Eshopps S120 Cone Skimmer Overflowing

Hi All,

I bought an Eshopps S-120 cone skimmer a few weeks back. After installation the skimmer was working perfectly and a by the next day dark green gunk was coming out. Over the next 1.5 weeks the skimmer worked fine and I cleaned the collection cup a few times. All was well until I had to catch my coral nipping flame angel. The stirring up of the tank seemed to have set the skimmer off and shortly after it was overflowing no matter how I adjusted it.

I pulled the skimmer out, gave it a thorough cleaning, and tested it in freshly mixed saltwater. The skimmer has worked fine in the saltwater mix for the last 1.5 weeks. While that was happening I did a couple of 10 gallon water changes in the tank (a 90 gallon mixed reef tank).

I reinstalled the skimmer today and it immediately started to overflow.

Any thoughts on what I can do to fix this problem? I am not sure what it is in my system that is causing the skimmer to overflow. Is there something I should test for that can cause skimmers to overflow?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Did you check the venturi??Salt will build up and need to be cleared to allow enough air.If the venturi is clogged (even partially) it will cause a pressure increase and water will fill the cup.

 

Thanks for the suggestion! Yes, I did clean the venturi as well.

The part that has me stumped is that the skimmer is working perfectly in a tupperware container with only saltwater one minute and then starts overflowing as soon as I put it in the sump of my main system.

 

What is the water level in your sump?

 

Just a touch over 9 inches. The instructions recommended 8-10 inches so I split the difference. I also used 9 inches of water when I tested the skimmer with freshly mixed saltwater.

 

Odd. Is it still doing this? Any pics you can share?

 

Are you saying it's overflowing and you can't adjust it out with the knob on the return pipe?

I have a S-150 cone skimmer, and if the water is too high in the sump, it will overflow, but otherwise, it stays right on the money. It sounds to me that something skimmable was stirred up in the tank that will need to be removed, assuming the skimmer is properly adjusted.

 

Yep, Agree with all, just adjust the flow for the chamber ouput on the skimmer,
It has one of those, right?

 

Thanks for checking back. So I did another large water change and fired the skimmer back up. It was overflowing for anther 1.5days and then started to calm down a bit. It has since been running better for the last couple of days.

The best I can figure is that rearranging the tank to catch my flame angel stirred up some stuff and caused the skimmer to go crazy. It took some water changes and time for the tank to settle down.

Again, thanks for checking back!

 

Yes, that is what was happening. No matter how I adjusted it the skimmer continued to overflow. It seems that stirring up the tank when catching a fish caused my skimmer to go a little crazy.

It has since calmed down and is running as it should.