steveoutlaw September 20, 2009 Share September 20, 2009 I don't know what the H-E-double hockey sticks is going on with my tank. I have a 60g cube and built a rockwall for the back wall. I used pond foam and regular great stuff. I used the 2 part epoxy that I got at the hobby shop to put the aragonite over the foam. I've let the tank cycle for a month and when I put my skimmer on it just goes nuts. It overflows and floods the tank with microbubbles. Has anybody had this happen? Have I just not given it enough time? I'm about to rip the f%@#$^g rockwall out and just let coraline cover the back wall. Please help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capsfan September 20, 2009 Share September 20, 2009 How long have you had the skimmer in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw September 20, 2009 Author Share September 20, 2009 How long have you had the skimmer in? A week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capsfan September 20, 2009 Share September 20, 2009 A week. And it has been overflowing since day one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw September 20, 2009 Author Share September 20, 2009 And it has been overflowing since day one? Yep.......and it's on the lowest setting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw September 21, 2009 Author Share September 21, 2009 Bump.......has anyone had this problem? I don't want to rip the wall out prematurely, but I can't really go on for months just waiting for this to subside. I'm wondering if it could be a combination of the epoxy and foam in such a small tank size. Do the epoxy and foam release stuff into the water that would cause the skimmer to go crazy (like superglue and the putty does)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boret September 21, 2009 Share September 21, 2009 From what I've read epoxy makes skimmers go nuts, but after a month it should have cured by now. Unless you used the "wrong" epoxy I have no idea why it is doing that. Unless you used a ton of epoxy and therefore will take much longer to become stable. Have you tried with a large (50%+) water change? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw September 21, 2009 Author Share September 21, 2009 I've been doing small water changes and it seems that is starting to help. I'm going to mix up a huge batch and do a 75% water change (only hermits and snails in there right now) and see if that helps. Thanks all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiCurtis September 21, 2009 Share September 21, 2009 Pat from WV made his own rock wall and it came out very well. ask him waht he did to make it. I was very impessed when i saw his tank when he lived in bowie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lazar September 21, 2009 Share September 21, 2009 I don't have any experience with foam rocks, but if it were my tank I'd do a 100% water change and then run carbon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capsfan September 21, 2009 Share September 21, 2009 I don't have a skimmer on my build w/ a rock wall, so I really don't know what to tell you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw September 22, 2009 Author Share September 22, 2009 I don't have any experience with foam rocks, but if it were my tank I'd do a 100% water change and then run carbon. Doing a 50% change today and another 50% on Thursday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat_13 September 22, 2009 Share September 22, 2009 Pat from WV made his own rock wall and it came out very well. ask him waht he did to make it. I was very impessed when i saw his tank when he lived in bowie. Thanks. The rock I made was soaked in FW for over a month with frequent water changes. I did not have much trouble with the skimmer after adding to my tank. Not sure on the foam but I did not want to use it because of the chemicals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw September 22, 2009 Author Share September 22, 2009 (edited) I've seen a lot of rock wall projects and haven't heard of this problem. I think that it's just a combination of the skimmer being new and never having done a large water change on the tank. I'll see what happens after I do the 50% change. I've only got hermits and snails in the tank right now and they don't seem to be having any problems. Edited September 22, 2009 by steveoutlaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BliffBlam September 22, 2009 Share September 22, 2009 I cant remeber what site I read it on, I think seahorse .org. Where people were saying you should use the foam in the black can. also it said you should let it fully dry for like a week and rinse very well before putting in your tank. furthermore, if you soaked the rock in freshwater leads me to believe it could just be alot of organic matter from the die off. I think your on the right track with a huge water change. Or maybe you just have a really kick A*# skimmer. keep us posted , i am about to set up a 110g and was cosidering a rock wall as well. Goodluck, dont get to frustrated and rip it all out before giving it a little time to clear up. Alot of work building those walls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw September 22, 2009 Author Share September 22, 2009 Well, I can tell you to definately use the black pond foam. It looks better and is made specifically for water use. The other will work, but the pond foam is easier to deal with. Also, figure out a general idea of how you are going to place your corals and don't be afraid to use big pieces of rock. Now that my wall is in the tank I wish I would have put on more shelf rock areas to mount corals. I'd look at some of the threads of RC about them as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw September 23, 2009 Author Share September 23, 2009 Ok, I did a 50% water change and the skimmer went ape@#$% on me again. I'm hoping that it's just because of the new salt water, but if it's still bad when I get home........I give up. I don't know what else to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat_13 September 24, 2009 Share September 24, 2009 You skimmer should not go nuts when you do a water change. I would look at your water source and mixing contianer. Are you using RO/DI? What are you mixing your saltwater in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sikryd September 24, 2009 Share September 24, 2009 I'd see if adjusting the height of your skimmer helps. I'm not sure what kind is it, so I don't know if that would help. I wouldn't think it should go that crazy that you can't even turn it on without overflow. I would imagine that the return has too much pressure on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami September 24, 2009 Share September 24, 2009 Steve, what salt are you using? I ask because, in the last month or so, my skimmer (an MSX 2S cone) been overflowing after a water change. The effect lasts for a good hour or more, and I have to pull the drain plug in the cup to let the skimmate cycle back into the sump until normal skimmer performance returns. (I clean the skimmer cup before a water change, so this has little effect.) I've not changed my salt, which is Instant Ocean, but I did open another box of the stuff up around that time. Most of my 200 gallon boxes were purchased late last or early this year. After some web searching, I found that others had a similar experience with Reef Crystals (also made by IO) about a year ago. Here's an example of some of the threads that turn up: http://www.3reef.com/forums/salt/reef-crystals-51245.html It makes me wonder if there's something in the salt. Also, do you add any supplements to your change water before using it? Do you have an empty tank (without a foam rock wall) that you can try the skimmer out on just new salt water? My water changes are between 25 and 30 gallons on a 350 gallon system. Change water is pumped right into the sump. Consequently, for a time, the concentration of new water in the sump is higher and settles as old water is cycled through the sump. The overflow behavior is less pronounced if I add smaller amounts of new water over a time, but the effect is still noticeable nonetheless. BTW, is this your new skimmer that's behaving this way, the Remora, or both? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw September 24, 2009 Author Share September 24, 2009 Both of the skimmers were doing this. I'm starting to think that it's just my skimmer breaking in, as well as the epoxy. I saw my skimmer actually start to skim some last night (foam rising up the collection cup tube, not just the bubbles bubbling in the collection cup tube). I'm going to get my cleanup crew from BRK this weekend and hopefully be ready for the fish and corals to transfer over in a week or 2. Just to clarify, the skimmer didn't start going nuts when I put new saltwater in........the new saltwater just didn't stop it from going nuts. Hopefully we're on the right track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw September 25, 2009 Author Share September 25, 2009 Ok, maybe I'm wrong. I just switched a gallon of water from my new cube to my holding tank and vice versa. Everything was fine in my holding tank, but when I put this gallong of water in the skimmer just started going ape*@. The water was the same salinity and same temperature. Could it be that I got a bad bucket of IO? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epleeds September 25, 2009 Share September 25, 2009 Steve, do you have the skimmer at the correct height in the sump? When i had my alpha running in my sump, if the water was a 1/2 inch too high, the skimmer would overflow like crazy. I had to have it at a certain depth and tuned correctly. Are you running at the right depth in your sump? other than that, i have no clue.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw September 25, 2009 Author Share September 25, 2009 Steve, do you have the skimmer at the correct height in the sump? When i had my alpha running in my sump, if the water was a 1/2 inch too high, the skimmer would overflow like crazy. I had to have it at a certain depth and tuned correctly. Are you running at the right depth in your sump? other than that, i have no clue.... Eric- I do have the skimmer at the recommended water depth. It's not overflowing anymore, but it's not skimming and it's putting a ton of microbubbles in the tank. I also noticed that when I switched a gallon of water between tanks, the skimmer on my holding tank (another RS-80) started overflowing and spewing microbubbles. You would think that switching the water from a tank with a pretty good bio-load, that the skimmer would at least skim a little bit. I'm wondering if I just got a bad bucket of salt? I'm going to take the skimmer out of the tank and put it in my holding tank to see how it performs this weekend. That will be one more thing that I can rule out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami September 25, 2009 Share September 25, 2009 (edited) I'm wondering if I just got a bad bucket of salt? I'm going to take the skimmer out of the tank and put it in my holding tank to see how it performs this weekend. That will be one more thing that I can rule out. As mentioned, I've been seeing the same behavior out of my IO for the last month or so. Come to think of it, I've been noticing some microbubbles, too, that I'd not noticed before. I'm going to drop a line to the folks over at IO and see if they know anything about this odd behavior. Steve, do you add anything to your IO before adding it to the tank? For example, I add calcium chloride, magenesium chloride, and sometimes magnesium sulfate, to bring the levels to where I want them. I also mix my water up a week ahead of time, keep it circulating and raise it to tank temperature before water changes. Edited September 25, 2009 by Origami2547 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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