Protein Skimmer Overflowing

Yesterday I did a water change, and when I looked underneath my aquarium this morning I saw that the protein skimmer was overflowing with bubbles. I tinkered with it a little, it's not overflowing as much, but it started to bubble in the sump, which I heard is also bad. I was looking online and this website (https://support.coralvue.com/935227-Skimmer-overflowing) said that there was an unwanted chemical reaction due to extra chemicals in the sump. It said to do %20 water changes over the course of a month, and to "add a good amount of fresh activated carbon to the system." Is this a good idea? Do you think that a chemical reaction is causing this? If not, what should I do?


Things to note:

• We rinsed the protein skimmer out and removed all blockages (didn't work)
• it just started doing this today
• The water level in the sump is the same as it has always been
• We got the Protein skimmer off of Ebay; it came with the tank we bought (also off of Ebay)
• It is flowing upwards off the lid (as seen at the end of the video)

Here's a video on it:

 

Update: It's getting worse. The bubbles that are overflowing have gotten to the point where it's nearly pouring out of the sump. We've managed to get rid of a lot of the bubbles, but they will just keep on coming back...

 

Hi,

I realize that I'm a little late to the party. Did you solve the issue? If you're not using RODI water, mine always overflowed like crazy when I used water with a water conditioner. Otherwise I would check the depth of your skimmer and the GAC is never a bad idea. What skimmer are you using?

Kyle

 

I'm not sure if the bubbles are still a problem, I'm visiting my Dad so I left my Mom to work it out, but when I was last there we put a small amount of activated carbon in there, and we were following the instructions from this website: https://support.coralvue.com/935227-Skimmer-overflowing

It has been about a month since, so if the instructions worked, it should (in theory) be fixed now.

As for the skimmer, no one in my family has any idea. We got the tank for $400 on Craigslist with EVERYTHING (which was quite the steal). Unfortunately, EVERYTHING came with an old protein skimmer in which we can't even take off the lid to clean inside. We didn't even get an instruction booklet or manual, but at least the skimmer works. We have been talking about replacing it for a while, but nothing official yet.

EDIT: extra info

 

I'm not sure if the bubbles are still a problem, I'm visiting my Dad so I left my Mom to work it out, but when I was last there we put a small amount of activated carbon in there, and we were following the instructions from this website: https://support.coralvue.com/935227-Skimmer-overflowing

It has been about a month since, so if the instructions worked, it should (in theory) be fixed now.

As for the skimmer, no one in my family has any idea. We got the tank for $400 on Craigslist with EVERYTHING (which was quite the steal). Unfortunately, EVERYTHING came with an old protein skimmer in which we can't even take off the lid to clean inside. We didn't even get an instruction booklet or manual, but at least the skimmer works. We have been talking about replacing it for a while, but nothing official yet.

EDIT: extra info

Yes that's quite the steal for any size tank to come with everything. Let me know how the skimmer is working when you see it again. If you decide you're in the market for a new skimmer let me know, I just got a new one for my 75G and spent hours researching them. I ended up getting a Reef Octopus HOB, changing my mind and getting a sump, then getting a Reef Octopus INT 110, changing my mind, and getting a Bubble Magus Curve 5. I liked the RO 110, but it seemed a bit noisy, I'm quite happy with the curve now that I have it.