Air stone conversion for CPR skimmer

I have a CPR HOB 'fuge with a protein skimmer. It came with a Maxijet1200 pump with a venturi adapter. This thing is noisy. Not a little noisy, lotsa NOISY! The noise (actually a vibration) is created in the impeller cavitates when the air is siphoned in. Remove the air line and the pump is virtually silent.

I have tried the "mod" that CPR has on their forum, that basically puts the air input into the side of the impeller intake, and ditches the stock venturi adapter. Didn't help, much.

I have heard talk of people dropping an airstone or two in the bottom of the first chamber and letting the Maxijet just circulate the water through.

Any body have any experience with this? Does it produce enough micro-bubbles to keep the skimmer active? Am I spinning my wheels? Does any body read my posts? How much wood does a woodch....

 

You could put a piece of filter sponge in between the MJ and the fuge wall to see if that helps. I have a Bak-Pak skimmer, so I know what you are talking about. The MJ mod is actually pretty nice in terms of increasing skimmer efficiency but not for noise reduction. Just using an airstone will result in an extremely weak skimmer. If that is your only skimmer, I would STRONGLY suggest against it. If you have a dedicated skimmer already, ditch the airline and just run the fuge as a fuge. You may want to get a lower flow pump in that case then.