Coralife Super Skimmer 65 clogging

[ctreefer]

Not sure if anyone else has had this problem or if its inherent with other venturi/needlewheel skimmers, but I've noticed a build up of salt in my airline tubing right where its connected to the pump. After a while it will clog and thereby cause too much flow through the mixing chamber and overflow will occur. I noticed this at first about 1 month into using the unit. The bubble production in the chamber wasn't as it was in the beginning and I had to keep adjusting the flow valve to keep if from overflowing.

I can unclog the deposit to some degree by sucking on the airline tubing to draw water up the line. Not all of it gets removed though, so I'll have to remove the pump and clean it.

Has anyone discovered this as well? IF so did you figure out any mods that would remedy this?

thanks

vince

 

[swashbuckler]

this will happen with any venturi skimmer

so the only thing you can do is flush it out - and doing it regularly (daily) will keep buildup from happening

what i would do is this: get a cup of RO/DI and unhook the silencer from the skimmer, then place the tubing inside the cup of water- have it suck up freshwater and vwalah.....its clean-

you can also get a timer and have the skimmer kick off for a like a few minutes to dislogdge any buildup- however, the coralife goes wacko when its turned back on - so it may flood without you adjusting the water level.

 

[20 20]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6952460#post6952460 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by swashbuckler
this will happen with any venturi skimmer

so the only thing you can do is flush it out - and doing it regularly (daily) will keep buildup from happening

what i would do is this: get a cup of RO/DI and unhook the silencer from the skimmer, then place the tubing inside the cup of water- have it suck up freshwater and vwalah.....its clean-

Well, great advice! I think, at least. My Coralife 65 has been overflowing regularly for the last couple of weeks, and couldn't figure out why, was it the dead bicolor psuedochromis stuck in the rocks putting extra 'gunk' in the water? Was it the switch from Kent phyto to DT's? Couldn't figure it out, then ran across this thread. Did the 'suck up the RO/DI water to clean it' thing, and when I turned the skimmer back on, the bubble level was much lower. I had turned the level as far down as I could to try and prevent the overflowing. So, I'll feed tonight, and check in the morning, and tomorrow night, and see if I'm still overflowing or not.

So, with the assumption that this has done the trick, thanks for the tip!

 

[20 20]

For anyone interested, cleaning the air tube seems to have done the trick, 1.5 days later. The skimmer is back to pulling the dark skimmate, just the way it should!