Air Pump To Venturii Skimmer?

[Tosh_Auer]

Ok i figured there would be a probablem in this that it woudl push too much air and stop alot of water form entering the skimmer but what if you were to hook up and air pump to the air intake on a venturi skimmer? What would happen?

Tosh

[dwall174]

Being that I'm using a air powered skimmer myself I was wondering he same thing?

[ScottT1980]

Depends on the air pump. I have found that most air pumps that I hook up to a venturi are not as powerful as the venturi action itself. If you are going to spend enough money to get a more powerful air pump, I say hold on to the money and just get a new skimmer

Of course, that is just IME. It also depends on the strength of your H2O pump...

Take er easy
Scott T.

[Witfull]

i concur with scott, it has to be a powerful airpump, but given that, it will increase the injection and supercharge the skimmer.

[Michael_Lambert]

how big is the skimmer?

Myself i have a MTC 4600pro.. its a Air stone .. which i took out and am running a Kent Venturi on it.. and then i decided to add the air stone back! So if you are looking to get more bubbles you could inc operate a Air stone unit as well.. now the other thing i was considering was dilling 2 more holes into the skimmer and run a second pump with Venturi in a closed loop.

Thanks
Michael.

[mps9506]

Depends on the size of the pump and venturi.
I personally use a mag12 and mazzei style venturi on my skimmer. If I put my finger over the venturi intake it gives me a mini hicky , I would have to have an air blower, not air pump to inject more air than what the venturi itself sucks in.

Second thing to consider is that if you could add more air into the venturi intake then you may have issue with bubble size and consistency.

If you want more air then my suggestion is to upgrade your pump and go to a mazzei injector or if you have DIY skills change your skimmer into a beckett.

Mike

[johnlewis]

Mike has it right on about the bubble size, the venturi will get you fine bubbles but if you try to push air in you will get larger bubbles. You can also put the venturi on the intake side of a power head to chop up the bubbles.

[mps9506]

Originally posted by johnlewis
You can also put the venturi on the intake side of a power head to chop up the bubbles.

I've had EXCELLENT results with this. One of my first DIY skimmers was like this using an old rio 2100 to power it. I think the key is to use a good sized pump to get good results. Essentially all I did was rig an air intake onto the water intake of the pump. Worked very well, very similar to how euroreef skimmers work. Only downside I found is that you must adjust air intake versus water flow to get the correct water colum height within the skimmer chamber.
Mike