DarkReefer's CADE Reef S2 1800

[JonoH]

Thanks, I'll give that a go tonight and see if that helps.
Just couldn't seem to get it to foam better last night.
Ended up changing the DC controller to max in the end tried a few different things, even dropping it down to 9, but nothing seemed to work well. Maybe the head height and something to do with that as you say so will turn down the little twisty valve to try and lower it some and see how that gets on.

Even played with the little screw in the air thing but that seems to be more of a fine tune thing from what I gathered.

Have you tried extending the air hose to outside the cabinet - i did this with mine and it produces much better foam than it used to - before that it was a little hit and miss!

 

[DarkReefer]

Have you tried extending the air hose to outside the cabinet - i did this with mine and it produces much better foam than it used to - before that it was a little hit and miss!

You mean this one ?

As in you take it off the bit at the top (that allows tuning) and just run the hose straight out or ?
Or would you be attaching lines on the top of that little thing and running those outside of the cabinet?

 

[JonoH]

You mean this one ?

As in you take it off the bit at the top (that allows tuning) and just run the hose straight out or ?
Or would you be attaching lines on the top of that little thing and running those outside of the cabinet?

Yep 100%

Mine is a little different, but same principle - that way it can suck in clear fresh air - should help boost your PH also.

Lots of people run them through to outside, or to a CO2 Scrubber also.

 

[DarkReefer]

Yep 100%

Mine is a little different, but same principle - that way it can suck in clear fresh air - should help boost your PH also.

Lots of people run them through to outside, or to a CO2 Scrubber also.

Sorry mate, just so I understand fully here (I'm probably over thinking).

Are you saying I remove the top chamber (the noise dampner I think it's called ) on that tube and run the hose to the venturi straight out, or do I run tubes off of the top of that chamber (noise dampner) and outside of the cabinet?

Would be good to boost the pH as well.. seem to be struggling to get into the 8.2-8.4 range I'd like to be in.

I've looked a few times now for some sort of manual or something for the skimmer but it doesn't seem to have one available (at least that I can find) online as I thought maybe it's sitting too low in the sump and the water level isn't right as well.

 

[JonoH]

Sorry mate, just so I understand fully here (I'm probably over thinking).

Are you saying I remove the top chamber (the noise dampner I think it's called ) on that tube and run the hose to the venturi straight out, or do I run tubes off of the top of that chamber (noise dampner) and outside of the cabinet?

Would be good to boost the pH as well.. seem to be struggling to get into the 8.2-8.4 range I'd like to be in.

I've looked a few times now for some sort of manual or something for the skimmer but it doesn't seem to have one available (at least that I can find) online as I thought maybe it's sitting too low in the sump and the water level isn't right as well.

I took mine straight out off the top chamber, and slid an extension over the hose (it was a tight fit).

You could put the noise dampner back on it if its too noisy on the other end - mine makes a bit of noise but i dont really notice it over the general tank noise.

Just give it a try - can always put it back if it doesnt help :-)

 

[DarkReefer]

I took mine straight out off the top chamber, and slid an extension over the hose (it was a tight fit).

You could put the noise dampner back on it if its too noisy on the other end - mine makes a bit of noise but i dont really notice it over the general tank noise.

Just give it a try - can always put it back if it doesnt help :-)

Thanks for clarifying, and you're right. Can always go back.

I'll have to have a look tonight if I've got another tube that can go over it or attach to the venturi that's long enough (and also find that dosing pump tubing!).

 

[shadyraro]

Thanks for clarifying, and you're right. Can always go back.

I'll have to have a look tonight if I've got another tube that can go over it or attach to the venturi that's long enough (and also find that dosing pump tubing!).

Yeah I connected two 8mm hoses to the silencer inlets and used a Y adaptor to run one 10mm hose to my air scrubber and it works great. I did try attaching the hose straight from the venturi to the air scrubber but it was too noisy for my liking and I couldn't tune the skimmer properly.
I will eventually try to run the hose outside so I can remove the scrubber and put my pax back online.

 

[DarkReefer]

Yeah I connected two 8mm hoses to the silencer inlets and used a Y adaptor to run one 10mm hose to my air scrubber and it works great. I did try attaching the hose straight from the venturi to the air scrubber but it was too noisy for my liking and I couldn't tune the skimmer properly.
I will eventually try to run the hose outside so I can remove the scrubber and put my pax back online.

Yeah nice. I tried the hose straight from venturi and like you I found it to be quite loud so refitted the silencer.
Was only able to find one tube that seemed to be the right fit to the outlets, so I've currently got one tube only sucking in air from outside of the sump. Haven't really noticed much change in the pH so it's likely I'll have to fit up another tube and probably consider something to increase the pH.

I did manage to get a better foam happening though. It's probably a bit too dry as it seems quite slow to get the foam over into the cup but will continue to monitor and then see if I need to adjust the socket adjuster a little to move it up slightly more into the neck. I think it currently sits around the white collar that you mentioned but I can't see the line anymore so must be hidden behind it.

 

[JonoH]

Yeah nice. I tried the hose straight from venturi and like you I found it to be quite loud so refitted the silencer.
Was only able to find one tube that seemed to be the right fit to the outlets, so I've currently got one tube only sucking in air from outside of the sump. Haven't really noticed much change in the pH so it's likely I'll have to fit up another tube and probably consider something to increase the pH.

I did manage to get a better foam happening though. It's probably a bit too dry as it seems quite slow to get the foam over into the cup but will continue to monitor and then see if I need to adjust the socket adjuster a little to move it up slightly more into the neck. I think it currently sits around the white collar that you mentioned but I can't see the line anymore so must be hidden behind it.

Nice, mine def produced better foam, i think it has something to do with drawing fresh air, rather than warm stale air inside the cabinet.

Can't really confirm if it actually does boost the PH - some report it does anecdotally but it may be more if the hose is ran to outside or through a scrubber. (I literally never test my PH because its not something i can adjust to make higher!)

 

[shadyraro]

Yeah nice. I tried the hose straight from venturi and like you I found it to be quite loud so refitted the silencer.
Was only able to find one tube that seemed to be the right fit to the outlets, so I've currently got one tube only sucking in air from outside of the sump. Haven't really noticed much change in the pH so it's likely I'll have to fit up another tube and probably consider something to increase the pH.

I did manage to get a better foam happening though. It's probably a bit too dry as it seems quite slow to get the foam over into the cup but will continue to monitor and then see if I need to adjust the socket adjuster a little to move it up slightly more into the neck. I think it currently sits around the white collar that you mentioned but I can't see the line anymore so must be hidden behind it.

The foam will get there eventually, I think mine sits about half a cm or so above the neck.

 

[DarkReefer]

Nice, mine def produced better foam, i think it has something to do with drawing fresh air, rather than warm stale air inside the cabinet.

Can't really confirm if it actually does boost the PH - some report it does anecdotally but it may be more if the hose is ran to outside or through a scrubber. (I literally never test my PH because its not something i can adjust to make higher!)

The foam will get there eventually, I think mine sits about half a cm or so above the neck.

Definitely better foam last night and this morning. I didn't notice too much of an increase in fluid/gunk in the cup though this morning, so I'll just monitor it for another day or two and see how it gets on. Hopefully get some filthy muck out and start seeing a drop in my nitrates.

I don't really expect much of a change in pH from the skimmer, but you never know. I'm guessing I'll probably have to try and figure out a way to bump the pH at some point though. Will try another calibration (just to be sure) when I get my fluids tomorrow-ish as I forgot about turning the TC thing on for the pH probe until after it was calibrated (didn't see the button there initially).

 

[DarkReefer]

A few days on, turns out my salinity was out and sitting around 30.6ish ppt after I finally calibrated the probe.
I checked the refractometer against my RODI water and this seemed to confirm that it was out (had been a while since I last checked it). Let it sit for a couple days or so wondering if it would slowly adjust.
Did a water change yesterday to try and start correcting it but didn't pump the salt as much as I was hoping. Adjustment only to 31.6 ppt. I guess it's not entirely bad as a bigger swing may have been a bit disruptive to the inhabitants but still a little annoying it's going to take 2-3 more changes to correct.

Also the skimmer foam seems to have changed from being nice and thick and pulsing slow to more of a bubbling which is annoying.
Still seems to be pulling some gunk though so will continue to monitor... sick of playing with the thing. lol
Starting to wonder if I went one size too big on it given the current inhabitants.

 

[shadyraro]

How are you liking the Apex so far?
Good to see it's doing it's job and giving you accurate readings and notifications, things could've got a lot worse if you hadn't have picked that up.
Just do what I do re skimmer, set and forget as I found the more I adjusted it the more frustrated I got lol

 

[DarkReefer]

How are you liking the Apex so far?
Good to see it's doing it's job and giving you accurate readings and notifications, things could've got a lot worse if you hadn't have picked that up.
Just do what I do re skimmer, set and forget as I found the more I adjusted it the more frustrated I got lol

I'm enjoying the apex for sure. Haven't really messed with setting notifications or anything yet other than turning heartbeat on.
Kinda wanted to get used to what is doing what before setting it up to notify me if its doing anything it shouldn't otherwise I'd probably have mini heart attacks thinking it was somethin major haha.
Definitely a good thing with the salinity though for sure. Seems to have stabilised around 32 now. Orp seems to have settled around low 300s too.

Yeah I'll have to do that with the skimmer. Seems to be still pulling..ok...i think but I'll just keep an eye on it to see if it continues. Ideally want to pull a cup a week I think.

Did some tests last night and nitrates are coming down. Phos a bit up but I stopped dosing for that because I was worried I'd crash it out when I dropped it pretty quick.

 

[shadyraro]

Yeah there's a lot to the Apex especially when it comes to scheduling etc, I thought I had mine dialled in but last week I added the Cor-15 and that just opened up a big can of worms setting up and I still don't know if it's set up correctly lol.
I do love the trident tho and it's testing, I'm looking forward to the NP trident coming to Australia for sure.

 

[DarkReefer]

Yeah there's a lot to the Apex especially when it comes to scheduling etc, I thought I had mine dialled in but last week I added the Cor-15 and that just opened up a big can of worms setting up and I still don't know if it's set up correctly lol.
I do love the trident tho and it's testing, I'm looking forward to the NP trident coming to Australia for sure.

The Cor-15 is the return pump, yeah?
What kind of issues are you having there?

The trident and the NP trident are probably the things I'm looking forward to adding to the setup the most tbh.
I also need to do/add something to help sort the pH out. Would love to get it to the 8.2-8.4 range instead of the 7.9-7.7 it is currently.

Hopefully also a dos/auto water changer would be great too. One of the most frustrating parts for me when water changing is dealing with the plastic hose that I run from the pump I use to bring the water inside from the drums I have outside and coiling it up and back several times in the process to get all the water out of the tubing before chucking it in the next barrel and so on. It never wants to coil up nicely and it just triggers me to no end, if I can remove that and make testing automated I think I'll enjoy the tank a lot more.

 

[shadyraro]

The Cor-15 is the return pump, yeah?
What kind of issues are you having there?

The trident and the NP trident are probably the things I'm looking forward to adding to the setup the most tbh.
I also need to do/add something to help sort the pH out. Would love to get it to the 8.2-8.4 range instead of the 7.9-7.7 it is currently.

Hopefully also a dos/auto water changer would be great too. One of the most frustrating parts for me when water changing is dealing with the plastic hose that I run from the pump I use to bring the water inside from the drums I have outside and coiling it up and back several times in the process to get all the water out of the tubing before chucking it in the next barrel and so on. It never wants to coil up nicely and it just triggers me to no end, if I can remove that and make testing automated I think I'll enjoy the tank a lot more.

Yeah the Cor-15 return pump.
The setup is easy but the issue is I don't know the exact % flow it's running because of the way it's set up.
According to the app my current max speed is 6% and I know it's definitely not correct as it's running at a similar if not more flow then the vectra was which was set to 50%, so even tho it's running fine I have no idea if it's setup correctly lol.

 

[DarkReefer]

Yeah the Cor-15 return pump.
The setup is easy but the issue is I don't know the exact % flow it's running because of the way it's set up.
According to the app my current max speed is 6% and I know it's definitely not correct as it's running at a similar if not more flow then the vectra was which was set to 50%, so even tho it's running fine I have no idea if it's setup correctly lol.

Ahh okay fair enough.
Do you have to calibrate that during set up or anything or is it supposed to monitor based off of wattage being used do you think?

 

[shadyraro]

Ahh okay fair enough.
Do you have to calibrate that during set up or anything or is it supposed to monitor based off of wattage being used do you think?

You have to calibrate it by eye as it goes off what flow you want for min and max flow, after setup the schedule says 100% but the flow speed says 6% that's why it's confusing. Probably user error no doubt lol, I've tried to look it up but there's not much out there even in the manual.
But apart from that it's dead silent and doing the job.

 

[JonoH]

You calibrate it by eye as it goes off what flow you want for min and max flow, the schedule says 100% but the flow speed says 6% that's why it's confusing. Probably user error no doubt lol, I've tried to look it up but there's not much out there.

Probably want you to buy the flow meter upgrade ;-)