Devoted Reefer 250
- Thread starter pelphrey
- Start date
pelphrey
New member
Brought it online today. Wanted to do it tomorrow to better keep track since it's the first of the month. But I did my water change today and I knew I'd need a little extra water for the ATS. So far so good as far as functionality, going to run 1 GEM5 light 24/7 and make adjustments as needed.
Going to document with both pictures and video, as well as tests phosphates with the Hanna phosphorus checker once a week.
Upgrades are always fun!
pelphrey
New member
Thanks!
You can hear the water trickle when the RAIN2 lid is off, once it is on the scrubber you can't hear anything. I was worried there would be a little noise, and figured it would go away once I shut the cabinet doors. To my surprise I hear nothing. I've had to lift the lid off a few times just to make sure it is running!
Was fixing to update my post this morning. The pictures above were the initial install. No doubt though the flow needed to be redirected! Thanks for your input!
April 30th 2017 RAIN2 Algae Turf Scrubber Startup. Running 1 GEM5 light 24/7. Tested water with Hannas Phosphorus tester, test came back at 4, phosphates really low. I did test nitrate with my Red Sea kit (which was expired) but it was zero. I threw it away, all future tests will be phosphate tests only. I'll pickup another nitrate test kit eventually.
Added a piece of 1" PVC with a 90 to push the flow away from the output of the scrubber
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pelphrey
New member
I'm up a few hours before work each morning with the kids, I was completely unaware that the natural sunlight would provide a different perspective of the tank. The sun is starting to come up earlier and over the hill behind our house, so I decided to turn the pumps off and snap some shots. No fancy camera here, just the iPhone 6.
Top down view with the Gyre pumps off, return pump still running
Not ready to wake up
Top down view with the Gyre pumps off, return pump still running
Not ready to wake up
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pelphrey
New member
I've never paid attention to it until this morning! As soon as I saw the light hit the tank I turned the gyre pumps off to get a better view. Today it is a little cloudy so I'll have to take a better look on a weekend. Be interesting to see this tank in the natural light when it has more corals and some growth!
rtparty
Raise The Reef!
As long as your tank can handle it, it's amazing what the sun can do.
When I first got in this hobby an "old timer" used to always tell me to set my tank in front of a window if I could. Everyone else said not to so I didn't. Fast forward a couple years and I had no choice where to place it and it went in front of a window. I got a major bout of hair algae at first and got an urchin. The urchin chowed it all down and my tank looked unreal after that. I cut my lights back a few hours and it was one of my healthiest tanks.
I've always allowed natural light since. It's free and still the best lighting source available to us.
pelphrey
New member
Haven't updated this thread in awhile now. My family and I went to Florida for a week and while we were gone I setup a laptop with teamviewer installed so I can log into my laptop from my phone and view the tank. Was nice to be able to see the tank and run the Neptune AFS at the same time and make sure the fish were fed. Aside from that the RAIN2 has been in the tank for awhile now and it is growing algae. It took it a few weeks to start the process, I haven't opened the hood and looked for a week or so now. Was running the RAIN2 off of a MJ1200, redid my manifold and now have it running off of my VarioS-6 pump along with the Marine Depot XS AquaMaxx reactor.
Santa Monica RAIN2 has been installed and running for a few weeks now -
Temporary pump setup for the RAIN2
New manifold in place
Reactor - https://www.marinedepot.com/AquaMax...te_Reactors-AquaMaxx-UJ45114-FIFRISPR-vi.html
Nyos 120 ran in my system for 6 months, time to pull it and clean it in vinegar
Back in the sump
24 hours later
DIY Screen top
DIY Screen Top Frame http://amzn.to/2rZOOcb
Screen Top Netting http://amzn.to/2sXLprY
Glued some plastic on the front corners for a flush mount. No support needed for the back, it rests on the overflow
Santa Monica RAIN2 has been installed and running for a few weeks now -
Temporary pump setup for the RAIN2
New manifold in place
Reactor - https://www.marinedepot.com/AquaMax...te_Reactors-AquaMaxx-UJ45114-FIFRISPR-vi.html
Nyos 120 ran in my system for 6 months, time to pull it and clean it in vinegar
Back in the sump
24 hours later
DIY Screen top
DIY Screen Top Frame http://amzn.to/2rZOOcb
Screen Top Netting http://amzn.to/2sXLprY
Glued some plastic on the front corners for a flush mount. No support needed for the back, it rests on the overflow
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pelphrey
New member
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LQT
Active member
Love your videos... I think you've convinced me to run a pair of XF230s. 
Random question, I'm trying to mimic the Reefer 250 look with my Deep Blue 57 rimless. Gonna drill for a ghost overflow. Where is the waterline of the Reefer 250? How many inches is the waterline from the top edge of the glass?
Random question, I'm trying to mimic the Reefer 250 look with my Deep Blue 57 rimless. Gonna drill for a ghost overflow. Where is the waterline of the Reefer 250? How many inches is the waterline from the top edge of the glass?
pelphrey
New member
Love your videos... I think you've convinced me to run a pair of XF230s.
Random question, I'm trying to mimic the Reefer 250 look with my Deep Blue 57 rimless. Gonna drill for a ghost overflow. Where is the waterline of the Reefer 250? How many inches is the waterline from the top edge of the glass?
Thank you!!!! I really like the gyre 230, especially for this size tank! In my newest video I talked about my settings and noise issues. Me running that at 40% I can't hear them at all.
The water is about an inch from the rim of the tank. The way the reefer is setup in the over flow there isn't anyway to adjust the tank water height level.
pelphrey
New member
I think so, everything seems to be happy. With the tank only being 3' long and each pump running for 6 seconds before it switches to the other pump its a short run for the pump to push water. I could have got away with 1 pump I am sure, I like having the 2 and the water being pushed and pulled back and forth.
pelphrey
New member
When I first installed the AquaMaxx reactor I had plans to run GFO/Carbon. Since I got the ATS online I don't want to run any GFO and my carbon usage has gone down. I decided to pull the pond matrix out of the media bag and place it in the reactor. I do also have pond matrix in the drain section of the sump -
Decided to build a light mount out of 8020. As a comparison this is a picture of the Kessils on the A Series Mounts -
The long span is 48", I went with 48" to reduce the shipping costs. There is a 11" piece mounted to the long span with that Tee'd off into a 18" span for light mounting. This is all series 10. I used the Kessil 90's to mount the lights to the 8020 -
I painted a board white on the top, this section can be seen on the opening of the Red Sea Reefer stand. Drilled some holes and bolted the 8020 bracket to the board. Took a hacksaw to cut the bolts down.
Not the best side by side but it gives you an idea -
Final result -
Had a small piece of rubble rock laying in my cabinet, was to lazy to take it into the garage and put it in my bucket of rock so I dropped it into the tank. Crazy to see how white the rock once was compared to the background and the current color of my rock work.
Decided to build a light mount out of 8020. As a comparison this is a picture of the Kessils on the A Series Mounts -
The long span is 48", I went with 48" to reduce the shipping costs. There is a 11" piece mounted to the long span with that Tee'd off into a 18" span for light mounting. This is all series 10. I used the Kessil 90's to mount the lights to the 8020 -
I painted a board white on the top, this section can be seen on the opening of the Red Sea Reefer stand. Drilled some holes and bolted the 8020 bracket to the board. Took a hacksaw to cut the bolts down.
Not the best side by side but it gives you an idea -
Final result -
Had a small piece of rubble rock laying in my cabinet, was to lazy to take it into the garage and put it in my bucket of rock so I dropped it into the tank. Crazy to see how white the rock once was compared to the background and the current color of my rock work.
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