Is my Aqua Medic Turboflotor 1000 Working?

I am setting up my first tank. I found a used Aqua Medic Turboflotor
1000 with a Rio 2100 on ebay (one needle on the impeller is broken).
When I set it up, it creates pea sized bubbles in the chamber, though
not so many as to make it difficult to see though the chamber. At the
LFS, I saw some other skimmers in action that created a mass of
pin-head sized bubbles that completely obscured the view through the
chamber. This is what I was expecting to see with my new (used)
skimmer, but what do I know (first time and all).

Several posts talk about making sure the connections between the pump
and the skimmer are tight, so I used Teflon tape on these. The air tube
is clean and the venturi holes are open.

Is this thing working the way it should? Thanks for any help you can
give.