Reefs.org Forums

[nicholasbithell]

Okay to start off I am doing a fishless cycle in my new 90 gallon RR, everything has been going well until I came home today to find the floor soaked and the protein skimmer making so much foam it is over flowing in seconds, I added a "Bio-Extract Stress Coat" this morning and am wondering if that is what caused it and what I can do to fix it. I have a coralife Super needle wheel skimmer. I have had to turn it off because all it does is over flow and is spitting microbubbles into the tank like crazy. Any Advice?

[Saltlick]

I have found that you NEVER add something to a tank and turn your back on it. I am not talking about livestock,
but it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep an eye on that either, lol. But almost anything that is not water or salt seems
to set skimmers off. I am also wondering why a fishless cycle would lead you to add stress reducers? Care to enlighten?
If you HAVE to run the skimmer, i.e. there is rock curing in there, cut off the air supply. That MIGHT knock the skimmate
down a notch.

[nicholasbithell]

Ha well as for me adding the stress reducer it was because I had a nagging partner asking me to please put it in there because it has "Bio-Extracts" and is suppose to cycle a tank quicker but it is for freshwater use so to get the nagging to stop I just put it in there thinking it wouldnt cause any issues because it just wont work.
Then I have been led to this problem. How long do you think before it goes back to normal?

[AZDesertRat]

Stresscoat products make skimmers go crazy. You will neeed to readjust your skimmer cup or cut back on the air for a few days until it passes. For what its worth I would forget the miracle additives and supplements and stick with the natural process. You will have a more successful system and it will be more stable.

[Saltlick]

Haha, yep, that's how it goes. I agree, I think it is best to wait. I even thought I had
beat the system, I had a trend downwards of all my bad levels so I thought I would get
a jump on the "official" end of the cycle, and I went and got some fish and a snail crew.
Well, lo and behold, IN ONE DAY, I get home from work and my tank is covered in diatoms.
I was totally trippin.But it was good to get the snails for that matter alone. You can really get
a realization on how much they love algae and how efficient they are when you look at PVC pipe.
I had a spray bar that I made to return water to the tank and it went from white to brown in a day.
I stuck a snail to it and woke up the next morning and all 4 feet of it were white again. Of course,
every other surface in the tank was still brown, but it takes a 20 snail crew a bit to finish off the rocks
with all their nooks and crannies. And sand is tough, too.

But yes, additives tend to have things in them that act as surfactants or something, cause it can
be like Old Faithful when they hit the skimmer. Run some carbon in your loop somehow and starve
the skimmer for air a bit and you'll get back there eventually. I finally also relented and drilled a hole
in my skimmate cup with a dremel and siliconed a tube into the hole and ran that to a bucket.
I hated to drill my skimmer, but you can't always be there to empty the cup. This way the excess
skimmate runs off to a larger collection point and can save your butt.