Dirty Skimmer causing Low PH???

[Nick Rose]

If a skimmer has been cleaned in several years could it started to cause problems with PH. If you saw my previous thread on Low PH. I was getting a PH of 7.5 or lower. After attaching a airline from out side it went to 7.71. That only lasted a few days. It started to go back down. I decided to breakdown the Protein Skimmer and clean it, since it hasn't been cleaned for several years. It wasn't that bad but still needed it. Today the PH is at 7.83 and the skimmer seems to be working better. I'm still tuning it in.

Before and after pictures:

 

[mtraylor]

Theory
If a protein skimmer has not been cleaned in say a year. If it was mine, it would not not be working at all because the volute would be clogged with calcium and I would be lucky to get any air sucked into the skimmer to produce skimmate. In other words, not much bubbles. That being said, you may have had a build up of carbon dioxide in the water and by cleaning the skimmer, it has created more bubbles and aerated the water more and raised your ph. Just a theory.