Reef Discussion

[alan]

I cant find a template im supposed to use, so ill jsut steal one..

/// System Overview

Alkalinity: higher than normal
Calcium: great
Phosphate: .025 (controlled by crazy GHA Groth)
Salinity: normal
Temperature: 23-25
Size: 200 DT 100L Sump
Age: 11 months (+ 2 years before i brought it)
Top Up: manual 15L a week
Type:
Problem Started: today
Water Changes: 50-75L a F/N
Fish: lots


/// More Information


OK, so i cleaned my scrubber last night, i had noticed my skimmer had started to collect more than it had been in the last few weeks. Normal collection is 3/4 full (400mlish) every 10 days or so. It increaded to around 1.2L in a week, nothing huge, but still.

The scrubber is only new, not really doing anything much, but its slowly starting to being my GHA into a decreasing stage (tank prob 70% covered atm)

So i emptied the skimmer this AM, got home from work, and it was overfull, and the drain pipe had fallen into the sump (no mess :)) so i fixed that, the water was clear, so i just put it back into the sump. Came back 60 min later, and it was going mad.


SO, i have changed nothing in a few weeks, what can make a skimmer go crazy like that? the skimmate is water like. To combat it, i have slowed the flow down to around 1/2 3/4 but im still getting the same bubble in the skimmer (as normal opperation)

Skimmer is a birlin XL (150-400G tank rated, skimmer is WELL over sized for the tank, but its been perfect.

 

[MTG]

id say its due to chaging your system with the scrubber, the tank will take a few months to stabilize again

 

[alan]

yer, but the scrubber should be removing crap, not adding it.... i dont mind the additional crap coming out, but when it runs rich and floods, its a PAIN (wrong lid)

 

[MTG]

could be many things, for starters the systems unstable. you have caused an imbalance in the ecosystem. changing the way the system works will always have negative effects until everything adapts to the change. what did you make the scrubber out of. (you dont need a scrubber to combat hair algae)

 

[chimaera]

Has the level of air intake changed? I am far from a skimmer expert, but it took a while of changing the dial on my tunze 9002 to stop it overflowing constantly, basically filling with water. Too much air and it overflowed, too little and it didn't fill at all. Which makes me think you are suddenly adding too much air, causing the constant bubble overflow.

Just a thought.

 

[MagicJ]

I am not sure how that skimmer is adjusted but could you have knocked something when you where cleaning the scrubber?

 

[MTG]

Interesting as this morning my skimmer went nuts and over filled for the first time in months! Realy green skimate to :eek:

 

[alan]

Skimmer is in the corner, didn't touch it at all. It did look like it was pulling more air, but I also think the flow went up too. There might have been some hair in the lines or something.

Scrubber is a DT return PVC knitters canvis. I have a problem. I brought a 2nd hand.tank, found out it was full of phosphates, gha took over, and I mean took over. Large skimmer (cost me $25) and the scrubber is the plan to fix it. I also dose starva every week to keep phosphate down as I remove the GHA.

Skimmer is happy now with less flow, tho the return still looks.at the same rate..