skimmer going crazy

[boosst]

my problem is that my skimmer cup will collect a small amount over a day or so but not enough to be emptied every day, but every once in a while i can check it and it will be about empty and then 3 hours later is is overflowing? we are not spraying any cleaners or anything in the air to agitate it, nor does it happen after feeding. it is pretty random. once or twice during the day but mostly at night. any ideas? thanks

[sasscuba]

what kind of skimmer?

[bgiles11]

Here's a couple of thoughts. First maybe it is due to water level. Some skimmers are very sensitive to water leverl such as coralife. next question is do you run a wet foam? Skimmers can usually go nuts when a wet foam is ran. Do you have any sand dwelling creatures? Such as stars, nasuris snails? If they are turning up the sand bed at times releasing dettrius then that could be the problem. BTW it would help all of us out if you gave us more info such as tank size, skimer model, sump, etc.

[boosst]

it is a 100 gallon tank with a 20 gal sump, no refugium. the skimmer is an Octopus recirc 150. i do have about 15 nasuris and 1 sand sifting star. my ato float switch went out so i have to manually top off twice a day, so maybe it is due to water level dropping...? i have a hose hooked to the drain on the side of the skimmer cup and it drains into a water bottle below, so my skim is very wet...no foam. when i lower the water level in the skimmer to produce a drier skim, then it never collect anything. i am new to this so any help would be great. thanks again

[useskaforevil]

i have the same problem, i have a ASM G2 with an ATO. the skimmer is practically useless becaus it either pulls nothing or everything. and even if it pulls nothing it will freak out and overflow at times.

[Icefire]

do you have baffles in the sump?
Note the water level when it overflow

[bgiles11]

What type of livestock do you have? How much are you feeding? If you are not feeding, or not any type of bio load, then you may not have alot of organics for it to skim. Some skimmers can be tricky. Keep playing with it. I prefer a more dry skim myself. It comes out pretty dark.

[boosst]

i only have 2 fish in there now but they didn't go in until this week and this has been a problem since the start. i do have 3 baffles in the sump and haven't noticed any pattern to water level in sump. my skim is very wet and very light in color. if i dry up the skim anymore then i don't get anything. no feeding was done until this week also, so i don't think that is the problem. keep the ideas coming!