Skimmer not working as well as it should?...

There are many reasons why a skimmers performance falls short.

The obvious ones are the bascis- most notably the pin wheel, of needle/brush wheel getting clogged with slime/detritus/alage, etc.

BUT- sometimes it's actually the air intake tube leading to the air venturi causing the problem!

Take my trusty SC 150, that comes with the Atman 2500 pump for instance.

The small plastic pipe- (I think it's 1/4 inch OD) that attaches the rubber hose to the inlet, had salt build up in it.
This happens very, VERY slowly, so little by little, you keep changing the adjustments, and very slowly, the performance falls short.

I pulled the rubber hose off of it, and an inspection found it to be clogged! Less than a millimeter of air was getting thru now.

I took a piece of wire, like a paper clip, and easily knocked it out in small chunks.

NOw it's pulling good skim once again!!

Just thought I'd share. This is potentially overlooked!

Without pulling the hose off the little pipe that goes to the intake, I NEVER would have found what was limiting the perforamnce.
And such an easy fix also!!

 

thank you for sharing, the parts you mention should be thoroughly checked when doing the yearly maintenance of the our skimmers. and very nice tank todd btw

 

I drop about 8oz of hot RO/DI water in the air silencer of my SRO and it gets pulled into the airline and volute area, I do this on a weekly basis as part of routine maintenance

If you don't have a silencer you can just submerge the open end of the skimmer pumps airline line in a cup of the water

 

If you need to clean a rubber hose out string trimmer line works great. Shouldn't poke a hole through the rubber as easily also.