Why does my protein skimmer only seem to skim when the lights are out????

[150reef]

I have a 150 reef, w halides/vho lights. I have a Berlin turbo hang on skimmer. It seems to be working great, I empty the cup once a week and it is loaded with dark smelly mud like stuff caked up all around the collection cup. I have noticed that when the lights are on the foam does not rise up high enough to push wastes out. But then about an hour after the lights go out the foam rises up to the very top of the column with nice dry foam. I have noticed during the day I have never seen the foam over flowing at all.....Anyone have any insight on this. Is it normal?

Thanks

[Mildewy]

When do you feed? Feedings cause skimmers to stop producing. If it only skims at night then I would just shut it off during the day...save some electricity.

[Physh1]

Do you add any tank supplements/chemicals at night. Feed at night, etc. Some chemicals will make skimmers go nuts, some make them stop producing all together. Same with some foods....

Cameron

[150reef]

I do not add any foods or supplements at night.
In fact, I only feed every three days.
I may start to just shut it off during the day when
it is not skimming if I can't figure out why.

[jciaccio]

I notice that also. It may have something to do with ph changing throughout the day/night period.

[150reef]

I do get a PH swing that runs from 7.9 at night to 8.4 during the day. I am hoping eliminate my PH swing all together by putting a 55gal sump under my tank which will have lights that kick on at night time.

[jciaccio]

Let us know if it changes anything. We could probably ask somebody here that uses the ecosystem (mud filtration) system. They have to have lights on over the sump/refugim 24hours a day.

[Court_Jester]

Do you have any kind of algae issues? The algae may be consuming the DOC before the skimmer can effectively pull it out during the day. Then at night, the algae stops consuming and the skimmer is able to do it's job.

Alturnatively, the algae may be leaching at night and the skimmer is pulling this out.

Just a theory. Hard to say really. What kind of pump is running your skimmer? You may consider trying a more powerful pump...

[150reef]

I do have some algae. It only builds up on the glass. It is light brown/green color and I usually clean the glass every 3 days with a magnet. It only forms on the glass. My nitrates are at 140+ right now and I am working on getting those down (that is another story). I hope when I get the nitrates down the alga will become much less.

Thanks

[honeybee]

How much time between lights out and skimmer foam? It could be a question of heat.

How much heat around the skimmer. When the light go off your air temp may drop resulting in smaller bubbles. Smaller bubbles = dry foam.

Frank

[150reef]

Frank, there is lots of heat by the skimmer at night. I have MH lights in a closed cover, the fan pulls the hot air out on the end that my skimmer is on. So the fan is basically blowing hot air directly on the skimmer. At night the lights go off, no heat.....
Could this be why??? Anyone else on this thought??

Thanks Frank, that does make sense!!

[jciaccio]

If you put any part of your body in the tank/waterr the oils from your skin stops the skimmer from working for awhile. Are you feeding by hand or anything? Wish they would have told me that along time ago. It took me a year before I learned that and the whole time I thought my skimmer was a pos! It was just me! :)

[150reef]

No, I don't feed by hand. I think it may be the heat blowing on the skimmer, it must be 90+degrees. At night the lights go out and about an hour after that the skimmer starts skimming like crazy.....I am going to have to look into moving the skimmer....
If that works then I will know it was the heat from the lights.....
I will keep you guys updated on what happens....