What I Learned about my Euro-Reef Skimmer Today

[Palster]

I thought I would post this so that others do not have to endure the frustration I have gone through. My Euro-reef RS 180 skimmer has been going absolutely crazy the past couple of weeks. It has been shooting water full of micro bubbles out the end of the outlet pipe. The problem got progressively worse until It actually shot the water high enough that some of it came out of the sump and caused a small flood in my basement. It turns out that the problem was caused when the air adjustment valve for the venturi became clogged with salt crystals. The euro-reef manual actually mentions cleaning the air intake tube every 2-3 weeks. I guess I missed that part when I originally read the manual even though I have only been running this skimmer for about a month. Anyways, cleaning the air intake tube and adjustment valve is not something you want to neglect as I found out the hard way. After cleaning the salt crystals from the air adjustment valve my skimmer is once again working normally and it is much quieter now that it is not causing the water to become airborne and come crashing down into the sump.

[i have crabs]

same goes for a lot of other skimmers also

[kwirky]

i took my air adjustment valve off because it made it real noisy and seemed to restrict the airflow. should I have left it on? what does adjusting it do?

[Palster]

Originally Posted by kwirky

i took my air adjustment valve off because it made it real noisy and seemed to restrict the airflow. should I have left it on? what does adjusting it do?

I like the idea of taking the air valve off as most people run it wide open anyways. It seems the more the air valve is closed the higher you need to run the outlet pipe as less micro bubbles are being introduced into the skimmer body. This is basically what was happening when the air valve started to get plugged up with salt crystals (it had the same effect as partially closing the air valve).

[fishface]

i found that the air valve is more of a way to fine tune your bubble height in your chamber. i've run it with and without and don't see any appreciable difference in how the skimmer produces skimmate. just my observations...not necessarily right or wrong .