- Joined
- Sep 15, 2017
- Messages
- 114
- Reaction score
- 48
- Location
- California
- What state or country do you live in
- California
I'm starting to setup an IM100 EXT with the stock RFS39 sump, however I'm wanting to run the Reefmat 500 rather than filter socks. Would rather not have to change socks every few days!
Wanted to document my attempt since I wasn't able to find great previous examples online. Let me know what you guys think. It hasn't hit water yet, and I'll report back if it's successful.
1) Setting up the cut
Started by marking out the area of the sump to remove. Had to remove a good portion of the divider between the filter sock, heater area, and intake from the primary and secondary drains.
I ended up taking out several areas to have direct access to the primary drain. I'm leaving the secondary drain unconnected.
I also notched out the baffle for the closed port of the Reefmat to give another 1/4" of room.
I sanded all edges and did a light flame polish with a lighter.
2) Prep the Primary Drain
I cut a new 1" drain that was a little shorter for the primary drain. You can see the white 1" pipe on the left stopping about halfway down the hole I cut out.
Then I attached a length of the Reefmat flexible hose to a short pipe and a 90deg fitting. This gets installed onto the primary drain. All of these connections are just press fit, not glued so that I can pull them apart for maintenance.
3) Install the Reefmat
Once that's all ready, I hang the reefmat on the lefthand side of the sump and connect the inlet tube. It needs to do a corkscrew to be able to connect, hoping that works out fine.
And here it is fully installed in the APS stand, with an Akula skimmer.
Hoping it works well! Like I mentioned, I haven't run this setup yet, so I'll report back when I do.
Wanted to document my attempt since I wasn't able to find great previous examples online. Let me know what you guys think. It hasn't hit water yet, and I'll report back if it's successful.
1) Setting up the cut
Started by marking out the area of the sump to remove. Had to remove a good portion of the divider between the filter sock, heater area, and intake from the primary and secondary drains.
I ended up taking out several areas to have direct access to the primary drain. I'm leaving the secondary drain unconnected.
I also notched out the baffle for the closed port of the Reefmat to give another 1/4" of room.
I sanded all edges and did a light flame polish with a lighter.
2) Prep the Primary Drain
I cut a new 1" drain that was a little shorter for the primary drain. You can see the white 1" pipe on the left stopping about halfway down the hole I cut out.
Then I attached a length of the Reefmat flexible hose to a short pipe and a 90deg fitting. This gets installed onto the primary drain. All of these connections are just press fit, not glued so that I can pull them apart for maintenance.
3) Install the Reefmat
Once that's all ready, I hang the reefmat on the lefthand side of the sump and connect the inlet tube. It needs to do a corkscrew to be able to connect, hoping that works out fine.
And here it is fully installed in the APS stand, with an Akula skimmer.
Hoping it works well! Like I mentioned, I haven't run this setup yet, so I'll report back when I do.