Octopus Skimmers

[jejton]

have an Octopus Recirculating Skimmer, setup on a gravity feed off of my drain. I believe the skimmer is the NW150 but have to double check. When I turn it off, water rises up into the venturi tube to match the height of water in the skimmer body. When I turn the skimmer back on, this water does not clear the tube completely until I blow through it and then the bubbles kick in. I would like to be able to turn the skimmer off during maintenance on the tank as well as during feeding but not have to constantly blow the water out the tube, especially if I get a controller for this. Is there any solution to this problem ?

 

[greggnyce]

Can you put a small check valve on the bottom of the tube?

 

[georgelc86]

I think the check valve would restrict the flow of air to the impeller.

 

[greggnyce]

Thats true, but how else would you keep water from going up it. Is the drain pipe going directly into the skimmer? Maybe if you split the drain pipe you can place a ball valve before the skimmer and shut it off when performing maintenence and the water will flow through the other side of the drain.

 

[jejton]

Greg- thats how its set up but its a pain to turn the valve off every time I feed the tank or do maintenance because the valve is very tough to turn. I dont know if its the valve or cement that dripped into it.