dead fish and protein skimmers

monotreme_man · 07/24/2009, 06:52 AM

i am still getting used to the whole skimmer thing.
mostly, it (msx250) just hums along, needing
attention avery 5 days or so (i have a quite light bioload).

over the last 3 days, it has overflowed spectacularly twice,
with noxious oozing out all its holes. at the same time,
one of my newish banggai cardinalfish has gone missing.

are these events likely related? is the fish rotting in
some invisible part of the tank and the skimmer is just coping?

der_wille_zur_macht · 07/24/2009, 06:57 AM

That could be the case.

Have you added, removed, or changed anything else? Changed how you do water changes or topoff? Dosed anything? ect. had your hands in the tank a ton? Changed food? There are lots of different things that can trigger a skimmer overflow.

monotreme_man · 07/24/2009, 06:59 AM

nothing else changed. the fish had been in QT for 25 days or so, and
in the DT for 3 days.

joeychitwood · 07/24/2009, 09:59 AM

My current tank is five years old and is very stable, and occasionally, the skimmer goes nuts and fills the cup in a day or less. A fish count and close inspection of the corals shows no changes. I don't know why it happens, but soon, the skimmer returns to normal. Keep an eye on the tank, but my guess is that this is normal and not a sign of a serious problem.

ReefWreak · 07/24/2009, 10:06 AM

Its been years since I had an overflow, but in the last week I've had it happen twice. The only change in my tank has been snot looking strands of algae that I think are bacterial mats related to my vodka dosing (it was a complaint frequently encountered when vodka dosing first started getting popular).

thegrun · 07/24/2009, 10:51 AM

Unless the skimmate was sitting in the collection cup for several days, I doubt the overflow was the problem. An overflow is only putting back into the tank what was already there.

07/24/2009, 06:52 AM	#1
monotreme_man Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Southern California Posts: 228	dead fish and protein skimmers i am still getting used to the whole skimmer thing. mostly, it (msx250) just hums along, needing attention avery 5 days or so (i have a quite light bioload). over the last 3 days, it has overflowed spectacularly twice, with noxious oozing out all its holes. at the same time, one of my newish banggai cardinalfish has gone missing. are these events likely related? is the fish rotting in some invisible part of the tank and the skimmer is just coping?

07/24/2009, 06:57 AM	#2
der_wille_zur_macht Team RC Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NY Posts: 17,749	That could be the case. Have you added, removed, or changed anything else? Changed how you do water changes or topoff? Dosed anything? ect. had your hands in the tank a ton? Changed food? There are lots of different things that can trigger a skimmer overflow. __________________ Inconveniencing marine life since 1992 "It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)

07/24/2009, 06:59 AM	#3
monotreme_man Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Southern California Posts: 228	nothing else changed. the fish had been in QT for 25 days or so, and in the DT for 3 days.

07/24/2009, 09:59 AM	#4
joeychitwood Schrödinger's Mod Join Date: Apr 2001 Posts: 3,488	My current tank is five years old and is very stable, and occasionally, the skimmer goes nuts and fills the cup in a day or less. A fish count and close inspection of the corals shows no changes. I don't know why it happens, but soon, the skimmer returns to normal. Keep an eye on the tank, but my guess is that this is normal and not a sign of a serious problem.

07/24/2009, 10:06 AM	#5
ReefWreak Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Astoria, NYC Posts: 10,159	Its been years since I had an overflow, but in the last week I've had it happen twice. The only change in my tank has been snot looking strands of algae that I think are bacterial mats related to my vodka dosing (it was a complaint frequently encountered when vodka dosing first started getting popular).

07/24/2009, 10:51 AM	#6
thegrun Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Garden Grove, Ca Posts: 17,023	Unless the skimmate was sitting in the collection cup for several days, I doubt the overflow was the problem. An overflow is only putting back into the tank what was already there.