No bubbles - hectic noise!!!?

Lowflyer

Lowflyer

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Hey guys, I just got my skimmer running, but the RIO pump on it is making a hectic noise and is not sucking bubbles at all. I have connected the airline tubing to the inlet pipe so the pinwheel impellor can chop the bubbles up, but no air is being sucked in at all, what could be the problem. The pump is pumping water through the skimmer nicely and I can control the height of the water quite nicely, but no luck with bubbles, and the pump is making a heck of a noise, what could be wrong?

HELP!!!
 
Hi Luke - please post some pics? Of the pump, how it is connected, and what the skimmer looks like inside with the pump running? Perhaps the venturi on the pump is blocked? Does it HAVE a venturi air valve?
 
I can't post pics right now Jacques as I have disconnected it and lights out, mom is about to fall asleep and the thing makes a hectic noise. Is a venturi the place where the airtubing fits onto the pipe that sucks water through?
 
Is this a brand new pump? if not the venturi could be blocked - they usually do over time.
 
It's an old pump that someone gave to me, I'm not quite sure what the venturi is though
 
Lowflyer said:
It's an old pump that someone gave to me, I'm not quite sure what the venturi is though
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It's the bit where you put the air pipe on, get a cocktail stick and poke around in the inlet, or run some R/O down the air pipe and it should shift.
 
Ok, well I cleaned all the pipes out this afternoon already to make sure that nothing would go wrong, and everything is clear, if I blow on the pipe slightly it produces bubbles, but then when I stop, it suck air for a second or two then stops and the water inside the air tube rises to the water level of the sump.
 
Lowflyer said:
Ok, well I cleaned all the pipes out this afternoon already to make sure that nothing would go wrong, and everything is clear, if I blow on the pipe slightly it produces bubbles, but then when I stop, it suck air for a second or two then stops and the water inside the air tube rises to the water level of the sump.
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Is your airline split anywhere? seems there is an air loss somewhere, if not then the impellor isn't drawing the air in.
 
airline is clear of slits, so do you think that the pump is insufficient or just needs a new impellor?
 
Lowflyer said:
airline is clear of slits, so do you think that the pump is insufficient or just needs a new impellor?
Click to expand...

You would need to look at the impellor, does it look worn? damaged etc if not then is it the correct pump on the skimmer?
 
The pump is pumping water perfectly, I can set it to make the skimmer overflow if I want to, it's quite strong considering the skimmer is external with the pump in the sump. And the pump is a skimmer pump, but not from a weipro, it's a macro aqua skimmer pump.
 
Lowflyer said:
The pump is pumping water perfectly, I can set it to make the skimmer overflow if I want to, it's quite strong considering the skimmer is external with the pump in the sump. And the pump is a skimmer pump, but not from a weipro, it's a macro aqua skimmer pump.
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Beats the hell out of me then, is the airline connected properly?
 
I was given an article on what a venturi is, and it seems that I need to make a small opening for the inlet of the pump with the air inlet on it coz the water rushes through at a higher speed resulting in air being sucked in more easily.
 
I had a similar problem with my skimmer. No air being sucked in, but when I blew down the air pipe it went through. Turned out to be the air pipe having salt residue where it connects to the pump. Just take a toothpick or something, disconnect the airpipe and poke inside. Do the same on the pump side where the pipe connects.
 
JD167 said:
I had a similar problem with my skimmer. No air being sucked in, but when I blew down the air pipe it went through. Turned out to be the air pipe having salt residue where it connects to the pump. Just take a toothpick or something, disconnect the airpipe and poke inside. Do the same on the pump side where the pipe connects.
Click to expand...

This is something one should do on a regularly basis.
 
Ok guys, I found that I had to lift the pump up almost out of the water to get it sucking air, and it doesn't suck much, gonna maybe try a wooden airstone with airpump to see if that will make a difference. Might use a different pump at that as well, coz this one is noisy:

DSC02214.jpg
 
Oupa Piet, an airstone in the tank will not work as effectively, the reason I say this is, firstly, because the bubbles from an airstone are not small enough for them to be effective and secondly, the closed cylinder that the skimmer has provides an ideal environment for the bubbles to have more contact time with the water so that it can extract the nutrients that it is designed to remove. A protein skimmer works like the waves in the see, bubbles extract the nutrients, this is the dirty foam that you would occasionally see on the beach. Hope this helps.
 
Guys, I have done a few mods to my weipro SA-2014 skimmer and turned it into a SA-2011. Here are some pics:

Before
DSC02212.jpg


After
Image017.jpg


Still think I need a new pump, but this is much better than before.
 
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