Coralife Protein Skimmer pump

[ibleedblue65]

I am pretty new to the hobby and setting up my first saltwater tank. I was given a coralife 125 skimmer with no pump. I have a mag drive 350 gph pump. My question is can I use this mag drive pump or do I need to get a pump specific for this skimmer? What depth should the pump be at and how important is this? Also the skimmer has none of the outlet fittings. Will this cause a big micro bubble problem if I just let it overflow back into my sump? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys

[AndyMan]

you should rate the pump at approx 1.5x size of the tank... so a 100G tank would need 150GPH feed through it
Harbor freight is your friend for cheap pumps
ALSO... superglue around every joint on the thing if it hasn't already been done

The Skimmer cup (if it leaks) which is "normal" can be fixed easily with "Dielectric Grease" over the O ring

[ibleedblue65]

i thought the pump that came with these things was 500 gph

[mufret]

Can you post a pic of the skimmer? Coralife made 2 versions (needlewheel and venturi). If it's the venturi version, a Mag 5 would be a good fit. If it's the needlewheel version, you'll need to try and find a comparable needlewheel pump.

[ibleedblue65]

I will post a pic tuesday hopefully. I was told I need to drill an air inlet on the pump intake. Is this true? best way to do this? Thanks for the help guys