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TCFishie

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Hello,

After much consideration I have decided to try reefing once again. About 10 years ago I made an under funded poor attempt at the hobby, became frustrated (4 day power outage was the final straw). I vowed to rerun one day, fast forward 10 years.

I got a good deal on a used Red Sea Reefer 250. I realize this won’t be my last tank, but it seems like a good starting point.

Equipment: 5 stage RO, the skimmer and lightning are the Red Sea line that came with the setup. Pumps, heaters etc

I plan on keeping LPS and Softies, nothing too crazy yet.

Now for the questions:

Testing: sensors / controllers or just get test kits?

Automation? Probably can be addressed with controllers, are the Apex systems worth the money? I don’t mind spending, I hate wasting.

I will be searching for live rock, but there’s a forum for that. If I can’t find any local, what mix of live / base would you recommend? Is the liquid coralline additive a good choice?

I won’t open the bare bottom vs sand debate.

What am I missing? Probably a bunch, thanks!


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gregg

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Hello,

After much consideration I have decided to try reefing once again. About 10 years ago I made an under funded poor attempt at the hobby, became frustrated (4 day power outage was the final straw). I vowed to rerun one day, fast forward 10 years.

I got a good deal on a used Red Sea Reefer 250. I realize this won’t be my last tank, but it seems like a good starting point.

Equipment: 5 stage RO, the skimmer and lightning are the Red Sea line that came with the setup. Pumps, heaters etc

I plan on keeping LPS and Softies, nothing too crazy yet.

Now for the questions:

Testing: sensors / controllers or just get test kits?

Automation? Probably can be addressed with controllers, are the Apex systems worth the money? I don’t mind spending, I hate wasting.

I will be searching for live rock, but there’s a forum for that. If I can’t find any local, what mix of live / base would you recommend? Is the liquid coralline additive a good choice?

I won’t open the bare bottom vs sand debate.

What am I missing? Probably a bunch, thanks!


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im a big fan of having a controller. I have the Apex and if I had to do it all over again.... id buy the apex! Or you could sign up for upcoming virtual bingo event and possibly win one for free!
 

Cody

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Hello,

After much consideration I have decided to try reefing once again. About 10 years ago I made an under funded poor attempt at the hobby, became frustrated (4 day power outage was the final straw). I vowed to rerun one day, fast forward 10 years.

I got a good deal on a used Red Sea Reefer 250. I realize this won’t be my last tank, but it seems like a good starting point.

Equipment: 5 stage RO, the skimmer and lightning are the Red Sea line that came with the setup. Pumps, heaters etc

I plan on keeping LPS and Softies, nothing too crazy yet.

Now for the questions:

Testing: sensors / controllers or just get test kits?

Automation? Probably can be addressed with controllers, are the Apex systems worth the money? I don’t mind spending, I hate wasting.

I will be searching for live rock, but there’s a forum for that. If I can’t find any local, what mix of live / base would you recommend? Is the liquid coralline additive a good choice?

I won’t open the bare bottom vs sand debate.

What am I missing? Probably a bunch, thanks!


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Welcome back! I could maybe take a little time off from the hobby but I don’t think I could ever leave it completely.

As far as what equipment you should get, I mostly just comes down to budget. Like gregg said, the controllers these days are a huge game changer that we didn’t have back when you were last in the hobby. Plus, LEDs were just coming onto the scene, whereas now, they’re the dominate light source, in my experience.
 
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TCFishie

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Thanks for the information, leaning towards the Apex since it can be upgraded.


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decimal

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I jumped back in after 10 or so years about a year ago. Something interesting is the wide spread acceptance of DC current since it can be ramped up and down. Almost everything that is dynamic comes with its own software app or hardware controller often creating redundancy with an apex or profilux. Even water quality can can be monitored and rock solid alk parameters maintained by stand alone equipment. That said, apex and ghl are a nice way to consolidate all the other controllers from the various devices. Vortec power heads are an industry standard but gyre pumps are widely used as well LED fixtures are great at growing corals and good enough visually. I add t5 so the led glitter is a little reduced. Good luck in your reefing and keep us informed.
 
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TCFishie

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Thanks for the information and the welcome! I picked up the tank on Saturday and started the process. I will post pictures once I have everything up and running.

One question, the main drain is making more noise than I would have expected. I have adjusted the flow rate and tinkered with the main line dial (Reefer 250). I have watched several YouTube videos and they are not completely helpful.

I will be installing the apex this week, so I didn’t want to spend a ton of time fine tuning, just to start over.


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TCFishie

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Forgot to mention, the LED lights so far are the biggest change, it’s not even the comparable to the T5’s that I used to run. The options are overwhelming. The tank came with AI 26’s.


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Seaworthy Aquatics

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One question, the main drain is making more noise than I would have expected. I have adjusted the flow rate and tinkered with the main line dial (Reefer 250). I have watched several YouTube videos and they are not completely helpful.
The overflows on these can be pretty loud and people sometimes replace the valves to make it work right. Is the overflow pulling air or is water going down the pipe? Get the overflow right and the noise usually stops, but the valves can be really sensitive and it can be hard to get right.
 
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TCFishie

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The noise is coming from the drain, cycles between quite and noisy. The return pump has enough water so it looks to be fine.


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Seaworthy Aquatics

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Always hard to understand via text lol, but does the back of the tank look like this? That center pipe is usually the cause of the noise and will hopefully stop once you have water going down it. The water level and flow into the back needs to be just over the top of the tube so it pours over and down it. Even when right it can still gurgle pretty good sometimes but should be quiet for the most part. Or is the sound coming from under the tank?
1618234944461.png
 
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TCFishie

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Yes, it looks like that now, I had initially had the 2 lines on the right swapped.

Also learned that it is much easier to tighten and loose the pipes inside the overflow from under the tank, instead of from the top.

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TCFishie

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The gurgling is coming from the drain on the far right. It’s not terrible, I was hoping that it would be better.




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Seaworthy Aquatics

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Well if that pipe doesn't have water going into it that means your return pump isn't pumping enough back into the display or your main drain is letting to much into the sump. The return has to pump more water than the main drain is letting into the sump. This way the little bit of extra flow will then fill up the overflow box and then pour down that center pipe giving you an exact ratio of flow to and from the sump. It should then fill the pipes properly and most noise should stop and sound like a trickle vs a gurgle. Only the emergency drain on the right should be dry. The water in the back box needs to be just under the top of the clear emergency drain cup, about a 1/2" or so, and just barely over the top of the center overflow pipe.
 
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TCFishie

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Well if that pipe doesn't have water going into it that means your return pump isn't pumping enough back into the display or your main drain is letting to much into the sump. The return has to pump more water than the main drain is letting into the sump. This way the little bit of extra flow will then fill up the overflow box and then pour down that center pipe giving you an exact ratio of flow to and from the sump. It should then fill the pipes properly and most noise should stop and sound like a trickle vs a gurgle. Only the emergency drain on the right should be dry. The water in the back box needs to be just under the top of the clear emergency drain cup, about a 1/2" or so, and just barely over the top of the center overflow pipe.

Here is the pump I am using, I know it’s overkill but I wanted an Apex compatible with its own power supply. I will keep adjusting the rate. I was not sure if it was a flow issue or a Red Sea drain adjuster knob issue.


69d056b42131975ad421fbb1cd57ff6b.jpg


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