[Magickiwi]

Deltec MCE600

Well I was finally able to track one of these down at Wai's in Calgary. He had it at a great price too @$549 ($30ish less than average). I got the display model which I don't normally do but he said he'd take it back if it leaks or has any hidden damage. It doesn't appear to have any issues.

I took it home and cleaned it out, took the plastic off etc. The set up for this skimmer is stupid easy, there's nothing to do. It could be because mine was a display model but all I had to do was unpack the thing, fill it up, and then plug it in. Immediately I noticed that the intake and output tubes were far too long and projected into my tank quite a ways. No problem, the manual says I can cut these back as needed; which I will do once I'm sure I don't have to return it.

I hung it, adjusted the bracket, installed the degassing thing on the return pipe and plugged it in. First thing it does is overflow... Swearing and growling I clean up the salt water, re-read the instructions and make sure I am doing things as per their instruction. OK ready to go again, it overflows and quite substantially this time. More swearing and growling as I think to myself that it may not be a product for me if it's this problematic at the start. I raise the skim cup even more and plug it back in and it works! No over flowing, and a fine white foam in the pump chamber. A couple more minutes go by and then it overflows the skim cup. Man what a pain in the butt! I dump the cup and adjust the air a bit etc. and plug it back in and it stays more or less stable.

By the time I had plugged my ozone line into the venturi tube things were working just fine. No over flowing and no wet skim etc.

First impression is that it is pretty twitchy to start up despite it being plug and play. It is loud only due to the return line being above water level. The construction of the skimmer is exceptional, everything is made out of much heavier plastic and Lexan than other skimmers; in particular my Tunze 9016. The unit probably weighs 10 or so lbs without water in it. I like the space for a bag of filter media; which I have used for carbon. I was never able to filter the output of the Tunze skimmer through carbon to remove the O3 and I'm glad I am able to now.

I'm cautiously optimistic about the skimmer. It will be my third skimmer now and I have yet to find one that I am confident in and I think does a decent job. Every review, thread, blog etc. says this is the skimmer to go with so I have my fingers crossed.

Also I have JUST received my two Allardi's clowns from Kraken's Reef and I will be introducing them to my POTM winner Clark eventually.