I need a quick skimmer tutorial...problem

Sometimes my skimmers go nuts and pump tons of water into the collection cups. Since I have the cup drains closed, the water fills up the cup, uproots the lid, and overflows back into the sump, carrying with it a bunch of poop buildup.

So how do you guys deal with your collection cup drains? Do you ever get periods of heavy water collection instead of foam scum collection in the cups? Do you have a drainage hose going somewhere like a 5 gallon bucket? I thought about doing this but I am afraid the 5 gallon bucket may fill up and overflow and eventually drain my system down.

 

How is your skimmer fed, by a pump, or gravity over flow?

 

They are both octopus skimmers. One of them is fed by a single sicci pump, and the other is fed by two sicci pumps. There does not to seem to be any problem with my water supply or my air supply.
Most times these skimmers work flawlessly and every week I dump the gunk. But sometimes they go freaking nuts as described above.

 

I meant the water supply going in.

I had the same problem with my Octopus skimmers. I fed them directly from the overflow. Then I T'd off my return pump & gave them constant water & it solved the problem.

Is you skimmer inside or outside of the sump?

Another cause could be air restrition. Something getting sucked into the air hose inlet, salt creep, or something

 

The skimmers are in the sump. They have a constant water supply. They stand in even water, about 6-8" in the water as instructed. They are NOT fed by the overflow.

I'll check for air restriction and the like later on. I just cleaned these skimmers recently and was building a nice scum. Working perfectly and then BOOM major overflow.

I would like to re-state my main question in a more straightforward way before it gets lost....

Q: What is your strategy for your collection cup drain. Do you keep it closed? Do you drain it off somewhere? Where do you drain it?

 

Try to raise it up out of the water just a little, you might have too much back pressure.

I have my drains ran to a PCV pipe that snakes around the room & ends up in the sump pump pit. Once a week I close off the making it over flow for a few minutes & flush out the collection cup.

The bad possiblity of doing this is that in an overflow situation you may empty your sump.

 

When this happens are you adding anything to the tank just before? The only time my skimmer dose that is if I add ocean wonders reef putty. Then it will foam like crazy for a hour or two then back to normal.
-Bill

 

On the collection side of the skimmer, we run it into a 5 gallon jug but that jug is designed that if it overflows it goes back into the sump.  Had the skimmer overflow 1 to many times for us.