Like the title states my skimmer recently decided it just wants to pump water. Came home one day and it was making a surging noise with very little bubbles. I suspected initially that there was something in the needle wheel. Took the skimmer apart and cleaned it completely but found nothing. For about a day or two it skimmed normally but returned to not producing bubbles. Pulled it apart again finding a tiny bit of algae on the wheel. Returned it to the sump and it operated normally, I dismissed and assumed the algae was the culprit. This time after doing a water change it went back to surging and pumping water (doesn't overflow just little to no bubbles). Suspect now that the pump is not spinning fast enough to produce bubbles as sometimes if I just cycle power it will operate "normally" for a while. Anyone have any suggestions? Skimmer is a Curve 5 about 1.5 yrs old. I put my curve 7 elite in for a few days and it worked perfect (extreme overkill for a 40br) but did produce bubbles with nice skim-mate.
skimmer not producing bubbles
- Thread starter Octane13
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BestMomEver
2500 Club Member
My suggestion is to check the air intake hose on the side of the skimmer. Also, check to make sure the water isn’t too low in the sump. This happened with a vertex skimmer I had and those are the things Vertex told me to check. Turned out the impeller needed replacing.
I know the water level is good, doesn't change and hasn't since I started. Was your impeller noticeably damaged? Wouldn't think they would wear out unless a snail or some significant debris got in there. Did vertex suggest replacing it?
BestMomEver
2500 Club Member
I did have a snail I think. It had a small gauge in it.
