Skimmers

[jfitzg14]

Has anyone used a Del Tec skimmer on a Solana?

[glennr1978]

I had a mce300 a while back on my 40g and it kinda sucked. i actually preferred coralife skimmers over that particular deltec.

[cerobbins]

I have an mce300 on my solana and it skims great. The biggest drawback to this skimmer is that it can not always draw a siphon by itself so in the event of a power outage the skimmer may not actually skim until someone helps it get the siphon back. To regain the siphon all I have to do is cover the airtube with a finger for a couple seconds.

[reeftivo]

MCE 300 has many good and many bad reviews. I'm sure they are fine skimmers. I have a MCE 600 that I was running on my 28 gal and it did very well. The price tag is too big IMO for the deltecs and you may want to check out the warner marine H series HOB skimmers or the octopus BH100f (octo may have changed the number). Warner Marine has the pump inside the body of the skimmer and now they come with a bubble plate for less turbulence. I've heard good things about the warner skimmers. I've also seen them up close and IMO they are built better than the deltecs (coming from a Deltec owner!). The only thing I didn't care for is that they are made of clear blue acrylic.

[jfitzg14]

Did you have to make any modifications?

[cerobbins]

The only mod you may have to do is to cut the diffuser or outlet tube. This can be done with any fine tooth saw. This mod just allows you to let the skimmer drain into the rear chamber as the standard diffuser length typically returns it to the tank.

[jfitzg14]

Thanks.

[E.intheC]

+1 about the Warner Marine. When the new model comes out, I'll probably be going with that one.

[cerobbins]

Will the Warner Marine still use sedra pumps? I know they are adding a bubble plate, but what else are they revising?

[E.intheC]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15566583#post15566583 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cerobbins
Will the Warner Marine still use sedra pumps? I know they are adding a bubble plate, but what else are they revising?

I'm not sure about the Sedra pump, but I know they are supposed to have a larger neck and bubble plate. If you ask over in their forums, I'm sure they'll tell you quickly.

[reeftivo]

I did two mods on my mce600.The first was the one mentioned regarding the outlet tube. I cut that down to about 2 1/2 inches and did not use the diffuser plate. The second was to extend the intake tube over the rear compartment and pull water directly from the display. I could not skim well with the 600 pulling from the rear compartment. I started thinking it may be bacause the skimmer turn over was too much for the amount of water coming through the overflow. In my case, when I modded the intake into the display, it began to skim very good. The problem I had in doing this is as I was pulling water from the display, the return water was too much for the rear chamber so I had to bypass the wave maker and run the two mj1200 return pumps 24/7 to push more water back into the display.

I also did this to my ATB multi on the same tank but did not have to actually cut the hard parts of the skimmer because victor at ATB (the best CS) gave me an extra u-tube to fart around with.

If I had it to do all over again and get a HOB for a tank less than 40 gallons, I definately would go with the Warner Marine. If you haven't seen one in a store or at a show you should take a look. They are very, very clean looking skimmers and built like little tanks.