Trying to get protein skimmer running.

So I have this Odyssea skimmer that came with my 72g tank. I didn't set it up initially.. When I went to set it up, the pump was toast, so it sat again for a few weeks till I ordered a replacement Odyssea pump. The replacement finally came and I hooked everything up, but it didn't seem to be doing much.. No bubbles.. So I pulled it out and set it up in the kitchen sink to see if I could figure out what the problem is. When I have the pump sitting alone in the sink, it will make air bubbles.. When I attach the pump to the skimmer, no more bubbles.. Just water flowing through the skimmer. I fidgeted with it for a couple hours, but just couldn't get it working. I could blow water through the air tube and water would end up in the body of the skimmer, but the bubbles were not the small ones you would expect, but large bubbles.

Any ideas on how I could get it working?

Is there a air inlet tube going to your pump, that stays out of the water?

Shad -

Can you put up a photo of how you have it set up?

That may help