Skimmer gone haywire

[jason the filter freak]

I have a 47 column tank that runs an Aqua C Remora. Yesterday I spent an hour glue down a number of frags (clay epoxy and super glue) and when I was done I did a 7 gallon water change. Ever since my skimmer has been going nuts!! Now the salinity is not off I check and rechecked it. I used to have the same issue in my 55 when I'd glue down frags but the skimmer would be back to nomral in a few hours.

 

Yesterday microbubbles were up and the skimmer was skimming a lot less. Today the skimmer isn't skimming at all and is dumping the finest microbubbles I've ever seen into my tank at a perdigious rate. What gives .

 

I'm worried about the pH instability that that much O2 comming into my tank may cause not to mention it looks like crap.

[jamesbuf]

Did anything recently die in your tank?? An anemone or something?

[Rascal]

I'm worried about the pH instability that that much O2 comming into my tank may cause not to mention it looks like crap.

 

I don't think you'll get more pH instability that way. Unless you are feeding your skimmer with pure O2, the law of diminishing returns applies I think. As I understand it, if your tank water has more CO2 and less O2 than the air with which it is mixing, then the water will lose CO2 and gain O2 the more it mixes with the surrounding air, but only until it reaches some point of equilibrium.

 

IME your best bet is to let your skimmer pull out what it wants to pull out, keep all of your params stable, and just wait it out.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Just to clarify...it was reef-safe epoxy and super glue gel right?

[jason the filter freak]

well the darn thing is still going nutty. And it's worse than ever I've even added a sponge for bubble trapping... I tried putting a new Mag 3 on it... then I switched it out for a mag 5 and I still have a TON of microbubbles.

[davjbeas]

Run some carbon in a fluidised reactor or hang on back filter.

This should remove whatever the epoxy released. Then the skimmer should return to normal.

 

David

[jason the filter freak]

Run some carbon in a fluidised reactor or hang on back filter.

This should remove whatever the epoxy released. Then the skimmer should return to normal.

 

David

 

FREAKING BRILLIANT! I've been doing this for years and I should know that remedy by now but it didn't even cross my mind... one night of running carbon has cleared the situation almost to nil