Red Sea Max E 170

[brendanwilson94]

Not bad for a bedroom

 

[brendanwilson94]

I’ve been doing some research on skimmers and since I’ve been thinking about getting an apex controller I figured why not have a controllable skimmer. I’ve seen some talk about over-skimming. Question is would a Reef Octopus Regal 150SSS with VarioS pump be overkill for my setup? I feel with the extra tuning it shouldn’t be an issue.

 

[brendanwilson94]

Black Friday sales were spicy. Ordered some salt and ended up getting an apex dosing pump for free. So this forced my hand and I ordered an apex pro controller as well as the regal 150sss VarioS and varios-apex connection cable. I will post updates when everything gets here on the 2nd. Huge thanks to @bulkreefsupply

 

[brendanwilson94]

Got the sump installed. I have to say, the instructions were terrible.

 

[brendanwilson94]

It seems the original return pump is pretty lack luster. After the upgrade it doesn’t put quite the rippling effect I’d like on the surface of the water. This works out as I was already looking into an apex controllable return pump. It looks like the cor 15 is my next purchase.

 

[brendanwilson94]

This is the old ripple line for reference

I feel like with a better return pump I can get that ripple back as I currently have the original return maxed.

 

[OfficeReefer]

Black Friday sales were spicy. Ordered some salt and ended up getting an apex dosing pump for free. So this forced my hand and I ordered an apex pro controller as well as the regal 150sss VarioS and varios-apex connection cable. I will post updates when everything gets here on the 2nd. Huge thanks to @bulkreefsupply

Nice! I would totally use the Apex Dosing Pump for automated water changes. There are plenty of other dosing options and since Apex mainly makes power and water control/monitoring, this is a special feature one can't really get from other brands. I use the Red Sea ReefDose4 and it works well enough with their pumps and lights, although I can see others using different brands as well.

 

[brendanwilson94]

Nice! I would totally use the Apex Dosing Pump for automated water changes. There are plenty of other dosing options and since Apex mainly makes power and water control/monitoring, this is a special feature one can't really get from other brands. I use the Red Sea ReefDose4 and it works well enough with their pumps and lights, although I can see others using different brands as well.

See, that’s really awesome insight. I haven’t looked very much into dosing systems, so I’m not sure of all of the differences between them. The dosing pump will work amazingly for automatic water changes, especially considering I’ll have the new apex water level sensor.

 

[brendanwilson94]

So I found this to be weird. After installation of the sump upgrade and allowing the water to properly level out the water level is still lower than I’d like. At this point I’ve almost reached the emergency overflow and the water still doesn’t reach the weirs. Looks like I’ll be extending the tube by about a 1/2 an inch to an inch.

 

[tmccaff]

I have the red sea and the tubes wrong; the smaller one longer one is emergency and should be next to return. Not sure if it makes a difference though. I went with the trigger sump though.

 

[brendanwilson94]

I have the red sea and the tubes wrong; the smaller one longer one is emergency and should be next to return. Not sure if it makes a difference though. I went with the trigger sump though.

The tubes are installed in the correct position for the e-170. I believe they are switched for the e-260. I installed a cor 15 return pump and that fixed the water level issues in the tank. I also left the old return pump in its spot so now I have that running for circulation as well.

 

[brendanwilson94]

I’ve also added a regal 150sss VarioS skimmer, apex pro, trident, and two dos pumps. One dos is set up for alk and calc. The other I will be setting up for awc.

 

[brendanwilson94]

Nice surface agitation after installing the cor15 and circulation pump. I ended up having to convert the return line over to standard in order to fit the cor 15 because the Red Sea plumbing kit comes in metric. I ended up using 1in tubing for the return line.

 

[brendanwilson94]

I also extended the return outlet just a little. Also here’s a photo I took today of the tanks progress and the program I wrote for the skimmer. It turns off when the water level in the return area of the sump gets too low or too high and it also turns off during my scheduled dos times.