Woke up to a wet floor.....

[nickyblase]

I have no idea why this happened - my skimmer has been dialed in for over a year.

I turned it off for about 20 mins to dose amino acids, and turned it back on before going to bed.

This morning I woke up to my floor wet, my return pump gurgling, and a skimmer waste bucket full of water.

Why did this happen? I tried to plug it in again, and it's doing the same thing. Water goes immediately to the top of the skimmer, and out into the collection bucket. I haven't touched the gate valve in a long time.

Sometimes I hate this hobby.

What could have happened??

 

[biggyclops]

the amino's you added.. is it new or from a different company?

 

[nickyblase]

it's the same stuff I've used for about 2 years. I only added 8 drops to my 125g.

I don't generally turn off the skimmer after I dose though, and recently read that when dosing aminos, you should turn the skimmer off.

I may hold off on dosing for a while, but in the interim I need to figure out how to get the skimmer dialed back in again. It's still trying to overflow when I turn it on this morning.

Messing with the gate valve was such a pain to get it in the perfect spot the first time. I'm dreading having to do it again.

 

[dad300]

is it possible that you had a mass bristleworm spawn and your skimmer went into overdrive trying to remove the "leftovers".
we are about 3-4 days past the full moon and my bristles tend to spawn withing 2-5 days of full moon.

 

[cakemanPA]

I find that when I power off my skimmer that I need to watch fairly carefully. I am not sure it my case that in not allow things to clear out of the pump and the Beckett injector. I keep my skimmer in a washing machine drain pan as a precaution.

 

[monti1]

I had the same thing happen when all of my snails decided to spawn. Skimer went nuts. Filled up the cup, then the chamber it is in, and then eventually the floor.......

 

[Ray]

did you check to see if the air inlet was clogged at all?

 

[JayM]

First...sorry for your flood. Been there.

is the skimmer pump impeller screwed up? if it's meshed, the mesh may have broken free.

 

[Aquaman_68]

did you check to see if the air inlet was clogged at all?

That is what I was going to suggest...Do you run your skimmer to produce wet foam, Laurie?

& BTW....I hate this hobby weekly....


Just a little note...

shutting a skimmer off can do that...especially if you are dosing & you do run a wet foam...

HTH you find your reason...

 

[Dave McReeferson]

I'd crank the gate valve open (with the skimmer running), count the turns you open it, then return it to the same spot. When closing it back down, go past the old spot, then back out to it's original position to compensate for backlash in the screw, that way you know you are back to the exact same spot (or as close as you are going to get).

It may be that some crud got stuck in the gate after you re-fired the thing, opening it up should allow the debris to pass if there is any. Worth a shot...

 

[biggyclops]

I had the same thing happen when all of my snails decided to spawn. Skimer went nuts. Filled up the cup, then the chamber it is in, and then eventually the floor.......

that is wicked gross ::

 

[nickyblase]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I can't say for sure why it happened. The air intake wasn't clogged, but maybe something else was. Not sure. My pump isn't mesh modded either.

So, I did exactly what Dave mentioned. I opened the gate valve the whole way, and brought it back in. I decided to work from home yesterday so I could monitor it and make sure I didn't flood the floor again.

It was acting VERY flaky - it would run for an hour or so with the water line 2-3" up the neck, creating great foam. Then I'd check on it again, and the water level went down and was not in the neck at all.

As of this morning, it's a little low in the neck, but it's creating foam, so I'm going to leave it there until I get home and maybe dial it up a tiny bit to get it back to the 2-3" mark in the neck. That's where I usually keep it, and it works well for me.

Brian - you have the same skimmer as me, right? How far up to you keep your water line?

 

[dedfish]

Sorry to hear about your flood. I had the exact same thing happen to me this week. My skimmer which has been working fine for almost a year decided to go nuts overflow and fill then eventually overflow the waste bucket. I caught mine before it got too bad but that was purely by luck, I stepped on the wet carpet. I haven't even looked into the reason yet. I just opened my gate valve so it's barely skimming if at all and redirected the waste back to the sump. I look into it this weekend. Hope you figure yours out and get everything working soon.

 

[Ray]

When this happened to me where the level in the skimmer was up and down like that I took the venturi apart and it had some build up around the air inlet on the inside and it was 1/2 closed up, enough to keep it running but closed enough where it would cause a fluctuation in my skimmer

 

[nickyblase]

Oooh - good point Ray - I didn't think of that. I was just looking at the tube. I will pull it out and see what it looks like on the inside of the thingy it goes into.

 

[Aquaman_68]

Brian - you have the same skimmer as me, right? How far up to you keep your water line?

I have an etss 800 pro...Do you have an etss?

LMk I'll LYK how it is set up if you have an etss....It is important where you run your water level on them..

B

 

[guyduquette]

Someone else with an ETSS 800! good to know.

well since i've owned this skimmer, i've learned that it is VERY necessary to have a plastic water heater drain pan under it. they carry them at home depot now (i had to order mine). i drain it directly to the sump, but leave the hose above water level.... this avoids any gurgling or interruption of the draining (it's only 1").

ps - i changed plumbing around two weeks ago, and still can't get it dialed in again.

sometimes i wonder if maybe a recirc would be better... maybe a cone recirc? lots of money though, with the same headaches i'm sure!!

 

[nickyblase]

Brian - I do have an ETSS, though a 600, which is a little smaller than yours.