Octopuss Hang On Back Skimmer

I am new to the Saltwater Tank Hobby and I am having a problem understanding the Skimmer I have. What would make it work fine and then start to fill up the cup with water? I had a guy from the store tell me to move the cup up higher and I did that and it worked better. Now it is filling it up again and it overflowed on to my floor and it lost 5-10 gallons of water while I was sleeping? I unplugged it and don't know what is causing it???

 

Are you dosing additives? Is this happening after feeding?

 

Have you used tap water conditioner? That normally makes skimmers overflow.

 

I did use a tap water conditioner. So now what do I do? If I plug it back in will it still overflow?

 

unfortuantely yes it will still overfolw untill the tap conditioner has broken down. Ozone breaks it down. In future use RO/DI water to avoid this problem

 

I am new to this...sorry. What is RO/DI Water? How do I get Ozone into the water to break it down? I feel so stupid with this, but I love learning about it and appreciate your help!

 

RO water is reverse osmosis. Its basically when all the bad stuff has been filtered out. Your pet store should be able to sell it to you.
Altho ozone breaks down the tap cond. you have to buy an ozonizer to get it, and they aren't cheap. There may be another way to remove the cond. (a cheaper route) but i dont know what it is - perhaps someone else can help you with that.

 

i have an octopus skimmer and I use tap water with conditioner, never had a problem :s

 

good cause i use Conditioned Tap too and my octopus just came in the mail. Got to go to the doctors then go set her up.

 

+1
It sounds to me like you have your collection cup set way to low