[unclejed]

Hello gang, I need opinions about letting the skimmer keep running or shutting it down when I go on vacation. After a recent episode of it producing excessively (per the post "skimmer overproduces") I am leery now of running it when I am away. It will only be 1 week. I left it running when I went away a couple of months ago, but the more I think about it, if the person watching the tank for me only comes once a day and the skimmer over flows in the morning.....well, you know. It is in the sump too and we don't want all that junk going back into the tank. What do you all think?

[jimw369]

Whats the difference between shutting the skimmer off or letting it run and overflow? Either way the crap is still in your tank. Get a powerhead to break the surface of the water in your tank and see if that helps the skimmer calm down in a day or two. Id leave it run but thats just me. If you have lots of LR and DSB and low bio load you should be ok. Also I would be sure I didnt have any excess nutrient issues before leaving if I was going to shut down the skimmer.

[Adam J]

I would do a water change and leave it on.Even if it over skims it will remove some of excess nutrient.Some is better than none.

[unclejed]

Thanks jim but the difference is that that the proteins and "junk" in the skimmer is concentrated and in essence more of a real poison.

[WILLIAM1]

You can make a drain hole in near the top of the collection cup and run a hose from there to a bucket to collect the overflow while your gone.

[unclejed]

Thanks william, already done but I was still leery from the episode of "skimmer overproduces" post. When it happened it would fill a milk jug in about 1 hour or so and feed back anyway.

[WILLIAM1]

So plum another line into the bucket back to the sump just for security.

[demonsquirt]

Depends on your stock and water readings. High fish load and or any ammonia then this could be bad.
If readings are good and your not overstocked then i agree with water change and maybe even some additional flow unless you have crazy flow already. The added flow would held the LR and LS convert ammonia into nitrogen better.

[Roady]

You could put the skimmer on a digital timer with multiple setting and set it to cut on and off every hour or so. You can get one at walmart for around $16 $17 I think.

[unclejed]

Interesting notion Justin, however, whenever you turn off the skimmer and then turn it back on you have to adjust it. I don't think it would work but it did get me thinking.

[Roady]

thats true, I didn't think of that. I use an AQUA C Remora. You don't have to do any adjustments on it, so that's where my line of thought was coming from. When I had my 37gal I was afraid it was rated to high for such a small tank, so I had it on a timer to only skim part of the time.

[jimw369]

Originally Posted by Roady

thats true, I didn't think of that. I use an AQUA C Remora. You don't have to do any adjustments on it, so that's where my line of thought was coming from. When I had my 37gal I was afraid it was rated to high for such a small tank, so I had it on a timer to only skim part of the time.

Cant over skim a tank IMO. NEVER have I EVER heard of a problem from over skimming.

I can show you hundreds of threads with problems caused by underskimming. Just something to think about.