Eee gads, my skimmer is noisy

[SarahSmile]

Hi guys,
A year ago I got the reef octopus hang on the back skimmer, it's the BH2000. I love the thing, it pulls all kinds o' crud and yadda yadda. My husband has always hated how it sounds,(he's not always pro tank thou) I like it's quiet water sound. Turn the t.v. up louder dude and deal, yeesh. BUT, 3 or 4 nights ago it started being A LOT LOUDER. It's not the pump, it's like a gurgling/air sound, a stuttering sucking. If you put your finger over the hole on the black silencer it stops. My husband said we should take it off, take it apart and clean it. Um no. (see page 3 or something on my sarah's 60 build thread, a guy at work put it together, no way we can take it apart AND put it back together) Any clue what the noise is or what I should do?. We now have to watch Jeopardy as loud as my grandpa used to. Yes, we watch jeopardy. Everynight. It's cool people. Waaaaay cool.

 

[bjohanson1234]

I replaced the silencer with one of those airline valves. Then slowly adjust it till it quit making noise.

 

[RockStacker]

Salt creep inside the silencer attachment will cause all kinds of gurgling and air/water mixture problems.
Make sure it is regularly cleaned, or replace it with an airline valve.

 

[SarahSmile]

Will do, thanks guys!

 

[BryanS]

Mine does that every now and then also. When mine does it I turn it off take the silencers off and put the air valves on it just like you do when you first set it up, then when the skimmer starts pulling water I put the silencers back on.

 

[SarahSmile]

AND now the whole darn thing quit working. Sigh. It's been on the fritz for a while. I'd come home and it'd be humming but not bubbling and I'd have to restart it. But now, nothing. The pump sounds like it's running but won't circulate. I Nancy Drewed the hell out of it too. Took it off, took it apart, cleaned it, blew in the hoses, looked for dead things, (basically a whole fun afternoon), got it going again for a few hours and it stopped again. So odd.

 

[FishyReef]

Could it be the pump impeller that isn't spinning?