Video ADDED !! Coralife Super Skimmer 125, Huge bubbles, no foam?

I had found this skimmer at a great price from a member on 3reef and it worked like a champ for my brother in law for about 4 months. After this time, the skimmer stopped splitting bubbles. Meaning it will put bubbles in the reaction chamber through the venturi, but they're big bubbles, like the pinwheel isn't doing its job. The pump still does put water in the reaction chamber, and adjusting the knob would accomplish nothing.

This model did not come with a flow control valve as others do, but upon some hours of reading, I found that the pump may have been too deep in the tank, causing the skimmer to not work properly. I took the pump out and cut the plastic tubing that hooks the pump to the skimmer to make it about 3 inches long, putting the pump at about 2 inches under his tank's water line.

A second thing I found reading, is that the venturi may be clogged, so I took the plastic pre-filter from the pump input and took the venturi out. The hole is pretty big and didn't seem clogged, so I turned it back on, and started blowing some air from the venturi's air intake. This made the skimmer bubble up nicely until I stopped blowing on the air tube. As a temporary solution and only because my brother in law had a small air pump laying around, I hooked it to the air intake and it started foaming like crazy, producing tons of skimmate.

This temporary fix worked for about 2 more months, until recently my brother in law called me to let me know it wasn't working again.

I brought the skimmer to my home and as I've done with my own skimmer a couple of times, I sat the whole thing in a 10 gallon tank with water and muriatic acid, just to make sure it was clean. I ran the skimmer in the water/acid bath for about 4 hours, then proceeded to take it appart and manually brush off all the components, including the pump, shaft, pinwheel impeller, collection cup, etc.... the whole thing is shiny new.

The problem is, that when I hook the skimmer back up on a 5 gallon bucket to test it after re-assembly the same problem persisted. I examined the components and nothing seemed broken/defective. The pump is impecable inside and out, the venturi just as clean and replaced the air line tubing for the venturi's air intake. The muffler or silencer was working well, and I've tried running it with and without the silencer with the same results.

I Can't figure out why this bubbles are so big!
I would take a picture but I'm afraid it is too dark already outside to show the bubbles, but I may give it a try if anyone thinks it will help.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice 3reef!

- Mag.


PS: buying a new / different skimmer is not an option. It took me a year to convince him to get a skimmer at all.

 

Have you taken it apart? Is it a needle wheel or does it have a mesh mod on it? Is the mesh even there any more?

 

This one is the needle wheel impeller. I thought about the fish line mod, but didn't do it since it was working fine without it. I think most skimmer manufacturers took the mesh wheel off the market. They broke too easy.

I did take it all appart to clean it thoroughly all parts seem to be as they should. I'll follow up with part pictures just in case.

 

My 125 model did that on my 90... Took it apart, cleaned it and made sure the was nothing clogging the air line and it was good to go again.

 

I ran acid on his air line by submerging its end in the water/acid solution, but I even replaced it with new air line with the same results.

I updated the main post with images of the parts. Everything seems to be where it belongs. I even put some teflon tape on the venturi thing to make sure water wasn't filtering through there. I really, really cleaned this whole pump thoroughly with a brush and pipe brushes as well, inside and out. What else could cause this, any clues?

 

Ya... usually you get salt creep in the air line and it will completely plug the venturi. You saoked it... but make sure you know for a fact nothing is in the air line.

Not really sure after that.... if the impeller is turning, it will creat a suction... and it's the only way you can pull air in... even if they are big bubble. Odd that it does not seem to be shredding, but it seems from your discription that it is not getting enough air.

 

That's precisely what it is. It isn't doing the "Shredding" of the bigger bubbles. Air does go into the reaction chamber through the air line, but the bubbles are as big as if you blew water through the air line with an air pump and just submerged it in the skimmer. I'll try to re-assemble and take pictures of the bubbles. But I can't promise my camera will take good pics of the bubbles in the bad lighting condition. I'll try though. I need to get this working for my brother in law... I'm the only thing keeping his fish and softies alive.

 

Vodeo update 2/18/11

Last night I took a voyage and learned how to make videos with my camera, later I had to learn how to compress and post them here.

Hopefully, this will help describe the problem added to my description in the first post.

 

Are you running it on freshwater? If so the bubbles will be smaller when you use it with saltwater.

 

YouTube - coralife

This is what mine looks like after I modded it with a diffrent pump. Using it until I get my custom sump just added this pump and this is the results

Here is the pump I used
Sedra KSP G-300 Needle Wheel Water Pump - AquaCave

its leaking a little cuz i need a new oring but other than that produces some of the nastiest **** i have ever smelled. Not a great skimmer but I made it into an ok one lol