Vertex IN-80 skimmer issue

[Fireworm]

On xmas eve I treated my tank with maracyn for red slime. I have done 25g or more of water change on my 57g with 20g sump. My skimmer will still not work. I am getting a crazy amount of micro bubbles out of the skimmer return. Almost makes a thick foam head in my sump. How do I stop the micro bubbles? This is driving me nuts

 

[OldNemo]

A good vinegar cleaning and a good rinse may solve it.

 

[Fireworm]

I did vinegar last weekend. I ran it in a vinegar water mix for about 40 min. Did that, and rinsed all of it good. Still bubbles

 

[jrp1588]

I had a similar problem a while back with chemiclean. I ended up running a bunch of carbon and continuing waterchanges. It eventually went back to normal

 

[Fireworm]

chemi clean or chemi pure.... I have ran chemi pure for a long time and never had a problem.... this is driving me nuts. to the point where I have thought about just running my system with no skimmer, and just one big fuge

 

[jrp1588]

chemi-clean. It's for killing cyano.

 

[Fireworm]

How many gallons did you end up having to change? I am going to do another 5 to 10 gallons tomorrow.

 

[jrp1588]

no idea. that was about 7 months or so ago. haha

 

[Chris27]

Open up the drain on the skimmer cup, and just let it overflow back into the sump. You should be back to normal within a day or two. It happens to everyone when they use that stuff.

 

[Fireworm]

I had done that a few weeks ago, and it filled my sump with foam. What I did last night is take the skimmer cup drain, and run that into a 1g jug. I emptied 4 of them last night. My salt was a little high so it helped there to. I also have a container that is filled with a bag of chemi pure and filter pad that the skimmer return goes into to try to filter more water.

 

[70cudahemi]

Anytime you dose a medication it will take some good quality carbon to remove any residuals of the medication.

 

[luther1200]

Run some GAC like others have said, it should work.

 

[Fireworm]

I am going to try some carbon along with the extra water changes...

 

[chilwil84]

carbon and let it drain into a bucket for a few gallons a day for a couple days. my vertex seems to be very touchy with stuff and goes crazy with bubbles while my c&c isnt nearly as sensitive.

 

[Fireworm]

I thought about putting a filter sock over the skimmer return just to stop the bubbles for a bit. maybe even some pantyhose from the wife. My corals look great with not running it, just get tired of cleaning the glass and sand so much.

 

[Fireworm]

Last night I took 3.5 gallons out with the skimmer draining, and took out another 1.5 today. I will let the new water go in the tank for a day or 2 and then drain some more if need be

 

[tkeracer619]

Carbon. Its not even worth running the skimmer until the carbon takes the chemicals out.

 

[Fireworm]

Particular brand of carbon to look for? It has been a long time since I have bought carbon.

 

[rkb]

At this point I would say any decent brand of carbon will work. The BRS ROX carbon is great but expensive. I would run carbon for a few days to a week and then change it. If there is alot of chemicals in the water the carbon will get saturated fairly quickly. A polyfilter in addition to the carbon might get the chems out even quicker. Until it is resolved I would turn off the Vertex and restart perodically to check the effectiveness of the carbon.

 

[Fireworm]

With out ordering, how about black diamond? I can get that local. Should I throw away the bag of chemi pure that I have in there now? I have been running a poly filter all along. Sorry I guess I forgot to mention that. I have it in my baffles, if nothing else I was using it to help stop the micro bubbles from the skimmer.