Help I can't get it to work!

Put a check valve in the middle of the tube so that each time the syringe gets full of air you can remove it from the tube and empty it without any water loss out of the tube due to the check valve. Keep syringing until water comes through the check valve. See diagram:

 

I will have to try that check valve idea. But I'm still a bit confused. I don't see a white nipple thing on the skimmer to suck air out of. I only have a blue tube and a white one. And do I have the pump plugged in and running while I'm sucking air out?

 

do you have the first skimmer pic i posted or this one. a 100ss

if its niether of these check this site and tell us what one it is HOB Octopus Skimmers

 

Nope it's exactly like the one you first posted except for that white nipple. Mine looks exactly like this picture:
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb201/jlspecv/DSC01250.jpg

Sorry, I had to use packleaders picture. Where exactly do I suck the water out if it looks like that pic? The blue tube? And I'm assuming I have it plugged in when I'm doing this right?

 

yep the blue tube , you need to turn the valve to open it and then suck it until theirs no air left and close the valve. so the skimmer needs water in it to be able to have the water meet in the middle of the tube.

and once thats take care of you can turn the pump on.

 

Yes, the end of the blue tube. Also, where that attaches, there is that valve. You have the valve closed.
Fill the skimmer with as much water as it will hold, open the valve, plug it in, start sucking till you get a decent amount of water, than close the valve.
You can also get a big cup, and use that to pour water into the skimmer as your sucking so it wont run dry as quickly.

 

are you sure you need to plug it in while your starting the siphon it kinda seems counter productive to have the water going down while starting the siphon.

 

Yay!:clapping: Thank you guys so much! I filled the skimmer with water, opened the valve, used a compressor (well my husband did) to get the air out of the line, closed the valve and started the pump. It seems to be working ok now except for the amount of microbubbles it's dumping into the tank. But I imagine as it breaks in there will hopefully be less of those.

I don't understand why they don't provide better instructions with the unit?

But anyway, thanks for the awesome help, I can't wait to see some dark crap in the cup!