super skimmer 65 will not draw air

[jolson10450]

Well the past weeks ive been having trouble with my super skimmer 65. I have zero complaints before this. i am vodka dosing and mb7 dosing on my 29g tank and have been pulling a full cup of thick black nog out per week with it. recently it decided to stop taking air in. i cleaned the pump and cup with regular water and a tooth brush then put it back together and it worked fine but now i am back to the same thing.

the air line is clean i can blow air through the line (minimal effort) and get good bubbles in it or if i put my thumb over half of the pump inlet it forces the pump to draw that extra i blocked through the air line and it works fine.

anyone ever have a problem with your skimmer not drawing air and what did you come up with?

i have done some research and i think i will try a 1 part vinegar 1 part water solution later and let it run for a few hours. any other ideas will help! thanks!

[Sir Patrick]

When you blow through the air tube, does it make bubbles out of the back of the pump, or from inside the skimmer? If its kicking bubble out of the pump instead of inside the skimmer like it should- you might need to clean your pump. The venturi (or other air intake) could still be plugged, and alowing air through in a way unintended.

I would give the pump a good vinager soak, then ran in the vinager for a while- just to see what happens.

[jolson10450]

it put them into the skimmer.

yesterday i did a nice vinegar cleaning with it, took it all apart afterwords and rinsed it all out and srubbed it with a tooth brush and so far is working fine again. although the settings i had it on previously made it overflow rapidly so i had to dial it down, pretty much i got to just re break it back in i think.

[Sir Patrick]

Glad to hear you got it running again.

[jimsflies]

Break in should be a less than it was when new. New plastic/acrylic has a film that seems to need to get dirty before it works. Once you get that initial grime on it, it never is as clean again...which is good cause it should start skimming in a day.

You may also be able to carefully bore out the venturi with a drill on that skimmer to get more air flow and have it be less prone to getting plugged.

But I would say, ideally a skimmer should be cleaned in vinegar monthly...not that I ever do it.

[tazzy695]

well the reason for it to over flow /go crazy is simply due to an excess of nutrients in the tank my g3 dose this if I goof up and let the cup over flow and skimmate dumps back into the sump

adjust the water level down for it to be able to catch up and get the water clean again and adjust it back to where it was

[jolson10450]

i will check it when i get home but i think it is fine for now, i think the reason i was able to dial it all the way up last time was because it was so dirty and needed to be like that to push through all the crud in it and now that it is clean it is working like it should.