CSS 65g skimmer questions/leaking

So i picked up a Coral life super skimmer 65g used. Its setup and working great. producing a nice tea colored wet skimmate. My questions are:

1. I am SUPER afraid of overflows (had my Freshwater tanks overflow a few times). For this reason I do not use a sump/I turn off my skimmer when I am not at home. What is the real harm in turning the skimmer off other than lower oxygen levels from the surface not being agitated.

2. The skimmer seems to slowly leak. Below the collection cup, where the O-Ring is (where the collection cup screws on to the main chamber), after the skimmer has been on for a while, I notice there is a small buildup of water in this area and it leaks down the back of my tank. Any advice? I thought maybe I could just silicone the collection cup to the main chamber which would stop any leaking, and then drill a hole int he collection cup/run an airline tubing to a 1 gallon bucket which could collect the skimmate.

 

i just bought mine a weak ago, it maybe cross threaded, which is not hard to do, take the cup off and use the cup to slowly thread it back on

 

i have done that a million times. Doesnt help. Right now the collection cup is almost full and its not leaking. So i do not know what is the problem with it?

 

1-get a ball vale and connect it to the airline, and throttle it back a bit, it might still be in the break in period,2- also run a line from the ball valve into the collection cup , if it overflows , it will be sucked back in the tank3- make sure your bubble diffuser box is 1" lower the the bottom of your output tube, if its to close it will cause pressure and and back feed into the collection cup

 

Already have the ball valve connected to the airline which works good.

Still have to drill a hole in the collection cup and setup the overflow line/valve.

I dont use the diffuser box, I have about 10" of pvc with drilled holes that angles horizontally sloped into the surface of the water which helps reduced microbubbles/too much current. (DIY for the win)

 

i was thinking about doing that, and getting rid of that gob of a contraption in my 29 as well