Beckett Injector - No Foam

[newsalt]

I'm having a problem with my skimmer. I cleaned it today and when I turned the pump back on, I get no foam in the skimmer column. I checked the Beckett several times and it seems fine. The reason I get no bubbles is because as the water rises in the column, it starts to pour out of the air inlet port on the beckett. Can anyone help me?

 

[einsteins]

is it backwards?

 

[manderx]

you got the beckett in backwards...

 

[einsteins]

Did you put the piece back in the center of it?

 

[newsalt]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10020158#post10020158 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by manderx
you got the beckett in backwards...

I'm pretty sure it can only go in one way. It is an injector from MTC.

http://www.marinetechnical.com/page5.html

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10020166#post10020166 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by einsteins
Did you put the piece back in the center of it?

Yes

 

[einsteins]

Make sure the air valve is opened or not clogged...

 

[newsalt]

Air valve is completely open. This one's got me stumped.

 

[cweder]

A picture might help. You may have to raise the height of your becket versus the water level in skimmer. If your pump is weak it wont be able to overcome the back pressure in the skimmer and water would leak out the air inlet. The air inlet should always be higher the the highest water level in the skimmer. Sounds like your pump is too weak for the beckett. You can always judge your skimmer by listening to the air being sucked in. When working properly you get alot of air being sucked in. If the pump or beckett get clogged you get little suction and little noise and little foam.

 

[newsalt]

The skimmer is a DIY take-off of a Marine Technical Concepts skimmer. The reaction column is about 32" tall. The skimmer is run with a Mag 18 pump. I'm going to be upgrading the pump soon to an external pump. Here a a few photos:

 

[cweder]

You are not getting nearly enough bubbles. Make sure your air inlet is not clogged. I put a new air flow controller on mine yesterday and found that I got much more air, even though it seemed fine and I could not find anything clogging it. If your getting good water flow but no air then its the air inlet. Try cleaning your pump too just to make sure something isnt clogging it.

 

[newsalt]

How would I go about cleaning a Mag 18 pump?

 

[Lee1]

Open it up, remove impeller and soak pump and impeller in vinegar. One thing that might be going on is you might have the "guts" of the Beckett in backwards. I've done it before and got similar results. The "arrow" part of the Beckett needs to be pointed up (first part the water hits) and the ball should be down. Check out the photo on this thread to see if that helps. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=958085&perpage=25&highlight=beckett%20mod&pagenumber=9

 

[newsalt]

Thanks. The beckett I have can only go in one way or it won't close. It also goes into the housing only one way or the housing won't close.

 

[cweder]

If your mag is like mine, you just unscrew a few screws and make sure there no rocks, sand, snails or other debree slowing down its performance. The down side of mags is that they add alot of heat to your system, probably 3 to 4 degrees.

I am assuming you were getting much more bubbles before your cleaning. After a thorough cleaning my skimmer takes of few hours to recover again.

Keep us posted, theres gotta be something stuck in there somewhere.

 

[newsalt]

Just opened up the Mag. I found nothing in there. Just a some slimey stuff, but no snails or anything large.