I have a SRO EXT3000 setup on a new 110 and I'm having this problem where the protein skimmer will wet-skim and skimmate cup overflows randomly. Ive connected a tube to the drain port and ran it into the sump as a overflow backup if the leveling gate valve got clogged but that doesn't seem to be what's happening. Any ideas why the skimmer would go nuts randomly?
Protein Skimmer Floods Randomly
- Thread starter kenny b
- Start date
aceofspadeskb
New member
Might not be it, but 2 part epoxy will cause your skimmer to go nuts. Have you used any of it lately?
Donkeykong
New member
You mention new tank, meaning it is still cycling? Also is the skimmer new? New skimmers can be a little hard to get adjusted as the break in. They
Scubasteve13
New member
Skimmer may be pulling a siphon make sure the return line is not submerged. Like Nikon said any sort of additive can throw the skimmer off.
jjvanb
Member
I had a skimmer that came with airlines/ tubing that was very soft, flexible and well kinda floppy. It would kink easily. When the air input was reduced by the kink in the line (which just seemed to happen randomly from time to time), the water level in the skimmer rose and would overflow the cup. Once I replaced the tubing with something more rigid, the problem went away, might be something else worth looking at....
I've been trying to figure this out... Its been about 3 to 4 weeks since I've used any kind of epoxy and even then it was to fill a crack in a PVC line so I don't think it could be that...? Since it's an external model, I had it plumbed to be feed from the overflow so, in case somehow it was surging from an air build up in the feed line, I ran it with the skimmer pump off but with water flowing through it and the flooding stopped but soon as I turned on the pump, the flooding was happening again and I noticed that when it was flooding, no water was coming out of the return. I re-plumbed it T-ing from the return pump anyways and with the skimmer pump off, I didn't see any flooding but with then with the skimmer pump on, the flooding occurred again after a few minutes of running. So I turned everything on and pinched the tube taking air from the silencer to the pump and that caused the bubble level to drop and then when I released, it flooded within a minute or so. Tomorrow I'll check if there is some kind of clogging going on with the air lines and replace the soft tubing.
well... no water is exiting.... sooo...????
So I tried flushing the air lines and muffler with DI water, still floods. I replaced the soft tubing that comes with the unit from the muffler to the pump with a standard vinyl one, still floods. I then bypassed the muffler, still floods. Before all this today, I checked and cleaned the PVC coming to and from the pump in case the air/water intake was getting clogged on the inside so I can rule that out and I checked the pinwheel. It is clean. I've been running heavy carbon for the last 24 hours. I'm stumped.
Exactly. I don't get it. I'll start making a large batch of new saltwater to see if somehow, there is a chemical in the water that is causing this bizarre thing that the carbon isn't taking out.
