Benefit to skimmer sucking air from collection cup?

[steveoutlaw]

I have seen people saying that they connect their venturi intake directly to their collection cup and it increases performance. Is there any truth to this?

[zygote2k]

think about it this way-

The air intake is a hose- the quicker the air can enter and get used up, the more efficient the venturi is.

Attaching the air line to a semi-closed cup means that you are putting a restriction on the amount of air getting to the venturi.

Forcing air into the venturi could make the skimmer work better, but restricting it certainly won't.

[Incredible Corals]

I bet if I did that on my cs1 it would just raise the water level and it would overflow so I would have to dial it back with the output valve. Maybe if your skimmer has no adjustment valve on the output and its not pushing enough bubbles to the collection cup this could help. It would be just like raising the water level.

[Coral Hind]

Con: Since you would be recycling the air it would be less useful at helping in O2 exchange.

Pro: It would help in keeping the smell down as less air would be pushed out of the colleciton cup.

Pro: Since you are re-using the air it would be less likely to suck in freshly contaminated air from the cleaning lady.

 

I think if you added ozone to the skimmer hose you would probably increase the skimmer output more.

 

 

[Integral9]

well i don't like it because that's how the prizm skimmers are made and i can say from experience, it's not good. once the skimmate reaches up high enough to be sucked into the intake, the pump gets fully primmed and starts moving more water, which overflows the collection cup and results in you dumping / sucking all your skimmate into the tank.