Skimmer Problem...Please help.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

So I had my skimmer running but turned it off today temporarily. Now when I turn it back on, its not working right. Its a PM Bullet 2 (beckett style). The problem is that when I turn the pump on, instead on the air intake for the beckett taking in air, it sprays out water!!! A LOT of water. Now all over my living room floor:sad: . Anyways, I have no idea why this is happening. I have never used a beackett style skimmer until now, so I do not know much about them. I had only ever set up the skimmer the first time a few days ago and it worked great. This is the first time I shut it off and tried to start it again and it was a disaster. Any help would be really appreciated. I bet this is something really simple that I just do not know:mrgreen:

[untamed]

You are sure that you only shut the pump off...you didn't by chance reverse the input and output lines on the pump?

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

You are sure that you only shut the pump off...you didn't by chance reverse the input and output lines on the pump?

No not at all. The only thing I touched was the actual air intake valve. I unscrewed it to attach some air line tubing to see if I could make the skimmer quieter. I screwed it back in and then the problems started. I don't really see how that could have screwed things up though...

[whiteice669]

mine has done this a time or two, I just blow in the air tube or block it off until the skimmer is up to speed

[J.Lloy]

The air line you installed, was it after the pump? If you add a line at the base of the skimmer the pump will shoot water out. The only air intake that I know of is before the pump so it gets sucked in with the water.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

The air line you installed, was it after the pump? If you add a line at the base of the skimmer the pump will shoot water out. The only air intake that I know of is before the pump so it gets sucked in with the water.

Sorry Im confused:redface: . I never added a new air intake if thats what you mean. I am just talking about the air intake that the skimmer comes with. This air intake IS after the pump. Maybe you are thinking of some other type of skimmer instead of the beckett style. All the becketts I have seen have this same design.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

mine has done this a time or two, I just blow in the air tube or block it off until the skimmer is up to speed

You know I actually tried this but it never worked. I shut the air intake completely for quite a long time but everytime I opened it again, water came spraying out. Im so confused and getting very frustrated. I hate not having a skimmer running on the tank for too long...especially when the tank is still newly set up...

[J.Lloy]

As far as I know the air line needs to be before the pump. Is it not similar to the Red Sea Berlin?

[whiteice669]

make sure the beckett is clean and your return valve is open enough

[J.Lloy]

Sorry GSP just looked up your skimmer and it is not what I thought, just sounded the same as what had happened to me once.

[kari]

make sure the beckett is clean and your return valve is open enough

I agree with whiteice669. Bet something got sucked up in the pump and plugged the beckett nozzle.

[robzilla]

i've got a pm bullet 2 and never have had that problem. i'd disassemble the injector to see that it's clean and reassemble according to the instructions. check where the injector sits in the base to ensure its clear. does your injector have a control for volume of air? you should be able to have the skimmer operational for water flow without any air. then slowly try to turn on the air.
good luck

[StirCrazy]

I would take the beckett out make sure it isn't plugged up at all (clean it up) then try again making sure your valves are all open.

Steve

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I tried most of them now. Still nothing...

Same thing keeps happening. Im so confused.

[mr_alberta]

Did you put the beckett back in with the correct orientation?

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Well this started happening before I had ever touched the beckett at all. It worked fine when I hooked it all up for the first time. Then I turned it off and took off the air intake valve which is just a threaded fitting. Put that back on and started the pump and water came spraying out. So nothing to do with the beckett I dont think. I did take the beckett apart later and as far as I know it was put back the same.

[Delphinus]

Can you take a picture of how you've got it set up? Sorry, just having a hard time picturing how this could happen. If it was a blockage downstream of the beckett you'd think you'd have found it by now. Weird. Anyhow I think it must be a blockage of some kind .. or yeah, maybe the injector is in backwards ... Dunno, sorry. I have a PM beckett too but I've never had THIS happen .. usually a small piece of gunk or snail shell gets lodged in my beckett and I notice it because the water level is super low in the skimmer, but not shooting out the air intake :neutral:

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Can you take a picture of how you've got it set up? Sorry, just having a hard time picturing how this could happen. If it was a blockage downstream of the beckett you'd think you'd have found it by now. Weird. Anyhow I think it must be a blockage of some kind .. or yeah, maybe the injector is in backwards ... Dunno, sorry. I have a PM beckett too but I've never had THIS happen .. usually a small piece of gunk or snail shell gets lodged in my beckett and I notice it because the water level is super low in the skimmer, but not shooting out the air intake :neutral:

Yeah I can take a pic as soon as I get home. That would be great if you could check it out and tell me if anything looks wrong to you. I have gone over the darn thing a whole bunch of times to see if its set up wrong but as far as I can tell, its not and should be running fine...Obviously thats not the case though. Maybe the injector is backwards??? Im not sure about which way it should be but you would think the skimmer never would have worked then. It did work for a few days no problem. It was just when I shut it down and then started it again that it stopped working right.

[wickedfrags]

agreed - a picture would be useful.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Wondering if this could be a problem...I bought this skimmer used from a member here and it was modded a bit, so I do not know exactly how it came from the manufacturer. One thing I have noticed when I look at pics of beckett heads is that when you take them apart, they have a few rings that hold then pieces together like in the pic below...Mine does not have these. Not sure if thats anything but I am sooooo lost right now on why thing thing is not working.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/foamjet4.jpg

[Delphinus]

Could be that it's fallen apart slightly in the beckett holder then.

You can use an O-ring, or elastics, or find the right size of PVC (I had to dig through my box-o-plumbing-bits to find the right size, two different 1" PVC worked but I needed one with a thinner wall thickness to fit on one end and one with a thicker wall on the other).

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Was your skimmer having the same problem then? I guess whats happening is that water is filling up in the housing of the beckett head injector (or whatever its actually called) and water is then being forced out if the air intake instead of air being sucked in. Need to figure out why water is filling up in there...

[wickedfrags]

So water is still coming out of the beckett and ending up on the floor?

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

So water is still coming out of the beckett and ending up on the floor?

Just fixed it finally...I knew it would be something so stupid and small too. I just screwed the air intake valve too far in. Simple as that. Its working now.

[Skimmerking]

ROlmao I did the same thing man. cheers to you for figuring it out