Coralife skimmer mod

[iseeweed]

For a while now my Coralife 125g needle wheel skimmer has been acting irratic. I have been using it for about 7 months. It always seemed to work ok, but the amount and concentration of skimmate just didn't seem that great. Recently the thing just quit bubbling. I dissasembled and cleaned the needlewheel/venturi assembly, all the air inlet orifices and it worked ok for about 3 weeks. The other day no bubbles again. Just for the heck of it(and I didn't feel like taking it back apart), I bought a very cheap air pump from wal-mart $6, and some clear tubing $1. I hooked the pump to the air inlet, and got some massive bubbling! I have had it hooked up several days and the amont of skimmate has at least doubled. It is also much more concentrated. The picture is after only 8 hours of use(45 gallon total system). Has anyone else tried this or something similer?

 

[Anonymous]

I have the bigger model (220g?) and yeah the thing starts like a champ, but after a while the bubble production seems to trickle down.

My thought is some how the airline or "mini-grey garbage can" it's plugged into gets clogged with something. The air pump deal didn't work for me however.

What I found out is if I held the end of the pump intake near the pump bubbles would get pulled down, so what I did is a cut some PVC pipe and slid it over the filter housing an inch or so, and viola bubbles... it seems that the pump is pulling in TOO much water and not allowing enough air or the water velocity is not enough, or something. I don't know the dynamics of how pumps work so I can't really put a finger on it.

However I wish I coul easily rip the chamber open I'd turn it into a recirculating skimmer, and then wouldn't need to worry as much about the venturi.