My Skimmer!!!!!

[Vacter]

My skimmer has stopped skimming! While I was at work, my wife calls me and says that the tank is full of bubbles and there is a squeeling sound. I tell her that its probably just a little low on water due to evap. She puts in a whole gallon of DIW and calls me back and says everything is fine. When I get home, the water level in the skimmer is LOW. Nothing at all in the foam tower. I checked everything, pump output, fittings, venturi, valves, you name it it's been checked. 24 hours later and the only thing that seem's to get any production out of the skimmer is to close the discharge valve about 50% on the skimmer. Doing this allows the skimmer to operate. My tank has been setup for about 7 weeks, I have a Clean-up 300 skimmer with a Mag 9.5. This is a good skimmer (not the best) that has been performing flawlessly until now. Just outa curiosity, I hooked up a Sen 900 to the skimmer and recieved the same results...Skimmer base fills up with water only to about 80%, a good 20% below the designated water line.

Please help, sorry for the repost here.

90 gal AGA RR. SG 1.025, Temp 79, PH 8.0 Nitrate 10 and climbing.

[Detritivore]

what kind of skimmer is it? is it "pressurized"?

[Vacter]

It's a Won Bros. Clean-up 300. A DownDraft style skimmer with a venturi. These are good skimmers that has until now been producing awesome skimmate. I don't know about pressurized or not.

[john rochon]

take your venturi apart, something got caught in there IMO. this has happened to me on my LIFEREEF. a small piece of plastic got caught up in the venturi and cut water by 50%

[Detritivore]

is there something preventing the air from venting?

[Vacter]

I took the skimmer and venturi apart and cleaned. I am at a total loss as to what is happening. Hmmm..air from venting? I'm not at home right now but, this might be something to explore.

[Vacter]

I have the skimmer working with the discharge valve 50% closed. This will probably lead to a disaster but, I'm trying to keep my tank healthy.

[Vacter]

I'm thinking about taking it down and finally doing that Beckett injector mod I've been working on with the help of another RC'er.:D