REEFER 350 - Water level issues (Help!)

[Matt Schario]

Fellow Reefer,

I recently installed a REEFER 350 aquarium setup a few weeks ago. I am having an incredibly difficult time maintaining the water levels at consistent levels. If I adjust the valve one way or another in the slightest increments the water will continue to increase in the Sump until it no long overflows, or vice versa it continues to increase to overspilll in the emergency drain or even above that at times which is concerning.

Equipment:
Tank - reefer 350
Filtration - Using two media cups with filter floss and activated carbon in media bags. I have changed these out multiple times and flow appears to be good with nothing overflowing in that section.

Skimmer - Reef Octopus 150-S
Powerhead - Ecotech Mp40
Return Pump - Sicce silent 4.0 hooked up to the stock rubber hose

ATO - I am not using the stock ATO resevoir, but have a Tunze 3155 osmolator hooked up to a 5 gallon bucket in the spare cabinet. I have the ATO magnet setup in the return pump section.

It is driving me crazy having to adjust the valves and levels every day. My ATO is oftentimes pumping the entire 5 gallon bucket into the sump which increases the tank level up top, or the alarm is going off because the flow is going to fast into the sump and setting off the Tunze float alarm.

I am hoping to get this sorted soon as I do travel for work, and my wife may physically harm me if she has to keep dealing with this while I travel at times

Any help is much appreciated!!

-Matt

 

[Sean Duggan]

I have a reefer 625. Is your return pump adjustable? If so try changing the output of it. If not you should be able to adjust the valve there to get your flow correct. A very small adjustment On the valve is what you need to do I’m talking like a 1/16th of a turn at a time and wait a couple minutes. This should slowly change water levers in your overflow apartment. I try to keep the water line close to the emergency drain line without any water going down the drain line. Your ato shouldn’t be dumping 5 gallons into your tank in one day. That sounds like something is getting blocked in your sump and that’s what is cause this issue. Only time I had something similar happen was when the black sponge between the protein skimmer compartment and return pump area was blocked up with gunk.

 

[Matt Schario]

I put in a ticket to Red Sea and they recommended witching to a pump that achieves 792 gallons. I swapped from the Sicce Silent 4.0 to the Eheim Compact 3000. Problem solved! I have no issues with my return volumes fluctuating all over the place. I am not sure if it was an issue with my pump in general or not. No matter if I dialed it back or adjusted it seemed to fluctuate quite a bit.

On a side note, it seems my tank is going through a weird cycle as I have brownish algae or diatoms forming on my glass like crazy. Installed a GFO reactor, water change, and reduced lights but it is nasty stuff. Hoping it subsides in a week or so.