Roller Mat Advice for Waterbox

[AUSXMD]

Hello everyone,

Ive searched on here for the best roller mat for a Waterbox 230.6 but have only found old posts. Im assuming there are new and improved models that have come out. I have a Waterbox 230.6. The sock compartment holds 2 socks and the fitting for it pops right out. So, I am looking at recommendations on a roller mat that can handle that size of aquarium. I dont have a budget. I just want the best. Reliability and performance are obviously what Im looking for. From what Ive been able to gather is that it may be RedSea. I had a RedSea aquarium prior to this and had a lot of issues, so Im a little leary of getting that brand again, but it's not completely ruled out. Thank you for your help! Im really looking forward to no socks. :)

Scott

 

[Aaron75]

I'm very firm on this opinion, the fleece roller is the only thing red sea has gotten right. Every other thing is trash. I do believe it is the best roller on the market. That being said, because I'm a bit of a contrarian and it was quite a bit cheaper, i bought a bubble magus elite roller and have been very happy with it.

 

[AUSXMD]

I'm very firm on this opinion, the fleece roller is the only thing red sea has gotten right. Every other thing is trash. I do believe it is the best roller on the market. That being said, because I'm a bit of a contrarian and it was quite a bit cheaper, i bought a bubble magus elite roller and have been very happy with it.

Ok, that helps, thank you! Did you go with the bubble magus simply because of price difference, and if you could have the RedSea now instead would you? It sounds like maybe that's the case. Appreciate your help!

 

[Aaron75]

@AUSXMD No, I wouldn't trade it, have no complaints. No personal experience with the red sea roller but I can't imagine I'm missing out on anything.

 

[AUSXMD]

Ok, I am going to check them out right now. Appreciate it

 

[Luckyduck]

@AUSXMD what did you end up going with? I also have the Waterbox 230.6 and I absolutely hate their filter sock chamber. Total disappointment. The socks don't seat in their ring so half of the water slips by without being filtered. The water level in the sump is too high due to where the weir baffle is after the first chamber. My WB 110.4 worked great so I'm not too pleased with this. My water desperately needs to be filtered, it's not nearly as clear as it should be and there's nothing I can do. So I'm highly considering a Roller system.

 

[MegabiteOG]

I have the 230.6. I put in the RS 1200 and has been working great. I ran the socks for a bit and didn’t have that problem. You really need to press them down to stay. That said, socks were more work than wanted and am really pleased with the RS Reefmat. FYI, if you have the sump all the way to the left, you will have to slide it over an inch or two for it to fit.

 

[Luckyduck]

I have the 230.6. I put in the RS 1200 and has been working great. I ran the socks for a bit and didn’t have that problem. You really need to press them down to stay. That said, socks were more work than wanted and am really pleased with the RS Reefmat. FYI, if you have the sump all the way to the left, you will have to slide it over an inch or two for it to fit.

Oh I've tried pressing them down, I've tried everything. I have been going back and forth with Waterbox over the issue and they're sending me a new acrylic holder, socks and silencer. Something isn't right.

There's a few inches of space on the left as I have some slim dosing containers between the sump and the cabinet wall.

The only drawback that I see to both the RS and the Clarisea rollers in my opinion is that they bypass the rear drain chamber to be direct plumbed so that chamber isn't used anymore. I run my UV sterilizer, dosing line and my heater in that chamber and I don't particularly want to give that up. I'm looking at the Klir rollers as they are drop in sock holder units. Good to know you're having a good experience with the RS though. Thanks for getting back to me!

 

[Euphyllia098]

Have you looked at the Klir's? I've been running one on my smaller Waterbox for 5 years. Works good imo and doesn't change the plumbing at all.

I liked it so much that on my new custom Waterbox I'm bought the 7" version. I looked at all of the filter rollers on the market and what I didn't like about all of them is that they only use the main drain and the emergency bypasses the filter roller. You could Y the drains together, but that has disadvantages imo.

Good luck!

 

[MegabiteOG]

Oh I've tried pressing them down, I've tried everything. I have been going back and forth with Waterbox over the issue and they're sending me a new acrylic holder, socks and silencer. Something isn't right.

There's a few inches of space on the left as I have some slim dosing containers between the sump and the cabinet wall.

The only drawback that I see to both the RS and the Clarisea rollers in my opinion is that they bypass the rear drain chamber to be direct plumbed so that chamber isn't used anymore. I run my UV sterilizer, dosing line and my heater in that chamber and I don't particularly want to give that up. I'm looking at the Klir rollers as they are drop in sock holder units. Good to know you're having a good experience with the RS though. Thanks for getting back to me!

I didn’t want to lose the chamber either as I run my heaters, e-drain, and uv there. I’m running a second pump in the return chamber circulating water to there. It’s worked out great for me. Don’t know if I’m losing any efficiency as everything works as it should.

 

[AUSXMD]

@AUSXMD what did you end up going with? I also have the Waterbox 230.6 and I absolutely hate their filter sock chamber. Total disappointment. The socks don't seat in their ring so half of the water slips by without being filtered. The water level in the sump is too high due to where the weir baffle is after the first chamber. My WB 110.4 worked great so I'm not too pleased with this. My water desperately needs to be filtered, it's not nearly as clear as it should be and there's nothing I can do. So I'm highly considering a Roller system.

I have not bought a roller mat yet. I've not had the issue you described. I have about 10 bags because they need replaced about every 3 days. My lfs has a RedSea on the Waterbox 230.6 that they display. I've kind of whittled it down to the RedSea or ClariSea, but I'm waiting on the next generation to see if they've fixed the issues you've described. I agree with you. A 10k new aquarium should not have these issues. I did have to cut and fix it.

 

[Luckyduck]

Oh I've tried pressing them down, I've tried everything. I have been going back and forth with Waterbox over the issue and they're sending me a new acrylic holder, socks and silencer. Something isn't right.

There's a few inches of space on the left as I have some slim dosing containers between the sump and the cabinet wall.

The only drawback that I see to both the RS and the Clarisea rollers in my opinion is that they bypass the rear drain chamber to be direct plumbed so that chamber isn't used anymore. I run my UV sterilizer, dosing line and my heater in that chamber and I don't particularly want to give that up. I'm looking at the Klir rollers as they are drop in sock holder units. Good to know you're having a good experience with the RS though. Thanks for getting back to me!

I didn’t want to lose the chamber either as I run my heaters, e-drain, and uv there. I’m running a second pump in the return chamber circulating water to there. It’s worked out great for me. Don’t know if I’m losing any efficiency as everything works as it should.

Oh that's not a bad idea at all. I never thought of that.

 

[RoanokeReef]

Only thing Red Sea has got right is the Reefmat. The notifications are what sold me on it over others.

 

[Luckyduck]

@AUSXMD what did you end up going with? I also have the Waterbox 230.6 and I absolutely hate their filter sock chamber. Total disappointment. The socks don't seat in their ring so half of the water slips by without being filtered. The water level in the sump is too high due to where the weir baffle is after the first chamber. My WB 110.4 worked great so I'm not too pleased with this. My water desperately needs to be filtered, it's not nearly as clear as it should be and there's nothing I can do. So I'm highly considering a Roller system.

I have not bought a roller mat yet. I've not had the issue you described. I have about 10 bags because they need replaced about every 3 days. My lfs has a RedSea on the Waterbox 230.6 that they display. I've kind of whittled it down to the RedSea or ClariSea, but I'm waiting on the next generation to see if they've fixed the issues you've described. I agree with you. A 10k new aquarium should not have these issues. I did have to cut and fix it.

Ah ha, so I'm not the only one. This is what I said to Waterbox is that I can't be the only one having this issue. It's absolutely a design flaw in that weir baffle. I swapped the refugium and skimmer chamber around because I put substrate in my refugium and the way the baffles were at the bottom of the sock chamber would just make a mess of that sand washing it everywhere. So I put that movable baffle in their described refugium chamber at it's largest to accommodate my skimmer and then make their described skimmer chamber the refugium. I also laser cuz a new weir baffle and added sliders in front of the sponge chamber so I could raise that water level but it's still below the one before it so I know it's not causing the water height to be too high. This is on them and I said the same thing that I should not be having these problems with a $10,000 aquarium. They are sending me a new acrylic sock holder, socks and silencers but I don't see how that is going to fix the issue.

I also have 10 socks, 12 actually. I change them every 3bdays because they clog up so fast and all of the water isn't even getting filtered through them. Very disappointed with their design this time around. My Marine X 110.4 was great. No issue whatsoever.