Quantum 120 skimmer overflowing

[dasickle]

Bought the skimmer a week ago and assembled it the correct way. Its sitting inside a sump with a water level of about 8 inches which is what is recommended by the manual.

My tank is a 69g Red Sea Max e 260 with a sump upgrade. I use active carbon but no other chemicals. My load is pretty light: 3 small cromies, 2 small clowns and one baby yellow tang. I feed the fish once a day but don't overfeed.

Skimmer has been running for a week and it still fills up the cup with water in a matter of minutes. Sometimes after filling the cup up it finally calms down with water/bubble level right below the collection cup but then it goes crazy again. Sometimes while the cup it full the foam makes it on top of the lid and then leaks back into the sump.

I know that there is a breaking period but how do I tackle the stuff dripping back into my sump? Manual said I can run it without the collection cup. Is that standard practice?

Is there anything else I can do? This thing is messing with my salinity level because it sucks the water out quick and my ATO compensates with FW.

 

[A sea K]

If the skimmer cup has a drain then just hook up a short piece of tubing to allow the water to return to the sump till it breaks in, otherwise just leaving the cup off will create a LOT of salt creep and moisture inside your stand. To note, some of the skimmer cup drains are fairly small and won't handle the overflow if it is too bad, when you attach the tubing from the cup extend it slightly below the water level in your sump, this will create a siphoning effect and most likely handle all the overflow.

 

[madweazl]

Is the gate open completely? If not, this will increase the water level in the skimmer (not trying to insult your intelligence, just throwing out ideas). If so, raise the skimmer to the minimum recommended water depth and see how that performs.

You can run the skimmer in a distilled vinegar solution that will help speed up the "break-in" process (basically removes oils/release agents if any where used during assembly).

 

[dasickle]

Thanks all! I elevated the skimmer about 3 inches by adding a few egg crates and its doing better. Still no dry but the cup take about 24 hours to fill up. I will give it a few more weeks to break in