Hey I just measured my alphacone 250 and it'll fit in that space

ZOMG Dez you are my HERO!! So I unplugged my airline from the silencer and voila! No more micro bubbles! And since the skimmer wasn't ejecting microbubbles anymore they were actually going INTO the skimmer like they should be and the skimmer started to work like a champ again! ZOMG Dez !!

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...psdcbq1789.jpg

I tried to shove a wire up the elbow that leads into the silencer and could not get it to go! I shoved a q-tip in there and ya it is pretty dirty. Something is clearly obstructing it. Probaby a snail wedged in there real good or just a comination of things maybe I dunno. I tried to get a coat hanger in here but it wouldn't budge. The silencer may be a write off. The skimmer sounds like meat grinder now without the silencer but at least it is skimming and not shooting microbubbles into my tank anymore! I may just save myself $1000+ dollars and MacGuyver my own silencer.


THANK YOU DEZ!

Maybe some more of those Darn Feather dusters ;-)

Congrats on finding the problem ;)

Do the two ends of the muffler come apart?
If not just try to unscrew/ pull out the 90 deg fitting. You have nothing to lose, its junk the way it is.

I tried, the 90 degree fitting is glued on. I may just cut it and make a new fitting.

Haha! Yay. As payment for my services, I will require a visit to your zen pond and sps garden the next time I'm in Calgary. I'm glad you found the problem. The whole time I was thinking to myself, he shouldn't buy a new skimmer, if it was working well before, then no need to change it. Soak that silencer in hot water. For me, the blockage was salt build up. It sort of made a crystal. So I just dissolved it with hot water.

My door is always open! Unless I'm not home.. :-)

Ya I'm guessing the exact same thing probably happened to me. This thing has been running for nearly 5 years now! The pump and impeller seem perfectly fine to me too so I had a hard time wrapping my head around having to replace them. Glad I didn't go down that route because clearly that would not have solved this problem. I will try soaking it. Thanks again! YAY no more micro bubbles!

Send me a txt dez. That's never been a deterrent for me.

I find I get a dust buildup in my air silencers. The bigger tank has one that comes apart so is easy to clean but my smaller tank has a BM skimmer as well and it doesn't come apart. So far I've been able to clean it well enough by soaking it in vinegar and shaking it and stuff but my backup plan is to use muriatic acid (diluted of course because I kind of like my skin not burned off and stuff) if that proved not to be good enough.

The venturi for my BM is a huge PITA to clean because the air comes in through a very thin ring all around the pipe and you have no idea just by eyeballing it if the thin layer calcium buildup is affecting things or if there is gunk in the air tube as it enters the venturi. So for that one it pretty much has to be a muriatic acid bath once or twice a year (vinegar would probably work but I'm far too impatient).

HTH

After reading this and noticing my skimmer skimming a little wet lately I figured if take get apart and look. Well what do you know, appears to be some salt build up

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...psxvbh39i8.jpg