Skimmer Not Working?

[zeeter]

I put the question mark at the end of the subject because it might be fine. My protein skimmer hasn't had any output in a couple of weeks. I have the venturi knob all the way inline but for three days now there is only a slight covering on the bottom of my collection bucket.

Water is flowing through fine, as I use the return to feed the refugium. I can hear the air intake when I turn the venturi on and off, and the bubbles rise and fall accordingly.

A month and a half ago it was running full blast,as it is now, and I could barely keep up with it as it would fill a soda bottle in about fifteen minutes. It was very dirty water in the output so I know it was just something that I had to let continue. Now I get nothing out of it.

Since mechanically everything appears to be working and I have cleaned it weekly, is this just a natural thing? Maybe the wastes that are to be collected are being utilized by the contents of the tank?

[lanimret]

Sounds like it, mine seems to have cycles where I get nothing, or I get too much. These days i generally only need to empty it every 3-4 weeks at most. One thing I've noticed is I need to make sure and keep the water intake clean. The grating will clog up, and it will look like its functioning normally, but then I scrub the intake off and it starts spewing out junk immediatly.

Also sometimes my air intake clogs up with salt, so i try to clear that out regularly too.

[zeeter]

That's something I should look at. I'll clean the pump and water hose tonight. I do get some drip from the thing, but not much.

Thanks

[ToeJam]

I think you may be over cleaning it...skimmers do need to break in after every cleaning. Still weekly isn't bad...but you may want to make sure you have a cloud in the bombardment chamber of white milky bubble look........

What type of skimmer is it?

I clean mine like once every 4+ months (yes im lazy) .....plus i dry skim also.....