I put in a call to IM and they returned my call yesterday. After stripping the skimmer and speaking with them I determined that there are 2 potential causes for excessive noise.
1) The pump
IN order to minimize the noise coming from vibration, IM has designed the pump to be recessed into the skimmer. The only point of contact should be the output which is a friction fit into the skimmer body. The pump needs to be straight to make sure the pump body does not transmit vibration to the skimmer body, which can effectively act as a speaker. You will also note that the pump does not get suction cupped to the floor of the chamber, it is literally suspended in the skimmer body.
2) The white venturi air valve
This valve is located at the top corner and regulates the air intake. It is a common for most valves to make suction noises so the sloution is to add a piece of air hose with an air silencer.
Unfortunately I had neither of these issues with the unit. It turned out that my air valve was not properly sitting in the skimmer body thus preventing a proper seal. I determined this by closing the valve and putting my thumb on the inlet and seeing no reduction in air flow.
Unfortunately the IM tech told me I could twist the valve to remove it, which I did, ultimately breaking it in the skimmer. I removed the remnants but unfortunately a piece fell in and I couldn't extract it.
I replaced it with a marineland powerhead venturi valve I had laying around and that worked. Unfortunately the skimmer is till loud.
To resume:
1) The skimmer is still loud despite the reduced air flow
2) I am getting A TON of micro bubbles
3) Absolutely no skimmate
To be fair the tank is new and way to clean with only 2 small clowns in it so maybe it just needs some breaking in. I also adjusted the cup so that the bottom just touches the water. The tech told me to lower it more but I want dark skim so I figured I would have it dwell longer but adjustments are irrelevant until it breaks in and skims.
I am going to strip it once more to see if I can use filter floss somewhere to catch those micro bubbles. I will update you as I I work through these issues.
