Advice? What did I do?

I moved my heater from the display Tank to the sump last weekend. I put it in the first section that receives the water from above then next section is the refugum and the last is the return pump so that first section is the only place it would fit.

Since then the skimmer was acting up, not producing much waste and the bubbles were either gone or not creating a lot of bubbles. I have been checking it daily and if there were no bubbles or a lack of bubbles from normal I would lift up on the air intake hose on the skimmer and the bubbles would take off like mad.

Last night I put my had under the skimmer to see if the intake hose where it connects to the motor was loose or something. I squeesed the hose where it connected to the motor and I think I freed up some salt build up. It started bubbling really good after that. I don't recall ever cleaning out this part of the skimmer in the past.

Is it common to get some kind of salt build up in the air intake hose for a skimmer? Could it have been a snail? Did I solve the problem and my bubbles should be flowing good now? Could the heater cause the build up to happen quicker?

The skimmer is a PSK 600 diablo it is only about a year or 2 old.

Thoughts?

 

Thanx Guys I will try that this weekend. So, can I assume the heater being right next to the skimmer will have no affect?

 

It seams to be running like a champ since cleaning it out over the weekend. i would have never thought I would need to clean out that part of the skimmer b4. Thanx all.