power outage and skimmer issues

[Miamireefer]

Hey guys,

My 90 is just f-in oodles of fun for me lately.

My latest saga is dealing with my skimmer. I have a euro reef cs6-1 w/sedra 5000 pump. When power is turned off for cleanings or power loss occurs and is restored my skimmer simply fills the chamber with water but no bubbles are being produced.

The only way that the skimmer begins to produce bubbles is through me manually getting the air inlet hose and having to blow air threw it to the pump and boom the skimmer is revived.

What is the deal? I have never been through this and my endless searching can't relate an outage to skimmer not activating correctly.

Thanks in advance,

Nick

 

[ReefWreak]

You might have to clean out the venturi where the air tube connects to the inlet to the pump. Maybe even have to open it up a bit with a drill or sand paper or something. Check in the equipment forum for the euro-reef club, or just search for it.

Good luck!

 

[jessp]

i have to do the same thing w/ an octopus i have

 

[Miamireefer]

reef....Good idea..I forgot they have the vendor forums here.

And Jessp. Sorry to hear but glad I am not in the boat all by myself. It gets annoying and the worst part is leaving on vacation and having my parents watch my tank at my house while gone.

Thnaks again for the suggestion reef!

 

[ahoyhoy239]

i had a similar problem but it was beacuse some salt built up and clogged the line

 

[Rogger Castells]

Have you changed the needle wheel to enkamat? if so, this may be the problem, the mesh although better at breaking the bubbles finer it is really poor at producing enough vacuum to start the air.
If not, You might need to take the whole pump out and clean it well by soaking it in vinegar for a few hours and then give it a good clean up with a fine baby toothbrush.

 

[Miamireefer]

Rogger,

That very well may be it...I do clean it but with no vinegar involved. Thats going to be my next mission to tackle... It makes me wish with the remainder of my issues to have done everything right the first time!FACK!

 

[jessp]

I do have the enkamat mod, that explains a lot.

 

[pedromatic]

I also read somewhere that someone hooked up a cheap little air pump to the venturi line to force air down the line. They're usually annoying noisy, but I don't see why that wouldn't work unless the tube is clogged.

 

[Rogger Castells]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10771086#post10771086 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pedromatic
I also read somewhere that someone hooked up a cheap little air pump to the venturi line to force air down the line. They're usually annoying noisy, but I don't see why that wouldn't work unless the tube is clogged.

The ratio of air & water in this type skimmers is essential to maintain water level and correct foaming, if you alter this, in this case have more air than it is design for the water level in the chamber will lower as less water will enter the chamber, this will affect the foaming level and the skimmer pretty much will stop skimming.

 

[jessp]

i thought of doing the same thing, air pumps are cheap enough

 

[ahoyhoy239]

yeah i dont think the air pump would work either becuase my skimmer work better with the air valve closed slightly, and when i blow down the tube its messes it all up and wont skim at all