My reef Creations MR-3 protein skimmer

Lance · #1 07-23-2008, 12:25 AM

I have a good deal (pending) on this skimmer. Anybody have any experience with this skimmer? I plan to run it on a 225 gal. FOWLR Any advice appreciated. Thanks, Lance

Skimmerking · #2 07-23-2008, 03:09 AM

Lance its a beckett what do you expect, ITs a power bubble machine.. I love becketts the bigger the pump the better you can push the bubbles through give her man gt it. you can sort out the skimmer to run RC too. check with Lando he has a bullet 3 but has a huge dual beckett the harvey made for him......

Lance · #3 07-23-2008, 04:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by asmodeus

Lance its a beckett what do you expect, ITs a power bubble machine.. I love becketts the bigger the pump the better you can push the bubbles through give her man gt it. you can sort out the skimmer to run RC too. check with Lando he has a bullet 3 but has a huge dual beckett the harvey made for him......

Yeah, I've heard becketts are the way to go, but I've never had any experience with them. As for a pump I was thinking maybe an Iwaki 70RLT or Pan World 200PS. Add-on injectors are available for about $100, so you can upgrade the skimmer at any time.

Skimmerking · #4 07-23-2008, 05:03 AM

do the injectors yourself. they are really easy to do. get your self a uniseal and drill the hole and there you have it install thepipe and addthe injector. i had a wicked beckett it was 34 " dual injectors powered by mak 5 it wsa cleaning crazy. i went to a BM 250 just for going away for the wife to clean.. i wish i had the beckett again... since the pumps on the BM are giving me grieve.

wickedfrags · #5 07-23-2008, 01:46 PM

I had a MRC3 dual beckett on a 250G well stocked system powered by a PCX55. Due to it's shorter height (less contact time) I was initialy releuctant about it's abilities to skim a tank this size, but seeing it in action, and observing the results over time, well I think it is a great skimmer.

Skimmerking · #6 07-23-2008, 02:05 PM

the key to a great beckett is to power the heck out of the becketts with a huge pump to cause millions or millions of bubble and a long contact time. with a good style beckett you can clean anything and clean the scales off the fish too......

Lance · #7 07-23-2008, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by asmodeus

the key to a great beckett is to power the heck out of the becketts with a huge pump to cause millions or millions of bubble and a long contact time. with a good style beckett you can clean anything and clean the scales off the fish too......

Which pump do you recommend? The website for MRC recommends the PCX55 or Panworld 150PS or 200 PS. Should I go bigger?

Skimmerking · #8 07-23-2008, 06:17 PM

Lance if the skimmer is 1 beckett i would use a good pressured rated pump with it like a mak 5 something like that.. as long as you have a good size pipe going to the beckett like with mine i had 1" going into the becketts. with a dual pipe so some of the head loss was there too.
i have read that a mak 4 will run a mrc 3 but i would go with a mak 5 pressure now you have a power house , if you ever go to another beckett on that skimmer then yuou don't need to upgrade the pump again ....

wickedfrags · #9 07-23-2008, 06:38 PM

I use a Mak 5 on my beckett, swapped it out about 2 years+ back. Try to get 4x your system's water volume though the skimmer (after head loss) and you should be happy with the performance.

Lance · #10 07-24-2008, 04:20 AM

Thanks everyone for the advice. Much appreciated. Sounds like I'm getting a pretty good skimmer. As for the pump, I'm going with the Iwaki MD 70RLT. That bad boy is sure to whip up some serious bubbles.