New G2 Red Sea Reefer XL 300 Return Valve Nightmare

[David_CO]

Yeah you said it. So here's my issue, if you set the reefmat to the slowest advance setting, then youight as well not be using a Reefmat because the dirty water flowing through the dirty fleece will cause nutrients and decaying food to increase greatly.

I have a full Acropora system and can't have that situation. I have it set to advance 1.2 to 1.4 inches. I completely get what you're saying and you may very well be right. My complaint is having to bandaid issues from a poorly designed system.

Yes, my flow is very high. I have 4 Nero 7s and they are set to basically Reef Crest mode, two on the back wall and two in the sides of the tank.

They run in steady mode at night and I still have issues. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. The return chamber is the only one that drains. The Reefmat area and the Skimmer chamber are full. I have to tell you, if I knew this was an issue before hand, I would have went with another system. It's no joke, every hour or two I'm having to adjust and re-adjust that stupid valve.

Yeah, I'm a bit frustrated at this point. I appreciate your help and support.

how much does roll does your reefmat use per day (you can see in the app). As long as its not a tiny amount you're still better off with the reefmat then filter socks. Mine uses ~30 inches per day which i feel like is a full cycle of fresh material. Basically like changing filter socks everyday. I think your advance length is way too long.

I would also try changing your nero settings to be the same mode as during the day since your problems seem to be at night.

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

how much does roll does your reefmat use per day (you can see in the app). As long as its not a tiny amount you're still better off with the reefmat then filter socks. Mine uses ~30 inches per day which i feel like is a full cycle of fresh material. Basically like changing filter socks everyday. I think your advance length is way too long.

I would also try changing your nero settings to be the same mode as during the day since your problems seem to be at night.

My problems are at night and the day. I've spent half the day fooling with it again. I have my ReefMat tuned perfectly for my nutrients. If I can't choose the options they give and need to run it super slow just to use it, then it doesn't work as intended and is useless to me.

I had it set to the factory levek when I received it, which if I remember was something like 0.5 or 0.8. My nutrients were too high for my liking so the more you have it advance, the cleaner the water becomes.

Use of filter fleece ranges from 30 inches to 45 inches daily. I've used up to 65 a day back when I was adjusting and feeding very heavily. I don't care about how much it uses, I just care about the health of the tank.

I get what you're saying, but again, I'm not changing my flow settings, etc to compensate for a faulty designed system. Before I do that, I'll put some dynamite in this point of sale and watch the fireworks and buy another brand.

Not trying to offend you, just very frustrated and tired from 4 nights of nonsense.

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

Did you try connecting the pump to a different outlet ( not apex ) just in case, and double check mobius

Oh yes, I've tried virtually everything.

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

Wow my friend

I am on the same boat!
Its just so ridiculous and I dont understand this crap overflow.

Sometimes I wake up hearing my ATO topping off water.. well, i mean not just once..
then I check and I see the return chamber is pretty empty.
OK, lets open the valve a bit.. then its ok..

after maybe half a day the chamber is floated with water and I need to close it again.

I mean HOW are reefers supposed to have a steady and reliable ATO system and keep salitiniy stable??

Its so frustrtaing and I really donw know what the issue should be here.

Well, the only time I can get ANY peace from this nightmare is to really fill the sump with another gallon or two of water and then adjust the return valve. If it's constantly more full on water then it stays awhile and won't drain the return chamber area.

You can give that a shot, but don't fill it too much. Start and do a gallon, then adjust and see where you are before adding another gallon.

 

[Swordsaint]

If you are using the sponge that Red sea provides as a bubble trap, I wouldn't use it. That gave me problems on my G2 that caused the return section water level to go low due to the sponge clogging and causing my ATO sensor in the return chamber to trigger. If you have a reef mat and are using the container at the bottom of the reef mat to hold carbon, I find that will slow the water flowing out of the reef mat therefore causing the reef mat to trigger the roller more often because of the water filling up faster.

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

If you are using the sponge that Red sea provides as a bubble trap, I wouldn't use it. That gave me problems on my G2 that caused the return section water level to go low due to the sponge clogging and causing my ATO sensor in the return chamber to trigger. If you have a reef mat and are using the container at the bottom of the reef mat to hold carbon, I find that will slow the water flowing out of the reef mat therefore causing the reef mat to trigger the roller more often because of the water filling up faster.

Yes, I'm using that sponge, but that isn't the problem. Not using the box. On the bottom of the Reefmat.

Thanks for the ideas, I was up until 5:00 am this morning with this issue and back up after 5 hours of sleep to deal with it again because I was awoken to the sound of the return pump sucking air and spitting bubbles.

I would turn in a ticket to Red Sea, but it was laughable trying to get a new return adjustment valve. I think I'm going to have to read up on what I need to replace the whole return line and get rid of that valve all together. If I don't I'll be forever stuck here babysitting this water level.

 

[JayD23]

Had the same issue, spent hours trying to get the flow right without running dry. (Similar system, xl300 g2, 2x mp40, redsea return pump and reefmat)

I’ve found the first step is to set the baffle in the sump to where you want your water level for the skimmer.
- open your gate valve 100%
- Find a good speed you want to set your pump at (I run mine at 45% not too loud and good flow)
- start closing your valve till you find the sweet spot (you will see your overflow box starting to fill and this is the time consuming part, if you’re sitting at the right angle looking up at the overflow box you can actually see through it where the water level is and what it’s doing)
- You want the overflow to rise very slowly that way when you see it about an inch or so from the top of the emergency overflow you can start to open the valve very slowly (small turns and wait for it to settle)
- mine is about 2 inches from the emergency overflow pipe nice and quiet
- once you get that right, kill the power and make sure u don’t overflow and you should be good

This is what worked for me, others may have a better method. I attached my ReefBeat homepage so you can see.

 

[ErikVR]

All I can say is make tiny adjustments and wait at least 15 mins for it to settle. And by tiny I mean millimetres.

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

Hey all,

Thought I would give an update. @David_CO @JayD23 and some others if I'm leaving you out it isn't intentionally.

I was pretty frustrated with this whole thing when we were going back and forth on here. To certain degrees, you guys were right and I thought a lot about your suggestions as I always take every suggestion into account when there's a problem.

I don't have a 100% fix yet, and I'm not sure I ever will until I change that RS valve. I learned something by just trail and error the other day. I had the level (overflow) set where it was near the overflow drain pipe like you're supposed to. Well as time went on that level was rising and the return chamber would empty. It's a crazy issue.

I tried everything with the Reefmat, baffles in the sump, making sure all pipes were unobstructed, you name it, I tried it. I opened the valve one day a full turn counter-clockwise to refill the return chamber. When the chamber filled, I turned the valve clockwise half a turn. The overflow was still making that filling up and then emptying sound. So I left it and took a long break to see if it changed. It did change, but it was never the perfect in the back overflow box. What the positive was is that it was going 8 hours without draining the sump return area.

When you make adjustments to the valve, you need to do so in millimeters, meaning very very small turns. Just a bit either way. Then it will take 15 to 30 minutes to normalize.

My issue still is my 4 Nero 7 pumps are set to run up to 80% from 9am to 11:30 pm. After 11:30 pm, they go to a constant flow of about 55% for the nighttime to let the fish rest a bit. When that happens, the sump level changes and sucks the sump return chamber dry and all the water pools in the display. Then I have to adjust it again as before and that will last for the night. I still get some of that filling up and draining all day, all night as it won't ever be perfect.

I'm going to try something else, but only adjusting a couple of times a day bears 20 times a day. I think if I increase my return pump flow rate, I might be able to stabilize the amount of water that's overflowing and it should affect it as much when the Nero 7 chabges mode. That's my theory anyway.

It's a pain in the..... and honestly, I'm pretty sure I won't buy another Red Sea system. They have a phone number if you can find it and that just tells you to turn in a ticket. Turn in a ticket and that takes days to get a response and it isn't anything that helps. So that's unacceptable to me.

Hope this helps others who might have the same issue. The fix? Most likely getting rid of the trash Red Sea return valve and going to a gate valve. That isn't as easy as it sounds with the metric measurements Red Sea uses.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to giving me some sleep back, haha.

 

[ErikVR]

I was frustrated with the valve for a couple of weeks as well. It took days of super fine adjustments for it to settle down but it has been functioning great for a month or two now. I am a bit worried to take it apart to maintain it in a few months from now.

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

I was frustrated with the valve for a couple of weeks as well. It took days of super fine adjustments for it to settle down but it has been functioning great for a month or two now. I am a bit worried to take it apart to maintain it in a few months from now.

Well, if you have a good setting on your valve and can pay attention to how much water you need, you shouldn't have to readjust it. I think half the battle is understanding how to adjust it.

 

[xCROv]

Well, if you have a good setting on your valve and can pay attention to how much water you need, you shouldn't have to readjust it. I think half the battle is understanding how to adjust it.

I'm at the same point with mine tbh. I've gotten pretty frustrated that I feel like my tank is constantly needing to be adjusted. I don't have schedule changes on my returns, or my powerheads in the tank, but will wake up with my overflow sucking air and needing to be adjusted.

 

[chipchipbro]

Well I spoke to many other guys here in my area and a lot of reefers have the same issue.
Some told me to make some sort of "Durso" over the emergency pipe.

That should help alot

can you guys imagine that?

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

Well I spoke to many other guys here in my area and a lot of reefers have the same issue.
Some told me to make some sort of "Durso" over the emergency pipe.

That should help alot

can you guys imagine that?

Interesting, so just a U type union that would fit over the emergency pipe itself?

Inwoukd try about anything and could make that in short order, but I don't think there is enough room in the overflow to do that currently.

I've ran AC and DC pumps, etc and have never, ever had a problem like this. Reminds me, I need to respond to that worthless ticket that I submitted. I am sure I'll get 1000 excuses, lol.

 

[spsick]

Ok maybe a dumb question here but are we talking a valve on the return pump or on the main drain to the sump.

In either case would opening it full blast be an option until you have a solution? I had a Synergy overflow that was finicky and I had to open it full blast a couple times when I had to go to work and couldn’t Putz with it. Sure it sounds like a toilet flushing but at least it’s consistent?

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

Ok maybe a dumb question here but are we talking a valve on the return pump or on the main drain to the sump.

In either case would opening it full blast be an option until you have a solution? I had a Synergy overflow that was finicky and I had to open it full blast a couple times when I had to go to work and couldn’t Putz with it. Sure it sounds like a toilet flushing but at least it’s consistent?i9

Nah, unfortunately, this valve is a Red Sea "invention". I don't know of another system that shares anything similar. Here is a Pic of when I was installing my tank. The return valve is on the left side of this Pic and round. You are supposed to adjust this to get the correct level in your overflow and sump area. Countless numbers of people have struggled with this point of sale.

 

[JayD23]

Did ya get it sorted @Hurricane Aquatics ?

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

Did ya get it sorted @Hurricane Aquatics ?

Not completely. For the most part, I'm having to open the valve a half a turn in the morning for about 15 seconds to unclog the backed up overflow, then turn it back to the exact position it was. Kind of like a quick burp. So 95% better than what it was before.

I'll still never buy another Red Sea system.

 

[c0kefree]

The only way i was able to get my g2 stable was to CLOSE the valve completely and open slowly until the level was correct. Process took a few hours actually.
My theory is the pipe catches an air bubble in the diaphragm that gets stuck somehow, it was also an audible phenomenon to me.

In the process of this I put a neptune LLS in my overflow box and an optical eye in the return chamber. My overflow fluctuates ~ .5” every day up and down, but that’s all now. I run a sicce sdc set at 85% constant. It never changes. Apex says the wattage stays the same as well as the flow rate thru the return pump.

Mine did the EXACT same thing as yours for a good 4 months.

 

[VegasReefer]

I’m really surprised no one has come up with an aftermarket kit to swap the rs valve out with a gate valve. This will always be an issue and it only gets worst with time as the drainpipe builds with bio load. 75% of the time I have adjust the valve after feed mode. My next purchase will heavily depend on the drainpipe configuration!