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Bak Pak Protein Skimmer


jpreefer

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I bought this skimmer about 6 months ago and everything worked fine up until about a month ago. I started having problems so I decided to take it apart and clean it and ever since i did that it starts working less and less after a weeks of running it. When I woke up this morning to check my tank I noticed water was barely even flowing thru t he skimmer it and I couldn't see any micro bubbles. Any Suggestions??

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I would be very suspicious of the pump. As tiny as they are it wouldn't take much to impede the flow. If you are getting zero microbubbles I would also check out the tubing and nipple on the venturi hose as well. Do you have a little knob to adjust the amount of air/bubbles? It might just be the power head has gone bad. On a relative basis they are very inexpensive to replace. HTH

Bill

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Yes it has an accela pump. I clean it every other week but today is the worst I have ever seen it. The water that was returning to the tank was just barely trickleing out and there were no micro bubbles. Is there any modifications I can do to the skimmer or pump to prevent this from happening?

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I am far from an expert on the CPR's although I have one. Mine has a Rio 600 RV so I am not familiar with the Accela. Stating the obvious it either just isn't pushing any water, in which case the pump must be bad or the venturi/ air mixing hose/mechanism are dirty/stopped. The 600 has a'head' area that turns. What for I do not know, but if your's has anything similar perhaps it is turned to no/limited flow. That's all the guesses I have. I'm don't think you are in the situation for mods. I think mods take your stuff from okay to better, not typically from not working to working.

Bill

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If there is little to no flow you have a clog or your impeller is not spinning/broken. If you are getting flow but no bubbles the airline is clogged. I would always drop the airline in the tank and let it pull water through for a while to clean it out.

The Rio and the Accela pumps are both ok pumps but have to be kept clean. At $25 it is better to replace the entire pump rather than just the impeller.

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