RS250 Seam Degradation & Replacement DT

JKenny

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I purchased my RS250 Reefer in September of ’19. Recently, I had noticed some degradation in the black seam at the bottom center of my front glass but didn’t think too much of it. This week I thought maybe it was larger than I remembered it so I took some pictures and sent them off to the Red Sea support folks.

2 days ago they told me they were going to send me a new display tank !

My first thought was, this is really good warranty/customer support – the display tank is certainly an expensive item with shipping. The next thought was, wow, this is going to be really difficult to swap out – and what corals/fish might be lost in the process…

I’m waiting for RS to answer some questions I’ve sent along, like when might the new tank arrive, will the replacement tank come with the return and drain pipes – or if not, should I at least replace the “O” rings to maintain the seal.

So I thought I would start a thread for those that might be interested and share my journey through this process…

I actually built my (small) home office furniture around the dimensions of the tank so I don’t have much room to play with. Hopefully I can start and finish this in 24-36 hours and minimize the impact.

I’m expecting to move the coral & rocks into 2-20gal long tanks into my 70 degree basement where I don’t have to worry about keeping the temperature down – only need heaters to raise the temp and I’ll put a pump in each to keep the flow going.

I think I’ll end up with 2-32gal Rubermaid cans to store the DT & sump water and keep that close to my tank.

I’ve done a little searching on R2R to see what others have done but would certainly appreciate any thoughts and ideas that I’m probably not thinking about.

Onward and upwards – I guess… More to follow.

Joe

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ensions of the tank so I
 
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JKenny

JKenny

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Will do... I'm waiting to hear back from Red Sea that they have shipped the tank.

They have told me that the replacement tank will not have the return and drain pipes, although they are sending me new "O" rings. After thinking about it some, I decided to order new DT pipes from Marine & Reef just because I'm paranoid about leaks.

Petco is having a sale and I picked up 2 20g long tanks for just $25 each! The DT pipes, an extra heater, pump, etc., should all be here in the new few days.

More pictures as this starts to come together...

Joe
 
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JKenny

JKenny

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Wanted to share my journey for anyone interested. It’s a long post, and it will become my build thread, but I hope this helps someone who might be doing something similar...

My before pix...
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My Red Sea Reefer 250 developed voids in the silicone seam at the bottom center of my front glass. After sharing pictures with RS support, they sent me a replacement display tank.

All right, so the replacement tank arrived this past Friday, although it took 3 weeks from when Red Sea shared that I needed one, I think it arrived just in time for me…
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I took the 3 weeks to think through what was needed to be done, picked up an extra heater ( already had 1 spare) a couple of 20g long tanks from Petco (great sale at $25 each) an extra 32g garbage can and an extra pump (the Sicce drainage pump).

Set up the two 20g in the basement where I only had to worry about heating the water and filled them about half way with a mix of drained tank water and newly mixed salt water. I had one tank for coral and fish and the other for the rocks.
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Saturday morning I first moved my 18 SPS, 2 Monti Digis, 3 hammers, 2 torches and a Frogspawn down to the basement. I have my SPS glued to frag rocks so, happily, the encrusting was largely onto my frag rocks. The rocks followed and the 6 fish after that. Much easier to catch the fish with the rocks out :) I thought I had a pretty clean tank. Although coralline covered the bottom, I didn’t see any accumulating detritus and had been siphoning the rocks pretty regularly for a Dino trouble. But, after taking out the rocks the DT water was murky! Boy, was I surprised…
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I then turned off the Apex, removed the pumps and first drained the water from the overflow box (it was easier to make a siphon with water still in the DT) before draining the DT into a 32g & a 20g trash can.

It occurred to me that the sump water was still holding all sorts of sponges and other critters and it would be sitting idle for more than 24 hours – so I added a small pump so at least 3 of the 5 compartments would have circulation.

Next was removing the overflow pipes. They all unscrewed surprisingly easily - I was expecting to have a hard time - and very little water dropped out of the bottom because of the earlier siphoning.
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Then came the big wait. My friend who was helping me with the move of the tanks couldn’t come by till 7p. I took advantage of the time, checked the PH, salinity and ALK in the basement tanks and cleaned all of my pumps and skimmer :)

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Total time so far was about 8 hours (8a-4p)

So friend arrives, old tank out, new tank in, couple of beers and back at it.

First item was the overflow pipes. Although Red Sea sent me new gaskets, I ended up buying replacement pipes from Marine & Reef. Pretty straightforward until tightening the overflow pipe within the sump. In hand tightening from below, I guess I twisted too hard (?) and cracked the plastic. Happily, the crack was low and no leaks so far. The replacement pipe is in route…
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After a quick (15 minutes?) leak test, in goes the rest of the water from the trash cans along with about 8 gallons of new salt water to make up for the missing rocks.

Apex back on and I let it sit for the overnight.

I did have an internal debate about whether the water or the rocks should go back in first but ended up with water first. I had just last week gotten a DNA test done by AquaBiomics and was told that I had an excellent bacterial mix – so I didn’t want to lose any bacteria within the rocks from too hot/cold/dry/etc…

Everything looks good Sunday morning so now back in with the rocks. I had wonderful thoughts on how I was going to re-aquascape this time around but that went out the window pretty quick. Fewer rocks went in than came out and the aquascape looks OK, but it is not what I had in mind.
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Next came the LPS on the tank bottom, the SPS on frag racks for inspection and the fish (traumatized but happy for the hiding spots).

Now it’s a bit of a waiting game. I have already had 4 of my SPS showing some tissue loss – hopefully that will be the extent of it.
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Just a couple of thoughts in hindsight …

The Sicce drainage pump really saved me a lot of angst. I was surprised and impressed by how little water was left in the DT by the Sicce – probably less than 1/16”. It worked wonders in moving water in and out of the different tanks and trash cans during the teardowns.

I didn’t consider the sump water until I was already in the thick of it. But, the one pump seems too have done OK by me.

I wanted to clean the misc algae off the rocks before they went back into the DT but I had lost patience by the second morning.

Because of the rules of my incorporated village, I don’t have access to a town dump. I’m on my own to deal with the 2 delivery pallets and the old 150 pound display tank. Still working on that…

I do hope that my long-winded post helps someone…

Onward and upwards…

Joe
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 73 51.8%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 72 51.1%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 36 25.5%
  • None.

    Votes: 31 22.0%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 6.4%
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