Venturi keeps getting clogged with salt creep

[Bustyraker]

About once a month I have to take my Venturi out and scrape the salt out of it because it causes my skimmer to overflow. It's getting pretty ridiculous. Sometimes it's as little as 2 weeks before my skimmer starts acting up from it. Is there any way to prevent this?

 

[Flippers4pups]

I wouldn't think salt creep would clog a venturi, calcium build up would though. Now if you air line is pulling in a huge amount of salt spray from some where..... na.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

I have my skimmer turn off for 15 minutes everyday so I think that keeps my venturi clear.

 

[Velcro]

Life reef skimmers plumb the Venturi intake to the skimmer collection cup. The humid air from the skimmer cup completely prevents the Venturi from clogging. I've tried running the air intake to room air a couple times and it always clogs within a few days, so it definitely works.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Life reef skimmers plumb the Venturi intake to the skimmer collection cup. The humid air from the skimmer cup completely prevents the Venturi from clogging. I've tried running the air intake to room air a couple times and it always clogs within a few days, so it definitely works.

Is the air line clogging with salt? Or inside the venturi? Is it hard as a rock?

My reef octopus skimmer's Venturi does from time to time get a carbonate build up which clogs keeping air from entering, because of my elevated KH. I have to soak it in vinegar to disolved it.

But I never get a salt blockage at the air intake of the venturi.

 

[Bustyraker]

This is hard blockage at the air intake of the venturi

 

[Velcro]

Is the air line clogging with salt? Or inside the venturi? Is it hard as a rock?

My reef octopus skimmer's Venturi does from time to time get a carbonate build up which clogs, because of my elevated KH. I have to soak it in vinegar to disolved it.

But I never get a salt blockage at the air intake of the venturi.

Something inside the Venturi clogs. It's fixed by submerging the Venturi air line in hot water which breaks up the internal clog.

 

[Flippers4pups]

This is hard blockage at the air intake of the venturi

It's most likely calcium precipitation , not salt.

 

[jason2459]

What skimmer is it?

 

[Bustyraker]

SRO 3000

 

[Sabellafella]

About once a month I have to take my Venturi out and scrape the salt out of it because it causes my skimmer to overflow. It's getting pretty ridiculous. Sometimes it's as little as 2 weeks before my skimmer starts acting up from it. Is there any way to prevent this?

Actually had to clean mine today, takes me about 2 months to build up. Really nothing you can do about it, you can try squirting vinegar or water every so often unto the venturi. But even then, its more work then just cleaning it altogether every couple of weeks.

 

[luke33]

This happens with nearly all skimmers, but every two weeks is pretty excessive. What skimmer are you running? If the Venturi hole is to small it can happen often.

 

[luke33]

Well I don't think you can do much with the sro3000 as the Venturi is not to small. You could start letting the Venturi suck in really hot water once a week and that would help. Let it suck a full cup in.

 

[jason2459]

SRO 3000

Those pull in a lot of air. As mentioned a weekly boiling rodi sucking could help.

Otherwise, does it get shutdown at all daily?

 

[Diving Dan]

Get lifereef, you'll never have this problem again.

 

[Bustyraker]

Those pull in a lot of air. As mentioned a weekly boiling rodi sucking could help.

Otherwise, does it get shutdown at all daily?

Not daily but it gets shut down about twice a week when I feed my corals.

 

[jason2459]

Not daily but it gets shut down about twice a week when I feed my corals.

Is it by a heater by chance?

I used to run a sro 3000 and never had major clogging issues. But I do shutdown my skimmer a couple times a day which seems to help.

Even now on my MTC MVX which is a mazzei venturi based skimmer like the life reef the multiple flushes has keep maintenance to 0 so far.

 

[Velcro]

Get lifereef, you'll never have this problem again.

Second... I always read all these comments and thought how could it really be that good. I bought one and it's really that good.

 

[Bustyraker]

Is it by a heater by chance?

I used to run a sro 3000 and never had major clogging issues. But I do shutdown my skimmer a couple times a day which seems to help.

Even now on my MTC MVX which is a mazzei venturi based skimmer like the life reef the multiple flushes has keep maintenance to 0 so far.

Not near a heater. I will set up an hour of shutoff on my apex and see if that helps

 

[reef lover]

I had one that did it constantly. I ended up hooking up to a timer to shut it down an hour every night. Seemed to do the trick. Hth.