PSK-200 not foaming up. Any advice?

Thanks for the help again! I didn't get the acid since my wife reminded me of a 1 gallon vinegar bottle we had in the pantry. I've been soaking the whole pump in 80% vinegar 20% water for about 3 hours.
How many hours do I need to run the water through?

 

honestly, the longer the better.
do you have the air line off? (if not, then i would. that way it cleans inside the air passage)

if you can let it run over night, then that would be ideal. (since the vinegar isnt as strong as acid, so it talks longer to achieve the same outcome.)

also, if you have an extra heater, you can throw it in there as well. the vinegar will remove any coraline algae so it will be beneficial in heating the solution to speed up the process, as well as cleaning your heater!!

(as long as your wife doesnt kill you for the smell of vinegar in the house!! i know mine hates me every time i do it)

 

The vinegar bath worked like a charm! I dropped only the pump in there and let it run without the air line for about 7 hours straight. I didn't read your last post, so did not throw a heater in, but the pump put out enough heat to where the it was quite worm when I finally took it out.

Now it's foaming up again and it looks like there's milk inside the reaction chamber instead of water... and also, the micro bubbles are gone in their majority!! They're definitely not making it to the DT now and that's a major plus!

Thanks for all the help! Here's some Karma for it!

- Mag.

 

so in conclusion, looks like there's calcium/salt built up inside your venturi. This is a very common thing when a skimmer is being run for quite a long period of time. we had this happened to our to but we were able to scrap it off with a small needle. after that all works like a charm.

 

Every skimmer I have ever used has worked with in minutes, of course, my tank is well establised. However, if there is nothing to skim, then you will get nothing but over flow.

One other thing to note,

Always inspect your pumps before you use them- new or old. (you mentioned yours was noisy)

Depending upon the design, most pumps have a rubber grommet that the impeller shaft sits in (both ends) if these are missing or damaged then the pumps will make noise and not work correctly, as well, broken pump blades and impeller shafts can cause noise and/or performance issues as well.

For example, I just bought a PSK-300 and one of the pumps was missing one of these grommets, I am glad I inspected them before installing the skimmer, I took one out of a similar pump and it seems to work- for now. I have emailed Kent concerning this.

One thing, I would really like to know what brand these pumps are and what the flow rating is per pump? I also really wish Eshopps would update their website, and perhaps list a phone contact number.