Overflowing Skimmer

[jcoat]

I am continuing to have issues with my coralife super skimmer 65. I have come home twice now to water completely filled in the collection cup and water pouring onto the floor......Luckily only small amounts of water have made it out, however, I am worried that one time I will not be so lucky. Is there a way to create some siphon from the little hole in the collection cup using small clear tubing that leads to a bucket on the floor? I tried testing it however the water wont begin a siphon and carry it to the bucket.?!?! Any ways you all know to fix this?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Has anything else in your tank changed? Lots of different types of additives can cause *any* skimmer to overflow like that.

 

[Duff Man]

You could try to put in a bulkhead like fitting and connect a hose to the fitting routed to a container.

 

[jcoat]

No i have not added anything. I performed a water change and thats it. Nothing has been added or removed other than water. Where could i find a bulkhead type fitting that would fit in the small hole and into a small clear tubing?

 

[Zann]

mine did that a couple of times when it was new i just make sure to turn it down when i left or at night once it got good and broke in i havent had to mess with it anymore i adjust it and leave it good thick skimate

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

What did you use for the water change? Most tap water conditioners will cause that sort of skimmer overflow.

 

[sage_commander]

Why not just drill a hole for some airline tubing and silcone the crap out of it? It's not like that stuff would be coming out at high pressure or anything. Then route that tubing to a gatorade bottle and you're all set.

On mine, I still have the gate valve above the pump almost closed, or mine would do the same thing. The manual says that you should run it fully open once it's broke in, but mine's been running almost two months now.

 

[UnderCoverDork]

Can you adjust it to creat more thicker skimmate? Sounds like your skimming to "wet"

 

[jcoat]

I TOOK the valve off and run it on full blast........it ran fine like that for about a month.....and now it has overflowed suddenly twice. I only use fresh ro/di water......so no conditioners like i previously said! I have been running the skimmer for about 6 months now. Until last month i always had the valve piece on to slow the skimmer..........but i look it off because after awhile i was not getting any more skimmate. So i took it off and it was great for the first few weeks....now i have this problem. And yes it is very wet skimmate.......basically just water becuase it fills up so fast. I might look into a new skimmer......this SS has given me nothing but problems it seems.

 

[WDWDen]

I was just about to post the same problem. I just got mine up and running, but the skimmate bubbles are turning to water in the collection cup. Its not supposed to do that, is it? I'm affraid that once the cup fills up, it will run all over the floor. I have the return valve closed just a bit. If its fully oopen, then the cup does n ot get any bubbles to it. They come close, but don't quite reach the top.

Any suggestions?

 

[kysard1]

Mine did that so I started running carbon. So far so good.

I haven't had a reef tank in years, I am very suspicious of needlewheel skimmers. So far my limited experience with them has not been good. They seem very finicky.