[Lurch]

Well. This is a first for me. I have safeties on my overflows so that if the water level goes to high it will trip the gfci on my pump. Unfortunately this happened today while my skimmer was 3/4s full with nasty carbon dosed skim mate. And the extra few gallons of water overflowed my skimmer throwing all that into my sump and creating a lot of nasty foam.
20151105_140416.jpg Photo by younggmy | Photobucket

So far I left the main return pump off, fish have plenty of flow And a heater to keep them alive for quite a while without the filtration in the basement sump. skimmed about 10 gallons of foam from the sump, and I am letting the skimmer skim, keeping it clean. Plan to do a 30g water change, and will obviously do nitrate a.d po4 tests. Anything else I should do? Always keep plenty of carbon and gfo in my reactors but they are run of the main return. Should I add carbon or gfo to sump?

 

[Lurch]

http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/younggmy/media/Mobile Uploads/20151105_140416.jpg.html]

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[Lurch]

Update. Did no3 and po4 tests. No3 came out slight pink. Somewhere between 0.5-1 on salifert kit. Po4 came out very very slightly blue, lighter that the 0.03 mark on salifert kit. Skimmer is skimming like mad and pulling out all kinds of crap. Forgot to mention tank specs in original post so here they are incase they are needed. 120g display upstairs with 100g Rubbermaid sump in masement. Right around 120g total water volume accounting for rock. Skimmer is sro5000 int. Carbon dosed with vinegar. Just reached zero a week or two ago so I cut recently cut dose from 120 to 60ml a day. run 1.5c each of carbon and gfo in brs reactors. Current water change schedule is shaky because of school so it varies, usually 20g bi weekly. Current plan is to let my beast skimmer do its job. Once it's stops skimming like crazy I'll restart the return pump and hope for the best. If anyone has any other advise it would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[SIR PATRICK]

Ive done the same a few times...

I also leave the pump off and let the skimmer re-skim the sump for a few hours before turning it back on.

Never had an ill effect yet.

 

[fishnerd1]

I put an a to switch on my skimmer overflow after a few floods. Cheap and reliable safety check. Of course it hasn't happened since I set it up.

 

[MatroxD]

Same here as everyone else.. Skimmers have overflowed, but back into the sump lots of times over the years. It never bothered anything in any of my systems, except me knowing that there were a few days of skim production lost..

On my 110 and the first system i had an apex on, I also set up float and moisture sensors, that would alert me, and shut off the skimmer, when water reached certain heights.. This tank, I haven't done that "yet", as on the last two, I pretty much have attempted to keep things a little simpler. I do have a drain jug on the skimmer with a valve. I only open the valve manually and drain the cup. I never would sleep if it was just constantly open. But, the one thing I do always, once a day "at least", is to look at the skim level in the collection cup.. But sometimes, like in your situation, accidents just happen..

Hopefully all is cleaned from that skim. I can only imagine the smell from it..

from my note 4 on tapatalk

 

[Lurch]

Thanks for the replies. It was a smelly mess to clean up but everything seems to be doing fine. My skimmer is OP fpr my system so it only took ot about an hour or so to reskim and calm down. Skimmed about 4 gallons of nasty brown water out then went back to normal skim production so I decided to restart the pump before I went to class. Everything seems to be doing fine today. I couldn't belive how much foam it produced though. Probably a 4x2x1ft area filled with stinky brown foam!

 

[tdb560reef]

If you have an apex and breakout box. you can add a float switch to the skimmer lid to mitigate this in the future. When the switch is triggered have it shut off the skimmer pump.

 

[Lurch]

Thanks for the tip. I have been dreaming of an apex for a long time. Wish I had the funds. Last time I roughly priced one out for my multilevel system (basement+upstairs) I think it was over $1500. Been on the top of my list for upgrades for a long time. Plan to do a major overhaul on the tank sometime early 2016. Might just bite the bullet and buy one.