Anyone ever hooked up an air pump to a venturi skimmer?

[Joyride]

I installed an Aquafuge PS refugium/protein skimmer last week and have been thinking about the protein skimmer portion. The pump does a decent job of putting bubbles into the skimmer portion, but more bubbles would be better, right? I could get a more powerful pump on the intake, but that would increase the overall flow through the fuge, and I like the flow rate that I've got now.

It seems like you could put an air pump up to the venturi intake and get even more air through, theoretically resulting in more bubbles. Might even quiet down the intake a little as the noise would be baffled by the air pump.

Anyway, wondering if anyone's ever tried this before, or if I'm way off base (again).

-Chris

[CarmieJo]

Chris, I have seen a SeaClone with an air pump hooked up to the venturi. It made it work much better. But, it was not skimming anything at all to start out with.

[mike_777]

You have to be careful to not pump too much air because too much won't allow enough water in the impeller housing which could cause it to run the pump hot. But then again, you don't want to have too slow of air going into the venturi which could suffocate stock operation which would make it worse off than stock.