Show Off and Discuss Your Red Sea Reefer Series

[kinetic]

How are you determining what the set gph value is? Does it account for head loss?

Anyway, mine (Reefer 250) works a little better with the level set to just overflowing the emergency a tiny amount. I use my apex to adjust the % on my varios-6. I use the included gate valve to set the general amount of flow I want and use Apex to tweak the level...much easier IMO. I have it set to 42%, but I have no idea what the flow rate is. I can also set the pump to just maintain the head without inflow or outflow which is great for feeding time, minimizing gurgling.

Definitely not accounting for head loss. I'm taking the max gph (1050) and dividing by 5 (the number of power settings the controller has), and multiplying by which setting I have it on, which is 2. So I guess it's more like 420gph. The recommended flow rate from Red Sea is 530gph, so I'm guessing that number doesn't factor head loss either. It's really all a guess. Think I should bump it to power level 3 safely?

That's interesting, so you do overflow into the emergency too!

I don't have a breakout box, but but maybe I should get one for my Apex Jr. so that I can do a bit more fine tuning.

Thank you!

 

[Rick Krejci]

The BRS listing for the Varios-4 has a chart that shows head loss. Looking at it, looks like you're around 700GPH at about 4 feet. Add to that the smaller diameter return hose, you're probably getting more like 600gph at 100%. So even at 100%, you're not overdoing it too much. I'd ramp up one step at a time and see if you can keep it steady. I Reefer material specified the return in "recommended flow", so I'm assuming it actual flow since pumps vary in their response to head loss.

Some recommend to go into the emergency a little, I usually aim for just level with it, with it sometime overflowing, sometimes not.

You'd have to get the VDM module to be able to control the Varios with the 0-10V interface I believe with the Apex Jr. The full Apex has then built-in. Does open up some cool options, but as is everything with this hobby, more $$$.

 

[gmcc14]

Would a Reef Octopus Regal 150sss be too much for a Reefer 170?
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/regal-150sss-6-space-saving-protein-skimmer-varios-reef-octopus.html

I just replaced my Skimz pumps with VarioS pumps, and they're so silent. My current skimmer is kind of loud, so thinking of getting the above skimmer with the varios pump, but might be too oversized.

Otherwise I'm just going to get the NYOS Quantum 120.

Kinetic, What type of fish is that in your profile pic? It's awesome!

 

[POG]

Definitely not accounting for head loss. I'm taking the max gph (1050) and dividing by 5 (the number of power settings the controller has), and multiplying by which setting I have it on, which is 2. So I guess it's more like 420gph. The recommended flow rate from Red Sea is 530gph, so I'm guessing that number doesn't factor head loss either. It's really all a guess. Think I should bump it to power level 3 safely?

That's interesting, so you do overflow into the emergency too!

I don't have a breakout box, but but maybe I should get one for my Apex Jr. so that I can do a bit more fine tuning.

Thank you!

I have my Jebao DCP-3000 set to 60% (475 gph without head loss) and I dialed in where the overflow is about 1" below the emergency and it's completely silent. I had a slightly overpowered ac pump (I think 600-700 gph) on it before and the only way to get it silent was to over it go through the emergency, so I would try turning it down a notch or two and dialing it in to see if that helps.

Ah, I see now that you're using it at setting 2. Where is the bubbling noise coming from? The return or overflow pipe? Could be a little leaky somewhere? Or maybe some air trapped in your return pump?

 

[mygsris2slo4u]

I'll discuss my Red Sea reefer and the journey that got me here.

We recently moved from Louisiana to Ohio for work and in the process the movers broke a custom Planet Aquariums (36" x 26" x 18") tank that I had. It took quite the fight, but I finally received a fair and full settlement with their claims department.

With that I was looking around at my options as my wife did not think a tank with those dimensions would work where we wanted to place the tank.

I've always been a fan of the reefer setups, but prefer a tank with more room front to back. After looking around, receiving a custom quote and looking at the elos tanks I stumbled on the reefer xxl series. I instantly knew it would be my next tank.

I started looking to place an order for the 625xxl in black and only found one place showing it in stock. I placed the order. The following day they called and said it was not in stock and they did not know when it would be (I've heard from several vendors that they think November as the Red Sea warehouse was affected by Harvey). I was not thrilled so I canceled the order and continued searching.

I finally found that a forum sponsor that had one 625xxl in stock as notified by the company president via email. I questioned it since the website only showed a 625xxl deluxe in stock and it turned out that was true. So with that I somehow convinced the wife that the 750xxl was "only" 30 gallons more. I may have left out that I would need more lighting and pumps than I currently have. Anyway I placed the order.

Awesome! I received my tracking info a few days later and two Fridays ago UPS called to schedule delivery. It showed up Friday and I was concerned. The crate had missing feet, a hole in the side (1/2" mdf btw), foot prints on the top, all the seams were busted, the metal corner brackets were broken in half and all the screws were missing or stripped. I reluctantly opened the crate with the UPS delivery guy. It was difficult to see at the time and we noted the damage on the shipping receipt, but it appears the fork truck driver hit just under the glass tank and tore up the top of the stand damaging the board and attached foam.

It gets better. Today I had some help over to move the tank to get the stand parts out from under it and to see the full extent of the damage. While moving the sump box out of the way the handles in the Red Sea box gave way and the sump took a fall. I didn't need to open it to know what I would find and sure enough we busted the sump.

I've already contacted the vendor and, as requested forwarded pictures of the damage. I know they will replace the damaged stand parts, but I'm hoping they will replace the sump or give me a discount on a replacement. Obviously we dropped it, but there shouldn't be handle holes if the box can barely take the weight of the sump.

I hope the final outcome of this new build is better than the start!

 

[pwilliaml]

Screw the stock sump and find a better acrylic one to replace it with. That's what I did. Now my original 250 sump is sitting in the garage. No idea what to do with it. It's so nice, I thought about stripping all the insides out of it and turning it into another tank. The Icecap 30 Reef Sump fit perfectly in my stand with room on the side for dosing containers. It's well worth the investment and very nice quality.

 

[kinetic]

The BRS listing for the Varios-4 has a chart that shows head loss. Looking at it, looks like you're around 700GPH at about 4 feet. Add to that the smaller diameter return hose, you're probably getting more like 600gph at 100%. So even at 100%, you're not overdoing it too much. I'd ramp up one step at a time and see if you can keep it steady. I Reefer material specified the return in "recommended flow", so I'm assuming it actual flow since pumps vary in their response to head loss.

Some recommend to go into the emergency a little, I usually aim for just level with it, with it sometime overflowing, sometimes not.

You'd have to get the VDM module to be able to control the Varios with the 0-10V interface I believe with the Apex Jr. The full Apex has then built-in. Does open up some cool options, but as is everything with this hobby, more $$$.

Thanks for all the info. You're right about the headloss, but again, I don't think Red Sea means 530gph not including headloss. I bet they're just saying get a pump that's rated for about that much. But yesterday I bumped the power up to three, and the drain chamber is barely holding the water while it goes into the filter sock, so I think the flow is pretty good at power 3.

Kinetic, What type of fish is that in your profile pic? It's awesome!

It was one of my ventralis anthias. I kept it in a trio. They are absolutely beautiful anthias. My tank had 3x ventralis anthias and a bellus genicanthus. Hard to keep fed through the day, but once they got onto pellets and flakes, they were super fat. I fed about 6x daily with an auto feeder with flake/pellets, as well as constantly dumping in copepods and phyto. Maybe I'll win the Red Sea Reefer 500 peninsula and I'll do it again

I have my Jebao DCP-3000 set to 60% (475 gph without head loss) and I dialed in where the overflow is about 1" below the emergency and it's completely silent. I had a slightly overpowered ac pump (I think 600-700 gph) on it before and the only way to get it silent was to over it go through the emergency, so I would try turning it down a notch or two and dialing it in to see if that helps.

Ah, I see now that you're using it at setting 2. Where is the bubbling noise coming from? The return or overflow pipe? Could be a little leaky somewhere? Or maybe some air trapped in your return pump?

I finally figured out where the noise is coming from. There's a vortex in the main drain "silencer," and it sucks down a few micro bubbles once in awhile. If I bring the water level of the overflow level with the tank water, it does not vortex downwards since there's no concavity (or something like that). It has nothing to do with the emergency drain, other than the fact that the emergency drain is almost level with the overflow teeth / water level. As long as I keep the water level in the overflow pretty much the same as the display, the vortex won't pull down microbubbles to make that sound.

Another way to get rid of the vortex is if I just stick my finger at the surface right where it would form. BTW, no idea if VORTEX is the right word. Basically a water tornado thing. Like flushing a toilet with the water spinning down.

So I wonder, could I stick something in the silencer that would just keep the dang vortex from forming? I could just keep the water leveled, but that might defeat the purpose of the overflow + teeth?

Screw the stock sump and find a better acrylic one to replace it with. That's what I did. Now my original 250 sump is sitting in the garage. No idea what to do with it. It's so nice, I thought about stripping all the insides out of it and turning it into another tank. The Icecap 30 Reef Sump fit perfectly in my stand with room on the side for dosing containers. It's well worth the investment and very nice quality.

I think you can "screw" the sump, but you paid for that thing. It's actually quite a good sump too. If it was a really crappy one, fine, but these Red Sea sumps are quality. I would fight to get it replaced. You paid for a brand new tank, you should do everything you can to keep it that way.

I agree, Red Sea and vendor will argue that you dropped it... but hopefully they'll just agree to make you a happy customer. Happy customers spend a LOT more money with them then they'd lose on replacing a sump.

 

[mygsris2slo4u]

Screw the stock sump and find a better acrylic one to replace it with. That's what I did. Now my original 250 sump is sitting in the garage. No idea what to do with it. It's so nice, I thought about stripping all the insides out of it and turning it into another tank. The Icecap 30 Reef Sump fit perfectly in my stand with room on the side for dosing containers. It's well worth the investment and very nice quality.

Thanks for all the info. You're right about the headloss, but again, I don't think Red Sea means 530gph not including headloss. I bet they're just saying get a pump that's rated for about that much. But yesterday I bumped the power up to three, and the drain chamber is barely holding the water while it goes into the filter sock, so I think the flow is pretty good at power 3.



It was one of my ventralis anthias. I kept it in a trio. They are absolutely beautiful anthias. My tank had 3x ventralis anthias and a bellus genicanthus. Hard to keep fed through the day, but once they got onto pellets and flakes, they were super fat. I fed about 6x daily with an auto feeder with flake/pellets, as well as constantly dumping in copepods and phyto. Maybe I'll win the Red Sea Reefer 500 peninsula and I'll do it again



I finally figured out where the noise is coming from. There's a vortex in the main drain "silencer," and it sucks down a few micro bubbles once in awhile. If I bring the water level of the overflow level with the tank water, it does not vortex downwards since there's no concavity (or something like that). It has nothing to do with the emergency drain, other than the fact that the emergency drain is almost level with the overflow teeth / water level. As long as I keep the water level in the overflow pretty much the same as the display, the vortex won't pull down microbubbles to make that sound.

Another way to get rid of the vortex is if I just stick my finger at the surface right where it would form. BTW, no idea if VORTEX is the right word. Basically a water tornado thing. Like flushing a toilet with the water spinning down.

So I wonder, could I stick something in the silencer that would just keep the dang vortex from forming? I could just keep the water leveled, but that might defeat the purpose of the overflow + teeth?



I think you can "screw" the sump, but you paid for that thing. It's actually quite a good sump too. If it was a really crappy one, fine, but these Red Sea sumps are quality. I would fight to get it replaced. You paid for a brand new tank, you should do everything you can to keep it that way.

I agree, Red Sea and vendor will argue that you dropped it... but hopefully they'll just agree to make you a happy customer. Happy customers spend a LOT more money with them then they'd lose on replacing a sump.

I appreciate the feedback. I was going to use the sump, but will likely go a different route and use a 40b or something since the sump will be in the basement. I actually have an elite aquatics rrs-33 sitting here, but the refugium section will be too small for this tank.

 

[kinetic]

I appreciate the feedback. I was going to use the sump, but will likely go a different route and use a 40b or something since the sump will be in the basement. I actually have an elite aquatics rrs-33 sitting here, but the refugium section will be too small for this tank.

Basement sumps are the absolute best! If you have a large space, you could just get an ugly 100 gallon tub. So much space to work with and infinite possibilities.

 

[Gil03]

So It looks like my M1 has kicked the bucket. Emailed support but I am getting the red blinking circle of death

Quick poll what is everyone using for a return pump?

Have you been running your M1 full blast since you got it?

 

[Gil03]

I had an issue with my M1 where it just stopped working. I contacted Ecotech and within a few days (it was on a Thursday night that it died) they sent me a new pump block. I dropped it in and it was working fine. I did have to put down a deposit so they could send me out the pump, which I got back once they recieved my dead motor block. I still really like the M1 though.

Do you run your M1 full blast all the time?

 

[powers2001]

Has anyone bought a spare emergency drain pipe with union that goes in the cabinet from Red Sea?

 

[cFloor]

I have 2 red sea reefers. I'm using a 170 for my coral QT and a 250 as a fish QT. I love these tanks! I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to buy a new tank. I had them both up and running within a few hours of bringing them home.

 

[1bitereefer]

I have a 250 that I am in the cleaning, and gather equipment stage. I would like to go with one of the jebao DC pumps, after reading several reviews positive reviews. Any recommendation as to which one I should buy was thinking the DCS-5000 but wondering if that is to much flow? Any recommendations would be great! Can't wait to start my build thread after my wedding in 3 weeks.

 

[marito09]

I have a 250 that I am in the cleaning, and gather equipment stage. I would like to go with one of the jebao DC pumps, after reading several reviews positive reviews. Any recommendation as to which one I should buy was thinking the DCS-5000 but wondering if that is to much flow? Any recommendations would be great! Can't wait to start my build thread after my wedding in 3 weeks.

I have a dpc 6500 for over 6 months. Not a problem at all and very smooth and silent.
I have it a 90% because I have a vivid aquatics nozzle. Take a look at my build you will see more details there.

 

[cmcoker]

I have a 250 that I am in the cleaning, and gather equipment stage. I would like to go with one of the jebao DC pumps, after reading several reviews positive reviews. Any recommendation as to which one I should buy was thinking the DCS-5000 but wondering if that is to much flow? Any recommendations would be great! Can't wait to start my build thread after my wedding in 3 weeks.

I've got the dct4000 running, plenty of flow for me. I do not have a manifold or anything, just serves as the return

 

[mygsris2slo4u]

Basement sumps are the absolute best! If you have a large space, you could just get an ugly 100 gallon tub. So much space to work with and infinite possibilities.

Indeed. Though I've had a 100 gallon stock tank sump in the past and was not a big fan. I found it difficult to segregate, attach probes, filter socks, etc.

On a side note I received a reply from the tank vendor that seems promising. We will see what Red Sea has to say and what kind of timeline I can expect on replacement.

 

[powers2001]

Would a Reef Octopus Regal 150sss be too much for a Reefer 170?
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/regal-150sss-6-space-saving-protein-skimmer-varios-reef-octopus.html

I just replaced my Skimz pumps with VarioS pumps, and they're so silent. My current skimmer is kind of loud, so thinking of getting the above skimmer with the varios pump, but might be too oversized.

Otherwise I'm just going to get the NYOS Quantum 120.

If you go for reef octopus, wait for these new models coming out. See in this video:

 

[1bitereefer]

Would the new vectra s1 be powerful enough for my reefer 250

 

[ksfulk]

Do you run your M1 full blast all the time?

Yup. Runs around 1450 gph according to the flow monitor.