Reefer 250 build
- Thread starter tenurepro
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rvlcf
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I mean putting silicone anywhere two different pieces come together
tenurepro
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tenurepro
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Still in equipment testing phase while rock is still curing (good on the nitrogen end of things but high phosphates. Came to days ago and noticed that my ato tank was empty, and I had just filled it yesterday! Turns out that the float assembly connection broke off!
Contacted Redsea and they are sending a new one.
Another problem I was having was the sound of the dct4000 return pump. By far the noisiest thing in the tank... A very obvious whine that drove me nuts (tank is in the living room). I am returning it and hoping to exchange it for something less noisy ... Thinking about vectra m1? Any thoughts?
Drained tank now... Waiting for ato float assembly and new pump and we should be ready to get this reefer salty
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Contacted Redsea and they are sending a new one.
Another problem I was having was the sound of the dct4000 return pump. By far the noisiest thing in the tank... A very obvious whine that drove me nuts (tank is in the living room). I am returning it and hoping to exchange it for something less noisy ... Thinking about vectra m1? Any thoughts?
Drained tank now... Waiting for ato float assembly and new pump and we should be ready to get this reefer salty
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tenurepro
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tenurepro
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Well - bit the bullet and replaced the dct4000 with a Ecotech vectra M1. Should be here in a few days. Will try to hard plumb it so I can run the return and phosban reactor from it - any tips on plumbing would be great!
Red Sea is mailing me a replacement ato float assembly.
Finally - my pukani dry rock is 'cured' but still leaching phosphates. I am trying this pool product called phosfree to reduce the phosphates. Added it 3 days ago and my phosphates have been at 0 ppm since. Will give rock a good rinse and do a full water change and test again tomorrow. If the leaching stops, then it will be show time once vectra gets here
!
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Red Sea is mailing me a replacement ato float assembly.
Finally - my pukani dry rock is 'cured' but still leaching phosphates. I am trying this pool product called phosfree to reduce the phosphates. Added it 3 days ago and my phosphates have been at 0 ppm since. Will give rock a good rinse and do a full water change and test again tomorrow. If the leaching stops, then it will be show time once vectra gets here
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tenurepro
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I have an Ecotech mp10 that I am running on my 30 gallon nano; Will place the Mp10 on the side of the tank, and will also add a tunze 6045 (also from nano) on the back of the tank. May replace the tunze with an mp10 in the future if I find that I need more flow
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tenurepro
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Well after some running around figured out the plan for hard plumping (mostly) vectra m1 to reefer 250:
First shaved a mm from 3/4" sch 40 pvc as blue seat on vectra output is 19 mm.
The 3" pipe then connects up to a union, then a 1.75" pipe to a tee. From there we have a ball valve + female thread adapter than a male barbed 1/2 fitting to run gfo reactor. Up, we have another Union, a female threaded adaptor and another naked barbed 1/2" fitting which will soft connect the plumping to the reefer's return.
The total height of pluming and vectra is 21"
This is my first plumbing job so any tips would be appreciated - especially before I glue everything tomorrow
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First shaved a mm from 3/4" sch 40 pvc as blue seat on vectra output is 19 mm.
The 3" pipe then connects up to a union, then a 1.75" pipe to a tee. From there we have a ball valve + female thread adapter than a male barbed 1/2 fitting to run gfo reactor. Up, we have another Union, a female threaded adaptor and another naked barbed 1/2" fitting which will soft connect the plumping to the reefer's return.
The total height of pluming and vectra is 21"
This is my first plumbing job so any tips would be appreciated - especially before I glue everything tomorrow
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tenurepro
New member
Reefer 250 build
Leak tested the vectra plumbing and no leaks... Sounded much quieter than dct4000 in my tub... Hopefully it will stay like that in the sump. The ball valves works nicely to feed the phosban reactor.
Re. Noise of vectra vs dc4000 - the dct4000 generated a high pitched turbo whine, which was loudest when the pump was at the lowest power, got better but still audible at 60 to 70%, then got noisy again at higher levels. In the tub, vectra was virtually silent at below 40%, then made a lower pitched sound at higher power (but would never run it that high in the 250. Final judgment will have to wait till vectra is running in the tank, but tub test suggests that vectra is significantly quieter vs dct4000 in the 500 gph range
Rock update: phosfree treatment of pukani has helped leach out phosphates from the rock. Looks Good for aquascaping and filling the tank this weekend [emoji6]
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Leak tested the vectra plumbing and no leaks... Sounded much quieter than dct4000 in my tub... Hopefully it will stay like that in the sump. The ball valves works nicely to feed the phosban reactor.
Re. Noise of vectra vs dc4000 - the dct4000 generated a high pitched turbo whine, which was loudest when the pump was at the lowest power, got better but still audible at 60 to 70%, then got noisy again at higher levels. In the tub, vectra was virtually silent at below 40%, then made a lower pitched sound at higher power (but would never run it that high in the 250. Final judgment will have to wait till vectra is running in the tank, but tub test suggests that vectra is significantly quieter vs dct4000 in the 500 gph range
Rock update: phosfree treatment of pukani has helped leach out phosphates from the rock. Looks Good for aquascaping and filling the tank this weekend [emoji6]
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tenurepro
New member
So tank is all clear now - here is a pick of the aquascape
Wanted to have a nice sps shelf up top and some bottom places for LPS. Lots of overhangs to create some shady areas for the corals that don't need much light. The 3" Fiji pink live sand is for my sand dwelling critters (cuc, conch, pistol shrimp and goby, and wrasse). Not blowing around which I am happy with
Sump has vectra, bubble magus curve a5 and phosban reactor running phosban.
Have to do a bit of a fix on the vectra reefer soft connection... Very slow leak that I am hoping to fix with some cable ties. But happy to report that the vectra is significantly quieter than dct4000 in my system. It's not silent but the sound it makes is very low and close to ambient noise in my house (vs dct4000 which had a high pitched whine that I could hear anywhere in the main floor).
Water cleared up really well and filter socks are doing a good job of polishing water. Tested water this morning and it's looking really good (but a bit early)... Ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 0 phosphates 0; ph 8, salinity a bit low at 27... Tempted to add a little hermit crab to test out the water. Dry rock was already cycled and added 3 large live rocks from my established nano, so hopefully that will help keep water free of ammonia and nitrites...
Thinking that I'll be able to transfer livestock from my 30g to the reefer in a week if water is still good.
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Wanted to have a nice sps shelf up top and some bottom places for LPS. Lots of overhangs to create some shady areas for the corals that don't need much light. The 3" Fiji pink live sand is for my sand dwelling critters (cuc, conch, pistol shrimp and goby, and wrasse). Not blowing around which I am happy with
Sump has vectra, bubble magus curve a5 and phosban reactor running phosban.
Have to do a bit of a fix on the vectra reefer soft connection... Very slow leak that I am hoping to fix with some cable ties. But happy to report that the vectra is significantly quieter than dct4000 in my system. It's not silent but the sound it makes is very low and close to ambient noise in my house (vs dct4000 which had a high pitched whine that I could hear anywhere in the main floor).
Water cleared up really well and filter socks are doing a good job of polishing water. Tested water this morning and it's looking really good (but a bit early)... Ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 0 phosphates 0; ph 8, salinity a bit low at 27... Tempted to add a little hermit crab to test out the water. Dry rock was already cycled and added 3 large live rocks from my established nano, so hopefully that will help keep water free of ammonia and nitrites...
Thinking that I'll be able to transfer livestock from my 30g to the reefer in a week if water is still good.
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tenurepro
New member
Thanks guys...
Found this 3/4" male x barbed fitting that fits reefer 250 return pipe perfectly
I think it's schedule 80 pvc... It fits the reefer very snugly but a regular male x barb sch 40 fitting feels a bit lose. Will give this a try and run a 3/4" hose between vectra and reefer 250
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Found this 3/4" male x barbed fitting that fits reefer 250 return pipe perfectly
I think it's schedule 80 pvc... It fits the reefer very snugly but a regular male x barb sch 40 fitting feels a bit lose. Will give this a try and run a 3/4" hose between vectra and reefer 250
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ProZack199
In Memoriam
Nice Clean tank Setup
tenurepro
New member
A few updates
1) managed to get 3/4" male / hose adaptor on the reefer return plumbing. It took 3 attempts. What worked best is to take the o ring from the original male / 5/8" hose fitting, put a few layers of 3mm pink Teflon tape on the threads. Leak free connection to 3/4" adaptor on my vectra hardplumbing. Yay!
2) added lights and mp10... Tank is pretty tranquil! Love that I can control light and water flow with my phone (reeflink is pretty buggy and slow but once it's set up, it's easy to use) tank is pretty quite. So glad I went with vectra. I am sitting on my living couch beside the tank and the loudest noise I hear is my neighbor's AC fan. The mp10 is good in there. Even at 100%, it's not blowing my Fiji pink sand which I was worried about. May end up dialing up the tunze 6045 once I get corals in and get a better sense of flow. May also turn up vectra which is running at about 30%
The only thorn in my side is the curve a5... It's making like a bottle of champagne and overflowing like its 1999. Tried soaking it in vinegar but nothing working so far. I am just letting it run with the hose connection open, returning bubbly water to sump. I am guessing this is the dreaded breaking period everyone talks about! But I wonder if the biomagnet clarifier that came with the sand is partly to blame?
3) parameters and livestock
Water is clean 4 days in a row; 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, 0 phosphates... I threw a little frozen shrimp two days ago, so seems like my cured dry rock and the two live rock from my nano are doing their job. A little red feather duster that hitch-hiked on my live rock is alive and well, and so are some pods that have been running across my live rock (pod on bottom left, feather duster on top right- sorry for crappy pics... Phone!)
Encouraged by the water quality, I threw in a blue legged hermit crab in the reefer... If he is alive tomorrow, then I'll add a couple of snails, and if they are alive by the weekend, then I'll start moving some of the fish from my nano
... Getting there!
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
1) managed to get 3/4" male / hose adaptor on the reefer return plumbing. It took 3 attempts. What worked best is to take the o ring from the original male / 5/8" hose fitting, put a few layers of 3mm pink Teflon tape on the threads. Leak free connection to 3/4" adaptor on my vectra hardplumbing. Yay!
2) added lights and mp10... Tank is pretty tranquil! Love that I can control light and water flow with my phone (reeflink is pretty buggy and slow but once it's set up, it's easy to use) tank is pretty quite. So glad I went with vectra. I am sitting on my living couch beside the tank and the loudest noise I hear is my neighbor's AC fan. The mp10 is good in there. Even at 100%, it's not blowing my Fiji pink sand which I was worried about. May end up dialing up the tunze 6045 once I get corals in and get a better sense of flow. May also turn up vectra which is running at about 30%
The only thorn in my side is the curve a5... It's making like a bottle of champagne and overflowing like its 1999. Tried soaking it in vinegar but nothing working so far. I am just letting it run with the hose connection open, returning bubbly water to sump. I am guessing this is the dreaded breaking period everyone talks about! But I wonder if the biomagnet clarifier that came with the sand is partly to blame?
3) parameters and livestock
Water is clean 4 days in a row; 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, 0 phosphates... I threw a little frozen shrimp two days ago, so seems like my cured dry rock and the two live rock from my nano are doing their job. A little red feather duster that hitch-hiked on my live rock is alive and well, and so are some pods that have been running across my live rock (pod on bottom left, feather duster on top right- sorry for crappy pics... Phone!)
Encouraged by the water quality, I threw in a blue legged hermit crab in the reefer... If he is alive tomorrow, then I'll add a couple of snails, and if they are alive by the weekend, then I'll start moving some of the fish from my nano
... Getting there!
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
tenurepro
New member
Still struggling with my overflowing bm curve a5 skimmer, but water parameters are looking good and stable. Ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0, phosphates 0, salinity at 35 ppt. My crash test
dummies - a hermit crab and an Astrea snail - are alive and well after 36 hours in the tank. I think I'll move my corals and some of the fish from the 30 gallon tomorrow !
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dummies - a hermit crab and an Astrea snail - are alive and well after 36 hours in the tank. I think I'll move my corals and some of the fish from the 30 gallon tomorrow !
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