Protein skimmer going crazy!

[NikeLV]

Hey RC! I have a bubble-magus NAC-6 protein skimmer running my 100 gallon reef. Last weekend I was tuning this old NAC-6 skimmer and the past few days after I tuned it, the collection cup has been pulling out SO much dark green skimmate. Literally, 1 collection cup full of skimmate PER DAY. Before, it would take about 1 week to fill the collection cup, and the skimmate would be a very light, clear green. Why is my protein skimmer suddenly pulling out SO much skimmate?

 

[JR719]

Either it needed tuned, and you did that... Or your inhabitants are really letting it go. Don't worry about it, let the skimmer do it's job. Have you been adding any additional food that it would be pulling?

 

[Jonathan76]

turn it down till you get dark skim. Lotion on the hands? hands in the tank? lots of frozen foods? high organics to begin with? them BM skimmer is a decent skimmer. It is a surface tension thing- has to do with surfactants and surface tension. less ur hands r in the tank the better

 

[NikeLV]

turn it down till you get dark skim. Lotion on the hands? hands in the tank? lots of frozen foods? high organics to begin with? them BM skimmer is a decent skimmer. It is a surface tension thing- has to do with surfactants and surface tension. less ur hands r in the tank the better

it is a dark skimmate now, much darker than before. I have been recently sticking my hands in to glue my sps coral frags to rocks. I feed one cube of mysis or ocean plankton or spirulina brine shrimp a day for 8 fish. I just cleaned the skimmer cup and tuned it down a bit, we'll see how it does in the next 24 hours, thanks!

 

[Dugless]

It's most likely the gluing causing the issue. Will go away with time.