I think that it would be a waste of an expensive venturi to run it like that- Those are meant to have water pushed through them, not pulled. There is a difference in how it will perform between one and the other, trust me. If you're going to pull the air through, you may as well have made a $2 venturi cuz it would work just as well....I tried several different kinds in my multiple skimmer projects and those are the conclusions I came to...JMHO though...