Red Sea reefer plumbing

[Nar-1992]

Does anyone know a cheap place to purchase the replacement plumbing for the Red Sea reefer 350? I got a great deal on the tank but didn’t have any of the plumbing. Thanks

 

[mikels]

Bump.

I am in a similar pickle. Purchased a used RSR 250 recently, but some plumbing in the cabinet space is missing. Bulkheads are covered with epoxy (presumed to have been leaking). So, I need the pipe with a 22 degree (?) bend and the green vinyl tubinh, plus three bulkheads. The set up came with brand new overflow pipes and the valved in-cabinet pipe.

After quite a bit of searching online, it appears the overflow pipes are available, but I haven't found these other needed items, though I'm not sure exactly what I need. The difficulty is compounded by uncertainty as to which part numbers are needed. Frankly, I'm surprised that one or two vendors don't carry the complete plumbing inventory for all lines of RSR products.

Has anyone been successful in tracking down these parts? Is it even possible to get them from RS directly? I have called, but havent reached anyone yet. I would buy idle parts from someone who has redone their plumbing, as this appears to be common, but I'm not able to post a wanted ad at this time. I have searched the equipment classified ads to no avail.

A potential complication is that I have a trigger systems emerald 26 sump, so some modification may be necessary to make it work. I'm new to tank set up, so I'm learning as I go.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Nar-1992]

I did find a site that I found the parts on but of course 2 of them were sold out. I did email Red Sea and got a response with a number and price list for the pieces. I would definitely give them a call. The sites shipping was a little more spendy but the lady I called at Red Sea got everything shipped right away and I received it within 3-4 days. I can lookup the email and Get you the contact info. I also have the same sump and there’s an adapter I purchased that will attach to the bottoms of the overflow pipes and you can thread on your own pvc adapter.

 

[mikels]

I did find a site that I found the parts on but of course 2 of them were sold out. I did email Red Sea and got a response with a number and price list for the pieces. I would definitely give them a call. The sites shipping was a little more spendy but the lady I called at Red Sea got everything shipped right away and I received it within 3-4 days. I can lookup the email and Get you the contact info. I also have the same sump and there’s an adapter I purchased that will attach to the bottoms of the overflow pipes and you can thread on your own pvc adapter.

That's great, I'm glad you were able to get the parts. Id be interested in knowing more about the adapter to the sump.

After sleeping on it, and more reading, I think I may try to find standard sched 40 bulkhheads with gaskets to replace OEM BHs on the RSR. Apparently, the RSR bulkheads are a little on the weaker side, and are only siliconed in place. This means a leak at the glass can only be solved by resealing with silicone if the BHs are still ok to use. As mine aren't looking good, I may as well replace all plumbing from the BHs on down. Need a small manifold for a reactor anyway. I'll try to adapt to new BHs so the overflow pipes can still be used.

At this point, I need to take everything apart and measure the BH holes. I've seen so many posts about plumbing leaks and redoing this plumbing, I wonder why no one has tried selling some retro-fitting kits to capitalize on all the inevitable diy RSR plumbing projects. I'd buy one right now if I could!

I didn't see this until it was time to load it. It was a good enough deal, so I didn't let it stop me. I'm chalking it up to part of the learning curve. Looks like the original owner tried to seal everything.

 

[Nar-1992]

I did read a post where someone was going to replace the BH with their own I think the only thing was finding ones that fit since I believe Red Sea doesn’t use the standard plumbing sizes we have here. I also did see someone sanded down pvc couplings and glued them into the BH that are on the Red Sea tanks. The adapter that I picked up screws onto the overflow pipes and it has a barb fitting on the other end. The bard part itself comes out and you can just screw in any 3/4 pvc fitting so you can run custom plumbing into your sump.

 

[mikels]

I did read a post where someone was going to replace the BH with their own I think the only thing was finding ones that fit since I believe Red Sea doesn’t use the standard plumbing sizes we have here. I also did see someone sanded down pvc couplings and glued them into the BH that are on the Red Sea tanks. The adapter that I picked up screws onto the overflow pipes and it has a barb fitting on the other end. The bard part itself comes out and you can just screw in any 3/4 pvc fitting so you can run custom plumbing into your sump.

Nice, thanks again. IME, sanding a pvc fitting is asking for trouble. I wonder if that worked out.

I found some good adapter ideas in a R2R thread, here. Looks like some of the RSR plumbing is 32mm. I found a few bulkheads of that size for sale, so it's looking doable to replace everything. I'll probably want to get some adapters that go from 32mm to 1", unless I've missed something.

Best of luck with your build! I'm transferring rock and livestock from an existing set up, and I'm really looking forward to a scape revision and adding some new corals.