Wet foam problem

[Skinwatch]

Hey all, I have a minor problem with my skimmer. I recently set my tank up for the first tiome last weekend and my skimmer is making too much wet foam. It is filling up the collection cup with water every couple of minutes.

I have aN Aqua Medic Turbo floater and in the booklet it says that there is no regulation necessary (no valves to trun) and that if wet foam is produced, then it should correct itself in about a day or so. It has been over a week and it won't stop!! I just added live rock and I was hoping for some insight to this frustrating problem

Thanking you in advance.

[AJP]

when you filled the tank did you use any stress coat or anything like that? Also it may need up to 3 weeks to "break in" So there is no way to regulate the flow not knobs or valves anywhere? That seems strange to me, let me do some research on that skimmer and see what I can find

[Skinwatch]

I did use an additive; Aquamedic, the stuff that helps to nuetralize some of the chlorine and other heavy metals in tap water. It seems that it may be causing the foam problem but I did a considerable water change and it did not help.

I went to my LFS and they told me that since my tank is new, then it may just be an abundance of organic materials in the tank and that I should leave the skimmer off until my tank is done cycling, which more or less means that the problem will go away in time. It seems like an easy answer to me but I am out of ideas

Again I had nothing in my tank until I added the live rock today and yesterday.

[steveyoung]

Hmmm, sounds familiar. I to have an aqua medic skimmer.
It has 2 valves on the top, mind you they don't do a think to slow the foam down. When I set mine up it did the same, also it I add any additives (stress guard etc) it goes mad and overflows everywhere.
It will settle eventually but for some reason it takes a while.

Also as soon as you add anything to the water they go mad, sometimes filling the cups in seconds rather than minutes.

I didn't seem to be able to slow mine down enough when it first went in, but it did settle in the end.

[Skinwatch]

Interesting, the consensus is that

[Skinwatch]

Interesting, the consensus is that

[Skinwatch]

Interesting. The general consesus is that I should wait awhile and the skimmer will settle down. I am just going to let the cycling happen without the use of the skimmer fopr nasow and restart it when I am ready for some tank cleaners and stuff.

[steveyoung]

If you leave the skimmer off, as I did with mine, things only seemed to get worse, then it was like starting all over again.

If you leave it on, it will settle, then they work really well, mine removes some horrible gunk and it not very nice to empty.

I have had the same problems as you when starting it up. Now it is working perfectly I turn it off for a shorter time as poss and only when I have to (puttting any stress guard etc into the tank)

Other than that it stays on.......it drives me nuts when it starts overflowing.

Did it again just the other day, now it is back to working perfectly again.
These skimmers seem like they work a little to well (if there can be such a thing)
As soon as anything goes into the water that shouldn't be there, they go into overdrive.
Can't complain I suppose.....they are only doing what they are supposed to do :-(

[Javeo]

i have the same skimmer, and mine did the same for the first weeks, i was emptying the water filled cup twice a day but now its settled down and makes some thick dark skimmate. Just let it run

[Skinwatch]

Well I was told by the guy at my LFS, someone whos advice I have begun to trust that there is no need for me to be running a skimmer when the tank is cycling.

What do you mean that it is like starting over? Do you mean in terms of the foam happening all over again?

[kennethl]

Well I was told by the guy at my LFS, someone whos advice I have begun to trust that there is no need for me to be running a skimmer when the tank is cycling.

If your starting the tank without live rock.. just adding a dead shrimp to start the culture or something similar.. I would agree with the LFS..

does this guy know you added live rock? If the answer is yes, consider looking for a new reliable source of information (searching the forums)..

in my opinion, if you add live rock you should have a skimmer running. Even if its cured live rock there will most likely be some die off. You want to have the nutriet export or nature will try to find one for you which can take the form of red slime and hair alge.

I'm not familure with your specific skimmer. is it in sump, hang on back, external? I've noticed with my in sump skimmer the water level of the sump makes a big difference.

[steveyoung]

Yep, the foam gets worse again.
I to would and did run the skimmer right through the cycling process on both my tanks

[Skinwatch]

I just added LR this last weekend and it's been in there for about 3 days. The skimmer is in the sump. I tried messing with the water levels but that didn't seem to work. I have since turned the skimmer back on and it is foaming but my hope is that with the rock it will somehow settle down. I certainly don't want to go through this again!!!

[wahshk]

I have the same skimmer with two nobs. I opened them all the way so that the water level in the skimmer was an 2 inchs below the collection cup. The skimmer never overflow since then. Now I have removed the nobs altogether and it is working perfectly. I truely believe that running the skimmer during the cycling period is very important. It will get out some of the nasty stuff that will otherwise settle in your tank and fuel the algae later on such as Phosphate and nitrate. Keep it running and you will be happy with the results after 6 months.