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Connie 
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 Topic: Mistery solved Problem w/fuel & skimmer
Posted: February 20 2010 at 8:26am |
Came home last night to 55 gallons of water on the basement floor. Temp @ 70 and SG so low it wouldn't read.
My skimmer runs into a 5 gallon bucket. However, yesterday something set it off and it went crazy. I cant think of a single thing I put in the tank to cause this. The only thing I have done is remove green stars (lots) and I did pull them out. The only other thing is I added fuel.
Anyone have any ideas as to what caused this mess?
Good news: Everything looks great this morning. I lost a larytail anthias but thats it...
Edited by Connie - February 20 2010 at 10:40am
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I have flying monkeys and I'm not afraid to use them.
180 gallon money pit that I love.....
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Tresa
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 8:48am |
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Yea!!!! I am glad everything is ok :)
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thefu
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 9:16am |
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I would say that removing (killing) all the green stars most likely did it. That probably sent a lot of organics into the water and make the skimmer crazy. If you had an ATO you could have had a major issue as your salinity would crash. I would maybe put the collection cup (1g) over the level of the water in the sump and pipe a way for it to roll back into the tank. Obviously this would mean more careful attention to the collection vessel (when it is nrunning normally) but less chance of draining out your tank or crashing the salinity (when it goes haywire).
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dew2loud1
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 9:42am |
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By fuel do you mean vodka, or another carbon source?
If you just started doing this, this adds a giant bloom of bacteria which are in turned skimmed out. When dosing you will see a huge increase of skimmate so it is completely likely that this caused what happened.
Other possible causes are plugged venturi on the skimmer thats causing it to pull in too much water and not enough air, does the skimmer look the same as far as air input?
Do you have clams that could have spawned, i 've seen a clam spawn and a massive bristle worm spawn both cause the skimmer to go crazy...
If you want to collect skimmate into a bucket look into the DIY ping pong ball shutoff or think about investing in an auto shut off collection unit like they sell at reefspecialty.
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Connie
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 9:46am |
By fuel I mean the coral growth fuel you by at the LFS. White bottle
I do have one clam but I am thinking it could have been the removal of green star polyps. I have never heard of the ping pong ball shut off. I am going to look into it.
Thanks,
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I have flying monkeys and I'm not afraid to use them.
180 gallon money pit that I love.....
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Connie
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 9:46am |
Add a blennie to the death toll... 
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I have flying monkeys and I'm not afraid to use them.
180 gallon money pit that I love.....
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Ryan Thompson
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 9:51am |
I do not like using the drains that skimmers are using these days. My new Bubble Magus has one but I will NEVER use it. Not after reading what happened to Steve Weast's (sp?) tank. You know the Oregon Reef guy.
His skimmer drained 90% of his tank and he came home from a vacation to complete death. All because he used the drain on his skimmer cup.
It just spells a disaster waiting to happen IMO. I would rather have all that stuff just go back into my tank and take my chances there. Especially since they are finding out that the majority of skimmate is actually Calcium and not organic material.
Edited by Ryan Thompson - February 20 2010 at 9:53am
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Connie
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 9:56am |
Ryan,
I couldnt agree more. I was thinking the same thing last night. I would have much rather had it go back in the tank than all over the floor. I am VERY luck that I only lost two fish. Its odd that my coral actually seem to have liked it. My SPS are out and feeding like no other.
Since I run a canister that I change weekly, I think I might leave the skimmer off for a few weeks and see how things do. 
Yes Petersen, I did just say that. It goes against everything I hold dear but I am going to give it a shot and see.
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I have flying monkeys and I'm not afraid to use them.
180 gallon money pit that I love.....
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Ryan Thompson
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 9:59am |
Connie,
While I agree with turning the skimmer off for a little bit and seeing how things do, it might be beneficial to wean the tank off the skimmer. Like turn it off for a day and then run it for 2. That way the bacteria in the tank can populate and the system can start oxygenating itself elsewhere. I don't know if that is really needed but just an idea I had come to my head.
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Connie
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 10:13am |
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With a system that is two years old and has a 90 gallon ref. (70 water) and tons of plants, do you really think I would still need to do that???
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I have flying monkeys and I'm not afraid to use them.
180 gallon money pit that I love.....
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Adam Blundell
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 10:35am |
 Connie wrote:
Yes Petersen, I did just say that. It goes against everything I hold dear but I am going to give it a shot and see. |
I love the preemptive disclaimer! 
Adam
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Connie
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 10:44am |
The fact that water was shooting in the air, my power strip flipped the braker thus no light. Well this morning looking at the skimmer I found the problem. I have a recurculation skimmer. A huge snail I found in my main display a few weeks ago ( not a turbo and have no idea where it came from) had gotten down in the outlet and was blocking the water flow. With no where else to go, it went up.......
Anyone want snail for dinner tonight??
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I have flying monkeys and I'm not afraid to use them.
180 gallon money pit that I love.....
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downhill_biker
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 10:56am |
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Wow, I am sorry to hear this. Never a good situation if you have something leaking and the tank is topping off and lowering the salinity. It is very dangerous and you are lucky that you only lost 2 fish, I am surprised more coral didn't die.
I know that there are a few companies that make overflow cups that if they fill up a float plugs the line and it stops making foam. AquaC has a couple different sizes. But...your problem wasn't actually caused by the skimmer overflowing anyways, right? Still might be a good idea to get an auto off overflow cup. I know I have been wanting to get one for a while.
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tileman
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 11:43am |
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I'm glad to hear the damage was minimal Connie. No matter how careful you are, there is always something that can go wrong. Just part of the hobby.
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MadReefer
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 1:15pm |
Sorry to hear about that and I'm glad you caught it when you did. It could have been worse.
I read about someone making a bucket with a toilet stopper added to the lid so that when it was full it would seal up and nothing more could go into it. This stops the skimmer with back pressure. Or you could just make a drain that if you don't dump the bucket in time, or something like this happens, it just drains back into the tank.
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chk4tix
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 1:22pm |
Ryan Thompson wrote:
I do not like using the drains that skimmers are using these days. My new Bubble Magus has one but I will NEVER use it. Not after reading what happened to Steve Weast's (sp?) tank. You know the Oregon Reef guy.
His skimmer drained 90% of his tank and he came home from a vacation to complete death. All because he used the drain on his skimmer cup.
It just spells a disaster waiting to happen IMO. I would rather have all that stuff just go back into my tank and take my chances there. Especially since they are finding out that the majority of skimmate is actually Calcium and not organic material.
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I have a drain on mine, but I also have a wire connected to my ACIII so when the water/skimmate hits a certain level the skimmer shuts down....
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OceanBlueSky
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Posted: February 20 2010 at 2:25pm |
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I HAD a drain on my skimmer, same situation happened to me. I now empty the cup every few days.
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Arthur
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Connie
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Posted: February 21 2010 at 9:40am |
Thanks everyone. Somehow it makes you feel better knowing your not alone. I can chalk up two fireshrimp to the death toll but all in all, I was lucky.......
I am capping the cup today...
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I have flying monkeys and I'm not afraid to use them.
180 gallon money pit that I love.....
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thefu
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Posted: February 21 2010 at 10:17am |
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Yep another story where a controller and a $6 float switch could have prevented a disaster. Keith has the right approach. If I were going to use a collection vessel it would have to have an auto shut off as well as a float switch to my controller so I would be covered if either failed. The nice part is the float switch can set off an email warning as well.
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DanhNgo
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Posted: February 22 2010 at 10:29pm |
Connie,
I'm attaching a collection vessel to my drain, but it has an auto shut off. It's made by Aqua C and when it's full, it stops the air and stoping the skimmer from skimming. There are other brand and I would highly recommend it. Good luck.
Danh
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