My Deltec MCE 300 skimmer review

[mojo]

I just got this skimmer at Kingfish, and thought I'd post a review since it's relatively new and mine may just be the first in action here in Austin. For those who don't know, I have a 30g cube, mixed reef. If anyone's interested in a lot of specifics of my tank, please refer to my thread on Reef Central. The tank is just over 1 year old, and before the AEFW raped all of my acros, it was a fairly heavily-populated tank. Now all of the acros are gone, but I'm in the re-building phase. The tank is supported by a ~14 gallon sump/fuge, and my previous Remora skimmer hung on the back of the sump. I was happy with that skimmer, and I've never had any measurable nitrate or phosphate despite having 4 fish, lots of corals, and fairly hefty daily feeding. But when I saw the crap that Deltec skimmers were pulling out, I just had to have one. When this MCE 300 HOB skimmer became available, my juices started flowing. John and Brian allowed me to take it home and ensure that it would fit on my sump before commiting to purchasing it, and luckily it just did - with a few modifications.

First off, this unit is a few centimeters wider than the Remora, and if it were 2 mm more in width, it wouldn't have fit within the constraints of my sump's skimmer compartment. The next problem was that the return tubing from the skimmer to the sump was too long, as it was running into the shelf inside my cabinet. Here's the skimmer, without the drain pipe connected.

In this close-up you can see what I mean about the pipe running into the cabinet shelf.

The next hurdle was that the drain pipe extended out into the refugium compartment. Both of these horizontal tubes had to be shortened, and this was safe to do according to Doug at Deltec. The return tube was easy to remove and cut, but the horizontal drain tube was mistakenly glued into place by the manufacturer, and I broke it trying to get it out (it's supposed to be a slip fitting). Fortunately John and Brian gave me a new one from their shop, and Deltec will send them a new replacement. This new tube was cut to proper length, then installed.

When I installed the skimmer, I then realized that the strainer of the drain pipe was still above the water level. I fixed this by heating up a segment of 3/4" vinyl tubing which was slipped over the strainer and the riser tube.

I didn't feel the need to clamp this connection, since I don't want to accidentally do it too tightly and risk cracking the material. Also, it's fairly low pressure and a tight fit at that, so it should be sound.

The skimmer began producing foam almost immediately (it had help, as I had recently treated some cyano with Chemi-Clean). After the first 48 hr of operation, here's the skimmate that was produced.

Overall I'm happy with this skimmer and I'm glad I went with it. There are a few other points I'd like to make, but I have to run so I'll update this a little later.

[ejaustin]

"Let me show you my gunk! Isn't this ***cool***???" Only in the reefing community... rofl

Thanks for the review, Mike.

ej

[thedude]

and before the AEFW raped all of my acros,

I'm sorry but that made me fall out of my chair laughing haha! Big wrasses in every tank to come!

John

[mojo]

I've crossed the 3-week mark with this skimmer, and I remain happy with it. Regarding its ease of use, I'd have to say that the Remora was a little simpler. The air intake valve needs to be adjusted every time I empty the collection cup, so I can't just clean the cup and run away. The Deltec's collection cup and riser tubes have a lot of surface area, which is great for pulling out crap, but it's also more tedious to clean. I've been using an old soft toothbrush, but this is clearly too small and I'll need to get a larger brush for future cleaning. The manual recommends cleaning the cup ever 2-4 days, and I've been doing it every 4-5 days due to the time it takes to clean it. This hasn't helped the efficiency of the product, as I'm sure I'd get more skimmate if I cleaned it more regularly. One of the problems I was having was that my light rack is in the way of the skimmer, and I'd have to loosen the clamp and slide the unit away from my sump just to remove the collection cup. I finally got smart and I've tightened the clamp at a position where, if the skimmer slides back away from the sump, it won't be perfectly vertically-oriented, but it won't fall off either. This way, I can simply slide it back a bit and remove the collection cup without having to fuss with the clamp each time. This will decrease the "PITA" factor for me, and I'll begin to clean it more frequently (like every 2-3 days).

Performance-wise, I can't honestly say I've noticed any difference in the tank itself. I just tested for nitrate and phosphate, and both are undetectable with Salifert test kits, but they've always been undetectable in my system. I do have a lot of confidence in this skimmer, however, and I'm not afraid to add more livestock and more food to the tank. Hope this is helpful information.

[mburton]

Did you have any microbubble problems with yours? I am still getting a lot of microbubbles out of mine. I was told on reefcentral that it was due to my tank being young (roughly 3 months old I guess). I turned it off, and plan to leave it off for a bit to let the tank mature a little more...otherwise my aquarium is more of a snow globe.

[aquarius]

it doesn't look like you could mod it to use an external collection cup, huh? i've been looking at this and the MCE600 for a 60G i'm setting up. thanks for the review.

[mojo]

Mark, I haven't had any problems with microbubbles. The return tube has an attachment along which the water glides down into the sump, rather than falling straight down out of the tube. This is not on the photos I posted above, but if you check the Deltec website, you'll see what I mean. This, along with the baffles in my sump, essentially eliminate all microbubbles.

aquarius - Did you see the size of that collection cup? It's friggin huge, IMO. You're correct in that it would be VERY difficult to rig an external collection cup, but I think this would be counterproductive anyway. Let's say you were able to engineer an external drain of some sort. This would only encourage LESS cleaning of the cup and riser tube, which would decrease the efficiency of the skimmer for sure. Even though the MCE300 is rated for heavily stocked tanks up to 60g, if you're doing a 60g tank, I'd personally recommend a skimmer rated for a larger tank than the MCE300. The MCE600 would probably be a better choice for you, but again, that's just my opinion. I'm a big fan of over-skimming.

[Kingfish]

MORE NOG PICS!!!

[aquarius]

yeah, i was probably going with the 600, i was sort of waiting to see some reviews of the 300, thanks for that.

[mburton]

yeah, i was probably going with the 600, i was sort of waiting to see some reviews of the 300, thanks for that.

I have the 600 on my 30 cube. The only reason I went with it over the 300 is because I found one used for only 2 months at a pretty good price. I have had it running for a few weeks now and am getting good skimmate out of it considering my low bioload. Let me know if you ever want to come by and check it out.

I had problems with microbubbles for the first few weeks, so I turned it off for a few days. I turned it back on yesterday, and its almost microbubble free.

[aquarius]

what would you say is the output from the 600? i'm wondering if i could plumb it into the fuge, or if i might have to split it. i'd like to do it all with one pump(the fuge will just be a false wall about4-5" from the back). of course i'll have a couple of the new tunze 6025's for flow in the tank. trying to keep it simple.