Air pump on a skimmer?

For yrs thats all we had where air driven large skimmers the key is the wooden diffuser and a strong pump what you have to do is drill a 3/16 th hole tight in the center of the cups cap and then add a section of the 3/16 rigid airline tubing get 4 coralife wooden 3" diffuser and insert the rigid pipe through the cap and then a couple of airline tubing to connect the air stone to that pipe then put the air stone on the 3/16 down through the foam collar into the skimmer body and plug in the air pump ,

You will have to remove that air block and soak it in bleach every week or so and keep rotating the air blocks out from bleach soak to f/water soak to air drying then to skimmer

 

Yep, I have the same P.O.S.
It's a Catalina Aquarium TURBO VORTEX 100/150 PROTEIN SKIMMER with a CA1000 pump.
I bought it before I knew any better.
I'm looking for an upgrade, but DAMN skimmers are freekin' expensive!!!

So, for now, I'm looking to mod this P.O.S.
I've tried hooking up an air pump to the venturi line and also to the pump but haven't had much luck either way.

 

yeah this CA skimmer came with a package deal i got about a year prior to my actual endeavor into this hobby. it was a total impulse buy when I was a total noob.

i too tried the air pump on the venturi line and its not working. tangsters idea might work. i think ill just pay the $200 for my SWC.

EDIT: btw i did add a small strip of rubber to the adjustable plastic thing used to regulate the height of the water in the column. it leaked like crazy and was too hard to adjust before (plus it'd move on its own when I wasnt home and id come home to a overflowing skimmer)

 

Some good feed back here and I put one of the air regulators on like inwall showed and dialed it in and it is working great on my Aqua Medic Turboflotor 1000 Multi SL skimmer. I thought this was a above average skimmer but was wrong but with the pump on it it works like a champ.

 

There is no point is getting the driest blackest skimate possible. Tea to light coffee is what you want. You are removing the most organics.

 

My question is why can't you get enough air to your skimmer?

 

Anytime you try to inject pressurized air from a pump in to a Mazzei injector you disturb the air flow and they will do nothing , And if your skimmer is large enough to have the injector large enough that the air pump does not effect the injector you are starving the air from the injector . You have to create bubbles in the reaction chamber to put the finer bubbles in contact with the water . Old Saunder's and several other skimmers work off of air stones all the earlier home made units did . Heck Goggle or search ( air pump driven protein skimmers) I'm sure there is still tons of info on them

 

With milk and sugar?

 

You know what, I really wouldn’t know. Do you have a link to an article I could read on this?

I figured with the crap that gets pulled out being dark and incredibly nasty smelling it must be skimming more organics than tea colored. I mean, if not – than what am I pulling out? I’d like to read up on it since I don’t know – it will bug me endlessly if I don’t research it.

 

Here you go.

What is Skimming? by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Difference between dry and wet skimming.

It isn't that it is any "better", its just more concentrated. Wetter skimate gets more organics just by not allowing more to be washed out when the water drains from the foam. Now I don't like wet... I just try to stay in the middle of wet and dry.

I also thought I read somewhere that it isn't the organics that stink, it's the bacteria that populate it and feed. Some one said putting soda ash in the cup stops that. Never tried it.

The "gunk" solids in my neck that I clean out actually does not stink. Smells like good dirt. The liquid skimmate... that's another story. I can't clean that while the wife is home.