okay so how do I know its pulling more air? basically in the body of a skimmer you have a point where the water line stops and the bubble column form. when you pull more air the bubble column volume gets larger and you have to drop the water line to keep the bubbles from rising too high or overflowing the collection cup. well I had to drop the riser tube a good inch and the bubble column is still higher than it was before the pinwheel. I waited another day to let it settle and be certain it wasn't a temperary effect from fiddling with the skimmer (I didn't do any deep cleaning just a wheel swap).
so this is basically what it looks like with the water level way down from what it was previously. and this isn't a "built" bubble column. this is shortly after plugging it in. I'd still have to bring it down lower to dry skim. before the pinwheel I could actually bring the water level up into the bottom of the collection cup if I wanted to without overflowing the skimmer (I used to set it flush with the bottom of the collection cup). cant bring it up that high anymore. so the pinwheel doesn't look like much and the wheel diameter is noticeably smaller but it definately works better. Now I dont know if its worth the $39 I payed since you can buy a OTP-1000 by itself for almost the same price but if you dont want to mess with meshing and getting it wrong/coming apart/starting issues this seems to be a great upgrade. and if your buying a new NW skimmer with OTP series pumps you dont have to pay anything, just make sure you get new stock.
ps: THIS is why I hate coraline! it always grows where you DONT want it.
