skimmer trouble. Too many bubbles in tank?

[bsauer]

Hi every body. Well my skimmer has been working fine for almost 2 months. Then yesterday I hooked up a canister filter that contains some phosban, nitrate sponge & biochem zorb. I almost instantly noticed that my skimmer started releasing alot of fine air bubbles into the sump ...which are now filling my 125 gal tank. It has never done that before. I also noticed that the bubbles in the chamber went down real low (like they do after a big water change).

So I unpluged it overnight..tried it again today and now it is even worse. Tons of bubbles are coming out of my skimmer return and now the bubbles in the chamber are going crazy and just pushing all the water straight out into the collection cup.

Does anyone know what may be causing this? I have not changed the water level in my sump and none of the air ways seem to be blocked. It is an Aqua Clear skimmer with a Rio pump and uses a venturi.

Oh, by the way I also just added my first fish today, but the bubbles had already started before he was introduced. However the craziness in the chamber didn't start until after I added him.

Please help...should I get a new skimmer or is this normal?

[bsauer]

Well. I left the skimmer off overnight. Took it out. Cleaned it. Changed my carbon and rinsed all of my prefilters.

I have been running it all day. It is no longer shoving all of the water out...but it is still putting tons of tiny bubbles into my tank.

Has anyone ever had this happen before? I'm wondering if it will stop on its own or if I need to get a new skimmer.

Please help!

[motorslave]

Any change in the water can potentially cause a skimmer to go nuts. I would say its the media in the canister. Not an un-common thing. The bubbles will probably be an issue till everything that caused it to freak is gone from the water. Skimmers can be very touchy. It is best to do one thing at a time when adding/subtracting or changing things in the tank on a chemical or addative basis. That way you can narrow it down to the culprit!

Robert

[bsauer]

Originally Posted by motorslave

Any change in the water can potentially cause a skimmer to go nuts. I would say its the media in the canister. Not an un-common thing. The bubbles will probably be an issue till everything that caused it to freak is gone from the water. Skimmers can be very touchy. It is best to do one thing at a time when adding/subtracting or changing things in the tank on a chemical or addative basis. That way you can narrow it down to the culprit!

Robert

Thank you Motorslave. I am currently trying to attach different kinds of sifting devices to the skimmers water outlet...to see if anything succeeds at collecting the bubbles. I appreciate your reply.