reef octopus bh100ss

I got this skimmer about a week and a half ago. Took about three days to start really pulling some good tea colored gunk out. My problem is that I am in the middle is a red slime outbreak. I've taken steps to get rid of it. Less feeding, less light, running Cheato in my HOB filter and ordered some Phosguard to put in the filter also. But to kill the algae that's there I ran some red slime remover. It didn't really do anything to the slime but I still can't turn my skimmer on. It goes crazy and fills up in about two minutes. I done my weekly 4 gallon WC yesterday and skimmer is still going nuts. Should I do another WC. Wanting to get my skimmer back in action. Thanks !!

 

I would suggest doing another water change and trying to manually remove or siphon out the red slime. How large is your tank?

 

It's a 55 gallon. I siphoned it out yesterday and scrubbed the slime off of the rocks in the old tank water. Changed my aqua scape around some. I'm running Cheato in my filter and will also be running Phosguard in it when it comes in. Got impatient and used the Ultralife red slime killer. Didn't kill anything but I think it's because I have a poly filter thing in the filter also and it's supposed to draw out nitrates and phosphates. Didn't realize until later that it also removes medications. Thinking about getting a phosban reactor soon. Just want to get my skimmer back on but it goes nuts with this stuff in there.

 

Try running some carbon in your hob filter,good chance it will remove enough of the chemical additive so that can resume using your skimmer.

 

I'll try that. Thanks !!

 

I have heard of this working.

It may sound silly, but you have completely taken the skimmer apart and cleaned it??

 

No, the skimmer is a week old. Didn't think it needed to be cleaned ? I've been running it today since I came home from work. Probably have gotten 1 1/2 gallons from the skimmer this afternoon. Just replacing that with fresh SW.

 

You need to let your skimmer break in.Adjust the water level so that it is not spilling wet foam and water into the cup.Gradually increase the level each day,it could take several days to as long as a couple of weeks for it to break in and begin producing good skimmate.They do take some patience when new.

 

Just realiized you are using a reef octo hob.What you need to do is raise the collection cup as you can't adjust the water level.

 

The skimmer was skimming fine until I added the Ultralife red slime remover. Now it's skimming clear water like crazy. How quick can I do water changes to get this crap out of my tank ? Changed out about 7 gallons since Sunday. 55 gallon tank. About 43 gallons of water in there.