Mustang

Ok so this is my first review of anything but i thought some of you may be interested in this brand of skimmer. As for what led me to this skimmer i would have to say looks played a part as it reminded me of the Bubble kings (way out of my price range) For some reason the blue and red drew me in. After my initial crush i did some checking and it was getting decent reviews and even being compared to Deltacs not that i can say this is true as again i am new to the hobby and this is my first skimmer. I had also done a lot of my research over a year ago when i was first dreaming of getting into saltwater. So I went and checked to make sure people where still happy with these skimmers and outside a few issue that seemed to be fixed in newer models all looked good. So here is my tale.

So it arrived Feb 1st. As you can see it was packed well.

It had traveled through some -20c and left it in my garage which was about -15c so i unpacked it slowly and carefully to avoid breaking anything because of it being cold.

Here is the full contents of the box spread out.

I then left it to sit for about 1hr so that it could worm up before i put it together just to make sure i did not break anything. Although the build quality looks good to me ( can't say for sure as again this is my first skimmer ) and i am sure it would have been fine but i have rushed things is the past to end up just putting myself behind in the end.

Assembly
1. Took base plate off of the main body.

2. Looked over the pump and removed the impeller to make sure the shaft was not broken and to inspect the mesh wheel. The mesh wheel had some strands that where a bit long so i trimmed these back as i had seen that this has caused some issue for people. After that was done back together it went.

3.Slid pump onto the base plate

4. Now what i should have done was attach the bubble chamber to the pump but instead i attached the main body only to have to take it off to attach the bubble chamber and then put the main body back on.

5. On went the collection cup/lid and air intake. Here it is put together.

The recommend water depth for this skimmer is 9-11 inches and compared to other skimmers i think this is deeper then most others require. When i first set this in the sump it was about 11.5" i also tried it in 10.5 and it currently sits in about 9.5. It seemed to work equally well in each setting and just a matter of an adjustment. Although i did not really give it enough time to prove it self in the deeper conditions and it was also in its break in stage. On Marc's advice i had moved it up to where it is now with the reasoning that it will be less likely to over flow, which it has a few times already because of my constant tinkering.
I think it could be run in shallower waters as i currently have it set at 2.5ish out of 6 so you would still have room if you did not have a deep sump as the slightest adjustment makes a difference in the bubble highth.

At this point the skimmer has been running for about 2 months and i am happy with it. The only thing i could ask for is that it would pull out a dryer skim but again this could just be me now adjusting it correctly. I clean out the collection cup at least every week when i do water changes. Although there have been times that it was cleaned more often when needed. Here is a shot of where it sits today and about 3 days of skim minus about 4x the liquid that is in the cup as i drained it out yesterday.

I had cleaned the glass the same day i cleaned the collection cup and i think that is why i had a bit more skim then normally. Any who that is my skimmer story and if you have comments or questions feel free and hope someone out there found this useful. Thanks all