Help with Reef Octopus BH100F HOB Skimmer?

[markang]

Received the skimmer yesterday and set it up.. From all the photos I see on the internet, there's 2 air hoses, 1 blue hose, a valve, and a silencer.

The one I received has 1 air hose, a long one taht connects from and to the bottom of the pump.. that seemed unusual. I assumed that needed to be cut so we cut it in half (creating now the 2 air hoses that looks like the instruction and every internet photo).

Setup was.. small hard blue tube to the top of intake. the other end of hard blue tube connected to one of the air hoses
The valve was connected to the other air hose.

Filled skimmer with water (tank water). plug in.. release a bit of air.. seems to have siphoned. This morning i took off the valve from the 2nd air hose, and plugged in silencer.

Question/Problem:
1. Is this setup correct? Was i suppose to cut the whole hose into 2?
2. The water is coming in, pushed through the middle, to the left chamber.. then out through the outlet.
There's a TON of water bubbles.. is that normal .
How can i reduce it?

3. most importantly. there's nothing in the collection cup over night.. like it's completely clean.. the tube in the middle has a little bit of black dirt.. but otherwise clean as well.
that doesn't seem normal? My cup is about 60% inside the skimmer and 40% above.. it covers the little hole on the left near the top (between the middle and outlet chamber).
Help?

Thanks!!

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[Skimmy]

pics my friend, pics....

but the main thing about this skimmer is that it has an sipon hose connected from the skimmer inlet to the pump venturi, this is to
pull all the excess air out of the inlet and to auto start the siphon. the other hose should be a silicone hose for the venturi going to the muffler.and you need to let your skimmer break in for a couple weeks before your microbubbles go away and it starts skimming normally.
i dont know abouut you cutting the current hose in half, but you could always get more hose if you messed it up.