Venturi Protein Skimmer issue

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boojumsnark25

AC Members
Aug 13, 2006
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Bought a venturi skimmer - generic version of the coralife super skimmer. Hooked it up, no bubbles at all - zero, zilch. Picked up the airline, and its shooting water out of the venturi. Tried a different pump, same thing. Tried placing pump at different heights, nothing again.

Any ideas what I'm doign wrong?
 
Is there a valve at the end of the airline? If so, make sure it's open.
 
If it is really a clone of the super skimmer could something be wrong with the silencer on the air line?

Try blowing into the air line, see if you get bubbles. If so, I'd either check the silencer, the tube for clogs, or the depth. I had to get mine within 4" of the surface to work. Temporarily I used an air pump until i could build a little stand to raise the skimmer up a few inches.
 
Well I put on an air pump, a huge air pump, and now if I close the valve on the airline most of the way, I get a tiny little tornado of bubbles, and if i open it up, all I get are massively huge bubbles.

Pump is about an inch below the surface

Any ideas?
 
boojumsnark25 said:
Well I put on an air pump, a huge air pump, and now if I close the valve on the airline most of the way, I get a tiny little tornado of bubbles, and if i open it up, all I get are massively huge bubbles.

Pump is about an inch below the surface

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Sounds like the venturi is defective to me. Exchange?
 
boojumsnark25 said:
ruled that out, tried three different powerheads so far
Click to expand...

Wait, im confused.

By powerheads I assume you mean you've replaced the pump with the impeller. I assume you've done this through the manufacturer? If so, then you've ruled out the impeller.

However I was refering to the air valve. My super skimmer has a little cage that attaches to the front of the pump and has the valve in it. I was implying the valve may be clogged or just defectively shaped.
 
Don't know what I was thinking, Its not a coralife knockoff...its a Jebo 180 knockoff (I know, a knock off of a crappy skimmer is a bad idea...but it was like 26 bucks on ebay).

anyways, I can't figure out how the heck to adjust the water level! I think that's my problem, but there's nowhere to adjust the water level.

Attached a pic
jebo.jpg


jebo.jpg
 
OK, I'm definitely missing something with the venturi concept here.

Here's what I do.

connect one end of the airline to the airline nozzle thing that is located on the output of the powerhead. Then I leave the other end of the airline above the powerhead, out of the water.

but I get no bubbles, even with the skimmer detached.

I've tried three different powerheads.

What am i doing wrong?
 
if you blow through the hose do you get bubbles? If not you've simply got a clog somewhere, I'd inspect the output hole.
 
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