Corallife SS 65?

[flyingarmy]

Early this morning I woke up to a strange grinding noise on my 55GAL. Come to find out for some reason my Corallife 65 suddenly decided to wet skim and overflowed the cup and the return chamber in the sump went dry. The pump was grinding away and overheating. All was well with the pump once it cooled down. But my questions to the experts is:

Why would a skimmer suddenly start wet skimming? Last night before I went to bed I checked the level and it was where it always is for a good dark fluid to be skimmed. What would make it suddenly change? And a even better question, what can I do to prevent this from happening again? Thanks in advance!

 

[vettesarebest]

Well I had this same problem with my SS and I got fed up with it and am saving for a Euro Reef. I do not know what the problem is but I do know that these skimmers sometimes flip out.

 

[tsciarini]

Coralife Skimmers kindof have a reputation of this.... I don't know enough about the design of these specifically that would be causing the overflow but it would make for a great question at http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3293">this months meeting</a>. (like how I snuck that in there?)
One thing to remember is that many things can have an reaction on bubble production. Salinity, pH, temperature (to an extent), feeding schedule and if you've recently had your hands in the tank. For example we usually tune our skimmers around the same time as doing other things to the tank (whether it be arranging our favorite coral for the 10th time this week or just got finished feeding the fishes). Oils from your skin can kill bubble production within seconds. Then after you take your hands out you notice your skimmer is producing low, so you tune it higher... then the skimmer goes back to normal production and overflows. (I'm just giving this example as a possible scenario without knowing your experience level or understanding of bubble production, so please forgive me if I'm preaching to the choir here.)

 

[wbholwell]

The same thing happened to mine, and it took about a week for it to settle back down. Still don't know what happened. I now have a line running from the top of the collection cup back into the sump to prevent the sump from going dry. I empty the cup often enough so that the skimmate doesn't have a chance to fill the cup.

 

[flyingarmy]

Tony..

All definitely possibilties. The only thing that I can think of that would affect it at 630AM would be temperature change. I went to bed around 11PM and didn't open the tank of change any settings on the skimmer. I know my ph flucuates some and so does the temp at that time. I'll have to get some data from that time period to see if they are the cause. I know if the airintake gets clogged it can increase the water level in the chamber, maybe I need to check the silencer air intake on the skimmer. I am glad I keep a towel behind the stand on the floor, I must have lost about 1.5 gallons when the skimmer freaked out. Thanks for the info and help!

 

[flyingarmy]

wbholwell wrote: The same thing happened to mine, and it took about a week for it to settle back down. Still don't know what happened. I now have a line running from the top of the collection cup back into the sump to prevent the sump from going dry. I empty the cup often enough so that the skimmate doesn't have a chance to fill the cup.

Excellent idea....how did you connect the tubing? This is not the first time it has done this to me, usually happens after a water change and I make sure I watch it but this time it took several days.:doh:

 

[cameron]

Check your calcium levels. If they are elevated enough this can produce a mammoth amount of white foamy skim. Could also be your pump wearing in a bit more.

As others have noted, the skimmer is known to go bonkers after a year. If it happens again, let it soak in vinegar for a few hours to clean it out and bring it back to nearly new condition. Make sure you clean the valve the same way. If continues to occur, I would put money the pump isn't running well.

 

[glxtrix]

these skimmers are crap.....well, not totally true cuz they skim extremely well, but coralife made some things with these skimmers that just doesnt make sense. First of all if you have that cup where the return flow comes out, take that off, if there is any backpressure on this system it will fail and cause it to overflow. These skimmers are super finicky and dont like to be dirty, have a change in water level or as stated befor have any sort of back pressure. There are some mods you can do to this skimmer if youre running it hob way, or even if its converted to sump use. Tony I have a CLSS 65 I can bring to the meeting that has the mods on it, but I dont have a pump for it, that pos rio decided to die (SUPRISE!!!!)

 

[FutureInterest]

From my experience, which albeit is limited, ph fluctuation is the primary culprit of inconsistent skimming. I'm sure you've heard that "soft" water is easier to lather than "hard" water. That's mostly about mineral deposits in the water, but is inclusive of ph as well. From my understanding, as the ph gets lower, surface tension increases and bubble production in the skimmer tends to increase. At night time, your ph is going to drop when the Co2 in the water is no longer being used by your many photosynthetic creatures. As such, the skimmer will whack out on you at night regardless of what skimmer you have in there. The larger the skimmer, typically the more forgiving it is for fluctuations.

As such, there are a few things you can do... and keep your current skimmer.
1. You can set your skim level at like 4 in the morning, such that it would be optomized for the lowest Ph level. It'll run fairly dry during the day time, but at least you won't get overflow again.
2. Install an overflow that returns water to the sump. I do that by running a tube from the skimmer cup to a 1 gallon collection cup, and I place the 1 gallon cup in the sump so that if it overflows the water goes back into the system.
3. Try and stabalize your ph. Using macro algaes in a refugium on a reverse lighting schedule will help keep the C02 levels and thus the ph level more consistent.

Good luck.

 

[cameron]

That is a good post FI... rep points for you. Well maybe not... gotta give some to others first I guess.