Red Sea Max E-170 Red Sea in-cabinet sump upgrade OR Alternative?

Jnorthlaw · Mar 18, 2021

Hi my friends. I'm a new member, so excuse me if this post should be somewhere else.

I have a Red Sea Max E170 AIO. I've tried to locate the optional Red Sea sump upgrade kit that no one seems to have, and that all the LFSs in a 200 mile radius, can't seem to find for me, that's with a week of looking.

My questions are: 1) Is it worth the effort, money? 2) Where the hell can I get one? and 3) Red Sea will not give me the dimensions for potentially finding an alternative, and my tank is out of state for a month; so, does anyone no of any alternatives I can fit in the cabinet and fit an Eshopps Nano 10-35G Protein Skimmer into, like a Bashsea or something?

ANY INFO OR HELP, IS MUCH APPRECIATED, I'M SO FRUSTRATED AT THIS POINT!
Josh

Jimbo7 · Mar 20, 2021

It looks like the upgrade kit basically adds a sump from what I'm seeing, is that right?

To be honest, it depends on a lot of factorys if its worth it or not, are you having issues with the AIO that you're hoping a sump will solve? A sump is mainly convenience of not looking at equipment or being able to run large equipment that wouldn't normally fit in an AIO. I don't have any experience with the specific tank you've mentioned but I've found that the smaller skimmers meant to fit behind an AIO tank only work OK compared to their full size brethren.

If you decide that a sump is worth it, you could definitely DIY one for much less or source individual components that meet the same goal. Unfortunately with COVID it seems stock on a lot of things is scarce so not sure I can help on where to find one.