowing. It should settle back down within a matter of an hour or two, or a day at the most.

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[rbnice1]

Jermey I changed the sock out after it was overflowing for a couple hours already.

What I meant to say was it does this when I change the socks out for 10 minutes but this time it started doing it on its own. I changed out carbon and it seems to have helped a bit. Will wait a bit longer and see if its back to normal. I just have never seen it do this for more then 10 minutes. It has been going for 6 hours.

 

[Jeremy B.]

There really could have only been two things that happened then....

1. The sump level fluctuated somehow, in this case the level of the sump would have went up.

OR

2. Some type of additive, frag/rock epoxy, or something possibly on your hands got into the system and caused the skimmer to crazy.

 

[rbnice1]

Yea but..... Sump lvl was normal. and no frags have been added since Monday.

With new carbon it appears to have calmed down. Not sure what the initial cause was.

 

[Jeremy B.]

That is very odd. Did you wash your hands with soap and put your hands in the tank without being completely rinsed off by any chance? Can you think of anything at all that could have caused a change within your system?

 

[rbnice1]

Nope. It was fine when we went to bed then it was overflowing in the morning. Wife noticed it when she saw water on the floor in the laundry room.

The only thing we did was paint the hood then put it back on the tank at bed time. But we didnt paint the iunside of the hood just the outside and even if we had I wouldnt think fumes would have caused that kind of a problem with out killing corals or fish.

 

[TTown]

just a suggestion, have you checked your venturi tube for salt creep buildup? when my skimmer venturi tube starts getting pluged it will do some funky things..

 

[rbnice1]

Yup. all is clean.

Its fine now. not sure why it went haywire for 6-7 hours

 

[rkaires]

For some reason this has happened to a few people right after they painted a room in there house on the ATB forum. Replacing you carbom seems to fix it.