Jason's Reefer 250: Fish added! Sump Mod, Clarisea, custom plumbing, aquascape w/E-Marco, IKEA cabinet mod. (Pic heavy!)

Rudzbrewski

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Hey awesome build. I am trying to do the same thing as your Red Sea Reefer 250.
How hard was it to mod the sump to fit the Clarisea? Thanks!
I did the mod on my xl425. As long as you do it before adding water it isn’t difficult. Just a little tedious, so takes some patience and persistence to get the glass out without breaking anything. I would not hesitate to try it or do it again.
 

mcc21

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I did the mod on my xl425. As long as you do it before adding water it isn’t difficult. Just a little tedious, so takes some patience and persistence to get the glass out without breaking anything. I would not hesitate to try it or do it again.
Hi yes i plan to do it from the start. Its just scary to cut with the razor blade.
Was the silicon easy to cut through??
 

WallysWorld

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I did a mod to my 300 XL sump for the Clarisea, it was easier than I expected. The razor blade method seems to be the way to go.

When you get to plumbing think about leaving some vertical placement flexibility. I hard plumbed directly to the filter. But I started with it lower than recommended in the water. I only hand fitted the plumbing into the filter and made certain that I had a union. I'm slowly cutting 0.25 to 0.5 inches off the pipe as I raise to the correct level for my flow rate.
 

mdowney

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In case it hasn’t been mentioned yet, the Red Sea part that we use to convert from 32mm to 1” (I believe it’s 42221) is easily misthreaded. I think it might be a different/metric thread pitch. So if you find it leaking like I did, don’t just keep adding more liquid Teflon tape (whatever it’s called) and then switch to regular Teflon tape, then more tape… Just take your time and make sure you threaded it correctly.
 

Flameback Pair

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@mdowney RS Part # 42221 is metric inside and out. However you can thread 3/4” MPT up into it. It just takes a lot of Teflon tape or Rector seal. Really pasted on the Rector seal on my RS parts however just the male. I’m tempted to redo them male and female parts. I haven’t got them wet yet but I’m running out of patience. Either way I’ll leak test them first.
 

mdowney

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Corr
@mdowney RS Part # 42221 is metric inside and out. However you can thread 3/4” MPT up into it. It just takes a lot of Teflon tape or Rector seal. Really pasted on the Rector seal on my RS parts however just the male. I’m tempted to redo them male and female parts. I haven’t got them wet yet but I’m running out of patience. Either way I’ll leak test them first.
Correct. My point was that tons of Teflon tape alone doesn’t fix the problem. Because the thread pitch is different between the metric RS part and the 3/4” male adapter, you need to carefully screw the adapter in and ensure that it is flush all the way around once fully screwed in. If there’s the slightest gap at any point, it’s misthreaded and it will leak, no matter how much tape you put on it. And believe me, it’s VERY easy to misthread. :D
 

Mark-Stover

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Earlier I mentioned how I was having trouble getting the door catches to 'click in' and hold the doors shut. I submitted a ticket with Redsea over email and they helpfully pointed out that you can adjust the length of the catch by rotating the last segment of the mechanism. (In their defense, this is actually illustrated in the manual, but is not explained and easily overlooked.) Tweaking the doors to get everything lined up nice and straight can be a challenge, especially if they were not aligned at the factory, so here is a quick write up of how to do it.

First, you can adjust the catch like I had to. Given the stock screw holes, the only thing you can adjust with the catch is the length of the mechanism to ensure the catch engages when the door is closed:

20200114_065001.jpg


Second (and I don't think this is written up in the manual), you can adjust the four cabinet hinges that connect the doors to the stand. You can do three things with the hinges. 1) Easily separate the door from the cabinet by using the release button on the back of the hinge. 2) Adjust the gap between the doors when the doors are closed. 3) Adjust the gap between the doors and the stand itself. Pictures make this easier:

20200114_070322.jpg


20200114_070333.jpg


My advice is to start by getting the doors mounted and close them. If the door catches engage, then don't mess with that, otherwise twist the end part of the catch. Second, while the doors are closed, check to make sure that the doors don't rub against each other and that the gap is even top to bottom. If not, adjust Screw 1. Then, if the doors aren't properly flush with the cabinet, adjust them with Screw 2.

Apologies if this stuff is elementary, but I've struggled with door hinges in the past and there are few things more irritating than doors that don't line up or close properly. Being a bit OCD, I do see that on my stand, the right door is ever so slightly lower than the left, but I don't believe I can adjust that without messing with the screws directly into the door/stand, so I'll leave that for now.

20200114_075343.jpg
Thank you very much for this! My 450 G2 just arrived today and I was trying to figure out how to adjust the doors. This was exactly what I needed!
 
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