skimmer going crazy during feeding?

[jrod11]

I have an ASM G3 skimmer on my tank and never had this problem until now.

I used to feed my fish flake food or frozen mysis shrimp. I recently switched to a homemade blend of multiple types of high end food that was thrown into a blender from the local reef community.

my fish go crazy over the food, but the problem is that my skimmer starts overflowing when i feed. I started to turn off my skimmer during feeding, but even leaving it off for an hour after feeding it still over flows.

Does this happen to everyone else?

[stingythingy45]

Sounds like there could be a lot of oils and such from the ingredients.

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Probably more likely a bunch of really finely broken-up biological material, which nearly instantly dissolves into protiens and other components the skimmer reacts to.

IMHO the problem here is not the skimmer, it's the food dumping a bunch of nutrients into the tank. Livestock probably love it, but that food would make me nervous. This is why when I make home-made food, I chop finely by hand with a knife, then rinse away any "slime" or juices. By doing that, you get only reasonable and controllable chunks of food.

Put things in a blender and you get a smoothie puree - with lots of juice that your fish can't reall utilize, but which will cause nutrient problems and/or freak out your skimmer. This is why many people make it a practice to rinse commercially-bought frozen food where possible, to remove the unwanted liquid material.

[drparker]

+1 with what a "Will to Power" said, ditch the blender.

Oils would not be the problem they affect surface tension of the bubbles and would reduce skimmer production. This is why production drops after you have your hands in the tank.

[spleify]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15010444#post15010444 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by drparker


Oils would not be the problem they affect surface tension of the bubbles and would reduce skimmer production. This is why production drops after you have your hands in the tank.

+1

[Entropy]

+2. My skimmer always goes flat when I feed or do maintenance.

[jrod11]

I think what I will do is thaw the food in tank water and then strain out all the liquid. Thus leaving only chunks of food behind. Thanks for the input!

[jrod11]

*Edit

until this batch is gone, then i'll switch foods. Just dont want to waste.