Berlin Turbo Skimmers.....

[pilot_bell777]

Anyone have one of these????

It is the one that used the special pump instead of the venturi valve to push the air column.

Mine works for a couple hours, then goes to a tornado of water in the middle column instead of bubbles. I adjust and adjust and then it works for a couple more hours and does the same thing. I have cleaned everything including the pump and it still does the same thing.

Thoughts?????

[NaCl_H2O]

I used that one for about a year on my 125g - takes a lot of "fiddling" to keep it working.

Did you take appart the air inlet to the pump and clean it out? I had to ram a small diameter wire through mine to keep it cleaned out! The adjustment on the pump (turns about 1/4 turn full throw) controls the mix of air/water through the pump. Then the screw that restricts the air volume through the air hose (pinch valve) - have to find a combo of those two that keeps the bubbles from getting below the inner "Bell" colar.

Also, the inner tube has a small (1" x 1") piece of acrylic that keeps the water entering the inner tube from "swirling" - it has a tendency to come lose - I glued it in place with superglue in the bottom of the tube.

Yes - that skimmer is a pain to keep adjusted correctly.

[pilot_bell777]

I think I'm going ot put a venturi valve in it and then hook a mag 7 or something to it.

[brewercm]

You could try to just run a turbofloater needlewheel pump (I think they are called oceanrunner) to it and I'll be it would improve the performance drastically. Just make sure the original venturi is removed.