Vertex omega skimmer has gone bat-**** crazy

[lexzbuddy]

Hello, my Vertex omega 130 has gone utterly bat-**** crazy. It was working beautifully with absolutely no problems. Then, about a week ago :wildone: ***

It is just one huge mess of bubbles. It doesn't matter how much I open or close the stand pipe to control water flow. It is absolutely saturated with bubbles. The foam just fills the cup in seconds.

I put a valve in the air inlet line to try to throttle the air entering the skimmer's pump to see if it would help. Well, yes and no. I can use it to stop the overwhelming of the skimmer cup but, the outlet is still saturated with micro bubbles. Having my sump and display tank full of micro bubbles is simply unacceptable.

I've tried raising and lowering the skimmer in the water column... it didn't help.
Adjusted the pump inlet venturi to adjust air water mix, just exacerbated the issues.

I took it apart and cleaned it to see if there was anything broken, stuck or obviously not right. The impeller is perfect, all o-rings are fine. No cracks or anything obviously wrong that I can see.

The amount of micro bubbles coming out of the outlet is just off the scale. Flow output passes all the bubble traps in my sump. It's so saturated with bubbles that it looks like milk.

If anyone has experienced this and has a solution to get me back to normal, I'd definitely like to hear from you. Thanks


Oh ya, I forgot to say grrrrrr

 

[Lsufan]

My omega 130 was very finicky in the break in period that took forever. I have had it for close to 4 years but when it was new it took probably 4 to 6 months before it became consistent. At first it would skim great but once or twice a week I would come home to it overflowing.

What I found to work the best when it would want to overflow is to hook up some tubing on the drain on the skimmer & let it go into a bucket. Usually after it drains a gallon or two it would be back to normal. What it does is let it skim out whatever is causing it to overflow.

They are finicky skimmers, mine still has the occasional overflow but it doesn't happen to often anymore. It was my first skimmer so I really didn't know any better but I have a aquamaxx EM 300 on my other setup & it has not overflowed one time in the 2 years I have had it. So it is definitely something with the omega that is finikier then other skimmers

 

[ktownhero]

How old is the skimmer? If it's young, it may need to break in. If it's already broken in then:

Have you done anything different with the tank recently? Added a chemical? Dropped a chicken wing in the sump? Cleaned the skimmer body?

All in all, when this happens it's best to just keep running it and let it "break in". You may be able to expedite the recovery process by removing the very wet skimmate that's coming out (assuming it's at least slightly discolored).

 

[smatter]

Did you replace a sponge or sock? This makes most skimmers go nuts.

 

[lexzbuddy]

Thanks for replying

Thanks for replying

I've had the skimmer since before Christmas. It's definitely been broken in and has been totally trouble free until now.

I change my filter sox every 3 or 4 days. This hasn't been a big issue to date. The skimmer would over produce for a couple of hours then settle back down to normal.

I concur that it's something new or something that has changed that usually triggers these things. I can think of what though.

:deadhorse:

 

[lexzbuddy]

No chicken wings in the sump either

 

[moondoggy4]

How bout a little dried up tube of Crazy glue in the tank?

 

[Skim]

You have definitely had a change in your water chemistry and and I don't me Cal. Alk. ect. Check make sure all livestock is still there. Check if any Coral are doing any Combat, or may have Spawned. All these and more will release things into the water Column and many can make Skimmers go nuts. I would keep the pipe open all the way and add some fresh Carbon. It should settle down and then you can readjust the skimmer. Just give it time, your tank is not going to suffer. The BIGGEST thing a Skimmer does for a Tank is help with O2 levels and the thing that most thought it did the best is actually what it does the worst and that is remove DOC's.