Show Off and Discuss Your Red Sea Reefer Series

canadianeh · Apr 2, 2020

Eight said:
Agreed. I wouldn't want to run the skimmer in this section due to water level fluxtuation. You really want your skimmer in the skimmer chamber.

So I read Nyos manual and the recommended water height is around 8”. I plan to keep the sump water level at 8” anyway. Now @Eight you said “water level fluctuations”. Can you please let me know how water fluctuate in the sump in this particular front section? I see that the water flow from them is front section and then fall into the intended skimmer chamber. How is it any different if there is any fluctuations between the front space vs skimmer space?

I am willing to learn and listen sorry if my question is stupid. I never had a sump before.

drawman · Apr 2, 2020

I'm curious if anyone has a UV sterilizer plumbed in their sump with photos. Just curious to see some nice looking examples

Josh Baranowski · Apr 2, 2020

canadianeh said:
So I read Nyos manual and the recommended water height is around 8”. I plan to keep the sump water level at 8” anyway. Now @Eight you said “water level fluctuations”. Can you please let me know how water fluctuate in the sump in this particular front section? I see that the water flow from them is front section and then fall into the intended skimmer chamber. How is it any different if there is any fluctuations between the front space vs skimmer space?

I am willing to learn and listen sorry if my question is stupid. I never had a sump before.

The water level in that section shouldn't fluctuate due to the fixed weir. The only section in my sump that changes water level is the return pump section.

Superyosin · Apr 10, 2020

Broadfield said:
Now that the Red Sea Reefer series tanks are getting more common in hobbyist's homes, I thought it would be nice to have a one-stop place to share and discuss them. I love mine and I think it's one of the nicest setups for the money. It's far less expensive than an Elos and even cheaper than Innovative Marine SR series. I love setups that allow for user customization and I like checking out what others are doing with theirs. I think Red Sea really hit big with this one and the # of sales proves that. So please post up pics of your setups and feel free to discuss mods, tips, equipment etc.

I'll start out with a sump pic of my 450:

Sump by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

IMG_6030 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

Current state of my Reefer 450:

FTS by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

IMG_5293 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

I'm also going to leave this here so it's easy to find... my very cheap solution to splitting the return:

PART LIST:

1/2" NPT Connector for 1/2" Loc-Line

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/loc-line-male-npt-connector.html

Y Fitting for 1/2" Loc-Line Modular Hose

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/loc-line-y-fitting.html

1/2" Loc-Line Modular Hose - 6 segments (you can split this in half or buy two of them if you want really long arms)

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/loc-line-modular-hose-segments.html

(2) Round Nozzles for 1/2" Loc-Line Modular Hose (you may choose to do the flare or straight-flow nozzles, but I like these the best)

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/loc-line-round-nozzle.html

First remove the Red Sea fitting out of the end of the return nozzle... it's just pressure fit with Teflon tape.

Then simply wrap the threaded section of the NPS fitting with about 10 wraps of Teflon tape.

Next twist/slide into the Red Sea nozzle... it should go in somewhat snug.

Then pull it back out and wrap it again with about 10 wraps of Teflon tape.

Go ahead and twist/slide it back in... done.

Lastly, snap on the Y fitting and your selection of Loc-Line segments and nozzles.

Our very own @pelphrey recently put together a nice instructional video on this also.

Bro I am humbled by that work. My sump area looks like crap after seeing what you have done. I’m attaching my tank, but wow that’s some clean work. Amazing and congrats.

Bob The Reefer · Apr 10, 2020

Has anyone gone to the bother of upgrading from the V1 sump to a V3?

pelphrey · Apr 10, 2020

Bob The Reefer said:
Has anyone gone to the bother of upgrading from the V1 sump to a V3?

Why are you wanting to change versions?

Bob The Reefer · Apr 11, 2020

I'm going to swap my return pump for an Apex Cor and the return line on the V3 makes that more straightforward.

But, and here's a big BUT ... I'm also contemplating upscaling to an XL525 or an XXL625 because I think the fish would like the extra foot of swimming space.

What to do?

canadianeh · Apr 11, 2020

Bob The Reefer said:
I'm going to swap my return pump for an Apex Cor and the return line on the V3 makes that more straightforward.

But, and here's a big BUT ... I'm also contemplating upscaling to an XL525 or an XXL625 because I think the fish would like the extra foot of swimming space.

What to do?

Well that is personal choice I guess. If you have the time and money to go as big as you can, then do it. It will gives you more flexibility to aquascape and for your stock list.

kruler · Apr 12, 2020

Bob The Reefer said:
Has anyone gone to the bother of upgrading from the V1 sump to a V3?

I just got a XL425 with the V3 sump and think that its more difficult to modify the plumbing than the prior version if you want to add reactors, UV sterilizer, etc. I thought about flipping the sump around, which may have made the plumbing more straightforward. Here is where I got with the plumbing. This is just rough with cheap white pipe - final version will have orange pipe. There will also be a Clarisea SK-5000 where there stock filter sock holder is now. Please let me know if anyone sees any issues.

wackyreefer · Apr 12, 2020

kruler said:
I just got a XL425 with the V3 sump and think that its more difficult to modify the plumbing than the prior version if you want to add reactors, UV sterilizer, etc. I thought about flipping the sump around, which may have made the plumbing more straightforward. Here is where I got with the plumbing. This is just rough with cheap white pipe - final version will have orange pipe. There will also be a Clarisea SK-5000 where there stock filter sock holder is now. Please let me know if anyone sees any issues.

Looks great and sure looks tricky to get that UV plumbed in. Are my eyes deceiving me or did you go with 1" plumbing? Only reason I ask is because I don't see a reducer after the union that the Neptunes Flow Sensor is hooked into?

kruler · Apr 12, 2020

wackyreefer said:
Looks great and sure looks tricky to get that UV plumbed in. Are my eyes deceiving me or did you go with 1" plumbing? Only reason I ask is because I don't see a reducer after the union that the Neptunes Flow Sensor is hooked into?

I did go with 1” plumbing for everything except where it Ts off to go to the reactor. I’m not sure there was any value to going with 1” instead of 3/4” since I imagine the remaining factory plumbing is pretty restrictive and will act as a bottleneck. 3/4” would have given me more room to work with too.

The UV plumbing would have been a bit less tricky if I had drilled a hole in the stand divider for the input pipe to pass through but I figured I would avoid that if possible. It would also have been easier if the UV wasn’t so huge and I could have kept it on the sump side of the cabinet. I just didn’t see much benefit of having a smaller (lower wattage) UV at the flow rate I’m expecting.

I can say that I’m very impressed with the build quality of the Lifegard UV and it was substantially cheaper than the comparable Aqua UV and Pentair units.

wackyreefer · Apr 12, 2020

kruler said:
I did go with 1” plumbing for everything except where it Ts off to go to the reactor. I’m not sure there was any value to going with 1” instead of 3/4” since I imagine the remaining factory plumbing is pretty restrictive and will act as a bottleneck. 3/4” would have given me more room to work with too.

The UV plumbing would have been a bit less tricky if I had drilled a hole in the stand divider for the input pipe to pass through but I figured I would avoid that if possible. It would also have been easier if the UV wasn’t so huge and I could have kept it on the sump side of the cabinet. I just didn’t see much benefit of having a smaller (lower wattage) UV at the flow rate I’m expecting.

I can say that I’m very impressed with the build quality of the Lifegard UV and it was substantially cheaper than the comparable Aqua UV and Pentair units.

That's great to know. I had the same concern around the mix of 1" in combination with the stock RS overflow and return plumbing in the weir. What wattage is the Lifeguard UV you are using? It looks like a decent size!

kruler · Apr 12, 2020

wackyreefer said:
That's great to know. I had the same concern around the mix of 1" in combination with the stock RS overflow and return plumbing in the weir. What wattage is the Lifeguard UV you are using? It looks like a decent size!

It’s the 3” 55w with the Amalgam bulb. The UV body is about 27” long. You can turn the ports for more flexibility when installing and it comes with mounting brackets unlike the other brands.

kruler · Apr 13, 2020

So when I was plumbing on the weekend I discovered a crack in the divider of the sump that holds the bubble trap sponge. I e-mailed Redsea expecting that there would be no issue in getting a new sump since they sold me a broken one. This morning they replied refusing to cover it because I did not immediately discover the defect at the time of delivery. This crack is almost impossible to see with the sponge in (how its shipped) and impossible to see from the front of the sump looking straight at it. I only found it because I noticed some small glass chips in the sponge and removed the sponge.

Please let me know if anyone has had a similar experience. I created a thread with details and photos in the RedSea section here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/very-disappointing-redsea-customer-service-broken-sump.709154/

Futuretotm · Apr 13, 2020

Hello all, question, I see you guys are all placing screws in the stand in the sump area to hang things, does this affect the stand in any way? Ie structurally long term?

wackyreefer · Apr 14, 2020

Futuretotm said:
Hello all, question, I see you guys are all placing screws in the stand in the sump area to hang things, does this affect the stand in any way? Ie structurally long term?

Yes I had the same concern. And also about screwing into the underside of the top panel which the tank bottom rests on to mount hard plumbing pipes. Is this just a bite the bullet (with the right size screw) situation? ;Bookworm

powers2001 · Apr 14, 2020

I wouldn't worry. The composite material these stands are made of are quite strong. If you've ever used a hole saw on them you would know.

AZMSGT · Apr 14, 2020

Futuretotm said:
Hello all, question, I see you guys are all placing screws in the stand in the sump area to hang things, does this affect the stand in any way? Ie structurally long term?

Don’t worry about screwing into the walls. Just predrill the holes. The manufacture puts all kinds of holes in the walls for assembly and mounting standard plumbing. These stands are assembled like IKEA furniture, meaning they have allot of predrilled holes already in them.

A predrilled hole puts less preassure on the wood surrounding the screw you install. Just make sure you predrill the correct size hole.

Also, I have placed 1.5” holes in the walls of my stand without worrying. I feed pipe and plumbing through the wall. The key about doing something like this is not to put it near the edge. The edges will split out.

Futuretotm · Apr 14, 2020

AZMSGT said:
Don’t worry about screwing into the walls. Just predrill the holes. The manufacture puts all kinds of holes in the walls for assembly and mounting standard plumbing. These stands are assembled like IKEA furniture, meaning they have allot of predrilled holes already in them.

A predrilled hole puts less preassure on the wood surrounding the screw you install. Just make sure you predrill the correct size hole.

Also, I have placed 1.5” holes in the walls of my stand without worrying. I feed pipe and plumbing through the wall. The key about doing something like this is not to put it near the edge. The edges will split out.

actually that was my next question
I want to drill a 1-2” hole to feed my ato, awc, skimmer waste hoses through my wall, having a hole near the middle of my sump would be ideal, what do y’all think about that? Structural compromise???