Dary's tank!

[Keithhjs]

Hope the skimmer arrived and is easy to install for ya!

 

[Dary421]

Hope the skimmer arrived and is easy to install for ya!

Hey Keith,....I spent all day yesterday extending my tanks cabinet another 6-8 feet ,..in the process I had to cut up the old tv stand etc etc,..what a mess !!!! So far I have all my fingers but out of beer !
I did build a little super mini walk in closet at the side of my tank where my new skimmer lives,..just enough room to step in and do the adjustments,cup removal etc,...unlike Greg's or Doug's ,I guess that'll have to do for my fish room .
Late in the day the new skimmer did arrive,.but by then ol'Dary was about had it,...I did find enough spirit later to take the time to plumb in both of my available pumps via the twist apart fittings,..right now she's all plumbed up with the blueline 55 pump,and that'll be the one I'll try first,...it's a beautiful ,heavy duty, heavy wieght monster ,if she skims 1/2 as good as she looks we'll have a winner.
If I can clear a path thru the saws,2x4's , all the crap that i piled up from moving stuff around I'll do my pwc that I was going to do yesterday AND then I can start up the new skimmer and ck for leaks and get her broken in,...she looks impressive enough to have come off of a alien space ship.
Right now I'm having my morning cup of coffee trying to get up off the couch and get these old bones moving,...illl update later.

 

[Gregcoyote]

My fish room is now standing room only.

 

[needmorecowbell]

My fish room is now standing room only.

Every fish addicts dream lol.

That's great dary! This skimmer sounds like a beast

 

[Dary421]

Well,..I'm on a extended break because I ran out if wood and I'm not in the mood for another trip to home depot right now,..my tanks cabinet extension complete with the phone booth size walk in room is coming right along, ive got tons more stuff to do but at this point there's light at the end of the tunnel.
I got the mrc skimmer up and running this morning and wow it's really quiet,even with that big motor propelling things,...it was a little nerve wracking turning that thing on for the first time but she fired right up and best of all NO LEAKS.
Right now she's running as per manufacturers recommendations and will need to be there for a day or so before you start fidgeting with the air and water adjustments.
I took a bunch of pictures of things along the way,.. Prob not the prettiest looking setup ever but it'll work just fine for me at this point,..as I said earlier , there's plenty more stuff to do but I'll get there soon enough.

 

[Keithhjs]

Looks great. Good job

 

[Gregcoyote]

Very nice! Skimmer looks deluxe. I wonder why a skimmer needs to "break in?" I know many of them do, but it seems it should start stacking up foam within minutes of operation. What's the difference between a new collection up and a recently cleaned one? When I clean my skimmer there is no extended break in period again, it goes back to skimming almost immediately. Just curious. And Dary's thread is where we ask the deep questions.

 

[Keithhjs]

Very nice! Skimmer looks deluxe. I wonder why a skimmer needs to "break in?" I know many of them do, but it seems it should start stacking up foam within minutes of operation. What's the difference between a new collection up and a recently cleaned one? When I clean my skimmer there is no extended break in period again, it goes back to skimming almost immediately. Just curious. And Dary's thread is where we ask the deep questions.

I think it's more that the skimmer neck retains some organic film when we clean the cup. I had a skimmer start immediately skimming on day one within few minutes of starting up a tank brand new but it was as soon as I put live sand in. Stuff jump started the skimmer immediately.

Btw Dary, now I really wish I had ordered my mrc skimmer before I invested in all this equipment lol.

 

[Dary421]

Very nice! Skimmer looks deluxe. I wonder why a skimmer needs to "break in?" I know many of them do, but it seems it should start stacking up foam within minutes of operation. What's the difference between a new collection up and a recently cleaned one? When I clean my skimmer there is no extended break in period again, it goes back to skimming almost immediately. Just curious. And Dary's thread is where we ask the deep questions.

Good question,..I always wondered about that too,... From my understanding ( right or wrong) it was merely the time taken for Your marine water to remove any Chemical residue left by the factory in the making of your skimmer,which hinders your skimmers ability to produce the climbing foam needed..once it's removed then your skimmer should perform as you stated,.."within minutes"..... Maybe different brand and models of skimmers go thru some kind if a cleaning bath and their " break in " isn't as bad as others,.(?) My bubble magus ( bought new ) produced foam and gunk almost immediately upon plugging it in,.and yet others say days or a week for break in ,... Who knows ?

 

[Gregcoyote]

That's my experience as well. I lean towards your comment that there is something on new acrylic that either gets filmed over or washed off.

 

[Keithhjs]

That's my experience as well. I lean towards your comment that there is something on new acrylic that either gets filmed over or washed off.

I agree about residue needing to be washed off. Both my current skimmers mention that as part of the break in period. I was just commenting how even though it said it in the manual my cheapo coralife superskimmer 125 foamed and made skimmate immediately when I added a bag of live sand. 20 min after filling the tank with water and mixing in salt for the initial tank setup on day one I added the sand and the skimmer went from just foaming to making skimmate like crazy. I guess an overload of organics or a strong change in water chemistry can cause it to skim somehow.

 

[Dary421]

Every fish addicts dream lol.

That's great dary! This skimmer sounds like a beast

Thanks,...but even superman couldn't change in this " phone booth" !!!... But nevertheless ,..I'm loving it,...I got the skimmer's water/ foam level up to operating height as per manufacturers instructions today ., everything looking good at this point, we'll see what she does in the next day or two,...looks and sounds impressive!!

 

[needmorecowbell]

Thanks,...but even superman couldn't change in this " phone booth" !!!... But nevertheless ,..I'm loving it,...I got the skimmer's water/ foam level up to operating height as per manufacturers instructions today ., everything looking good at this point, we'll see what she does in the next day or two,...looks and sounds impressive!!

Woah... This is weird, I'm wearing a superman shirt. If you don't mind me asking, how much was this beauty? I need a new skimmer, just looking around at what I can't afford.

 

[Dary421]

Woah... This is weird, I'm wearing a superman shirt. If you don't mind me asking, how much was this beauty? I need a new skimmer, just looking around at what I can't afford.

...about $600 for skimmer ., $239 for the blue line 55 pump ( used to recirculate water in skimmer ) and i already had a mag 7 to feed it.... Lots of bucks but thats what tax refunds are for i guess... Only time will tell., but so far i like it

 

[needmorecowbell]

Sheesh, well thanks! I hope you have many years with the monster of a skimmer.

 

[Dary421]

A small update,.. The " monster" MRC Skimmer has been up and running since Tuesday ,...it's just now breaking out of its "breaking in" period and I couldn't be any happier at this point,...it's super easy to adjust ,very quiet and it's a beast !!! I had also bought a mrc over flow canister which will turn off the skimmer when the overflow cylinder is full of junk..a nice feature to have .
It's really weird because it's so quiet during the day you never really hear it running due to all the daytime back ground noise,..but at night while you're in bed you hear this faint little " jet turbine" noise which to me is kinda neat because you know things are running smoothly and there's no worries with the tank,.
I know it's still early but I'm very impressed so far with the quality of the workmanship and it's overall performance.,

 

[Keithhjs]

A small update,.. The " monster" MRC Skimmer has been up and running since Tuesday ,...it's just now breaking out of its "breaking in" period and I couldn't be any happier at this point,...it's super easy to adjust ,very quiet and it's a beast !!! I had also bought a mrc over flow canister which will turn off the skimmer when the overflow cylinder is full of junk..a nice feature to have .
It's really weird because it's so quiet during the day you never really hear it running due to all the daytime back ground noise,..but at night while you're in bed you hear this faint little " jet turbine" noise which to me is kinda neat because you know things are running smoothly and there's no worries with the tank,.
I know it's still early but I'm very impressed so far with the quality of the workmanship and it's overall performance.,

Yeah I have a feeling you will not regret purchasing that skimmer. MRC makes some quality products. I'm happy for you that you chose a good skimmer. Hoping someday I get back in skimmer shopping mode again lol.

 

[mr_X]

I was always afraid to have an external waste collection container, because if you have some sort of event in the tank that makes the skimmer go crazy and overflow, It will overflow that container all over the place until it runs out of water or the event has run it's course.
I like to keep mine in sump so that it will just go right back in the tank if this happens.

 

[Keithhjs]

I was always afraid to have an external waste collection container, because if you have some sort of event in the tank that makes the skimmer go crazy and overflow, It will overflow that container all over the place until it runs out of water or the event has run it's course.
I like to keep mine in sump so that it will just go right back in the tank if this happens.

Yeah I hate when that happens. I have my in sump skimmer on a float in the cup so of it overflows it kills it for a little bit. The external one however is not ran like that but is pretty reliable to not over skim and also is in the garage so the mess isn't such a worry. However, on the tank I'm preparing to install I was planning on also installing a float in a collection container but it is a recirculating skimmer and I was considering plugging in the recirculating pump to the float switch. I am thinking by killing the recirt pump, foam fractionating stops, and therefore no over skim as water just flows "through" the skimmer. Any thought wise reefers?

 

[Dary421]

I was always afraid to have an external waste collection container, because if you have some sort of event in the tank that makes the skimmer go crazy and overflow, It will overflow that container all over the place until it runs out of water or the event has run it's course.
I like to keep mine in sump so that it will just go right back in the tank if this happens.

Normally I'd agree 100% but theses particular overflow units were designed to supposedly cut off the airflow to the skimmer when the overflow canister is full preventing the canister from overflowing,....without the air the water level in the skimmer will drop and any excess water would flow out the gate valve back into the sump anyways.......don't worry I'll keep an eye on things for sure ,just to be on the safe side., worst case scenario would be to put the overflow canister in the sump anyways., but even then,I can't imagine the canister overflowing the way it's designed.,... Both the skimmer and overflow are pretty airtight, no lids etc to push up to flow over or thru.