Skimmer overflow. Almost hurt house down

You might want to ask yourself, "what's the price of insurance?". A new in-sump skimmer might be more expensive than you'd like, but it's sure cheap insurance at preventing damage like this in the future.

 

This is a good read, featured on marine depots site.
http://blog.marinedepot.com/2014/07/you-should-only-buy-high-end-reef-aquarium-supplies.html?m=1

 

HOB skimmers are very prone to overflowing. I had 2 set up on different tanks and no matter what I did they overflowed on the fly with minimal upset in the tank. You really need to consider spending a little extra dough to make sure you don't go through this again. I ditched my HOB skimmers when I got home from work and my power strip was melted to the carpet.

 

I'm not convinced it was the fake coral yet - did you do a live stock count? Dose anything lately? That is strange. Glad you all were home.

 

Pretty much this. I lost a tank (a 90, coincidentally) because of a HOB skimmer. I had a tank in my work office. My skimmer had been under performing so I added a HOB that I had hanging around. It was doing its thing fine until I left on an overnight business trip. It overflowed, saturated the power strip I'd plugged in to power it (everything else was mounted) and smoked, sparked, etc. I was forced to break the tank down as a result. That's when I took a 3 year hiatus from the hobby.

Hang-on skimmers without a drain and overflow prohibiting mechanism are dangerous. Even without the power thing they can cause floods.

 

It is strange. This happened around an hour after I put it in. All fish accounted for because only 2 clown fish. Nothing new with fish or inverts. Just that rubber piece. Last time it overflowed I was there to caught it. That was from Chemi-pure.
Not sure what else but I don't understand why it could do that. Just don't know

 

When I would change out my filter pads and carbon my HOB skimmer would freak out. Putting in the fake coral added something to the water that set the skimmer off. I'm glad you caught it.

 

Hey maybe I'll win the skimmer 3reef is giving away in contest. Would he too good to be true

 

Check out the SCA line of in sump skimmers.

I'm still using one that went from my 125- to my 180!

Here's one link to one, they make many, they work awesome, and are very low $$.
http://www.scaquariums.com/sc-aquariums-sca-302-180-gallon-protein-skimmer.html

Check out Ebay for them

 

Upgraded power strip with a breaker. Mounted up and inside the stand. Now everyone is inside the stand which makes it look a little better.