19 replies to this topic

[nickflood69]

What are peoples opinions of the redsea max aquariums as far as having a small reef setup are they for real or a limited toy?

Edited by nickflood69, 03 August 2011 - 10:35 PM.

[Neakit]

they are a reasonably good all in one, but you have to have a chiller and the skimmer that comes with the 130d is as good as having a coke bottle and a bit of air line going into it. Everyone just changes to a tunze 9002 with the 130d. For more of a run down there are quite a few in the masa tank journals.

[nickflood69]

thanks il check out the journals

[nickflood69]

Have decided against the red sea tanks due to the amount of mods people are having to do to them. Would be interested in peoples feedback on equipment for a small 3ft reef. Want go live rock filtration method so skimmer and powerhead sugestions?

[Neakit]

how much are you looking to spend?

[Riggers]

Hey nick

I had 2 3ft marine tanks going, one was running a dropside filter area with an 1800lt/hr powerhead, with sponge pads and live rock rubble as the media. I was running a quad T5 light unit and a very simple Berlin airlift in tank skimmer. I found it easy to keep soft corals, morphs etc and some clowns and damsels. The second tank I had running on a sump just to keep the equipment out of the tank and I moved to a hang on/in sump needle wheel skimmer.. It was a lot easier to maintain the skimmer for flow I have used all sorts of things varying from small 500lt/hr powerheads for specific areas, to large 12000lt/hr dual wave makers that create a huge amount of surge. I have used hydor koralia's and I'm still using some but for something on the cheap I have been using heaps of the wavemakers available from eBay, for around $11 you can get a simple 5000lt/hr wavemaker from hong kong. These work fine and I'm still running 4 or five at the moment with no worries at all. If you want something quality have a look down at vebas, they have some great controllable models that you can adjust and set for your needs Spend the $$ on your skimmer because it is one of the best investments in your tank IMO, I am running my own made skimmers as well as a red sea X2 turbo skimmer which is awesome I have found some of the Chinese brand cheaper skimmers work and work well but dont have a very good life span... If you want to pop in for a beer we can sit down and work out the best hardware for your tank and budget... You know where I am bro

Nick

[Neakit]

Ok Wave makers are controllable power heads, unless it can actually make a wave its just a power head people

[Riggers]

Sorry to say simon wave makers aren't just a powerhead, yes the design uses the same principle but they do different things. A powerhead creates a jet of water in a single stream whereas a wavemaker will spread the water to cover a larger area. The problem with a power head in a smaller tank is they tend to create a whirpool and they aren't controllable if you find the Vid of tranced running his vortech wavemaker you'll see it creates a wave in his tank, an unbreaking wave but a wave all the same.

Edited by Riggertron, 04 August 2011 - 10:35 AM.

[Junglefish]

They are sold as "wave makers" so therefore nick refers to them as "wave makers"

[Gareth]

If they are the same then why would they be sold with different names?
WELL, maybe because wavemakers create less dead spots in a marine tank than a normal power head, thats why they are used. As Nick said, a power head shoots a stright jet of water.
Therefore the wavemaker has the same effect of the oceans natural tidal system. CONSTANT MOVEMENT, Not saying I know everything about this, But I just used my common sense!

[nickflood69]

Cheers nick that would be really helpfull. With the amount of product reviews ive read i dont know which way to go lol theres a whole other world out there as far as equipment choice and setup methods. Whats a freshy to do lol

[Neakit]

Sorry for the off topic nickflood, For your power heads look into tunze 6055 or 6105. They are fully controllable with the multi controller, i have the slightly older 6101 x2 and a 6055 with a multi controller. Vortech are great for a wide un-directional flow but are noisy. These 2 brands are considered the ducks nuts in water movement.
As for skimmer - cheap scale: Marine sources, reef octopus, aqua one. Basically any needle wheel skimmer under 300 is cheap. Look here http://www.guppysaqu...om.au/index.php
Medium scale - Skimz, Bubble magnus.
High end - Vertex, SWC, Royal exclusive (red dragon pumps), Deltec.

Now I run a skimz and i personally think its better than the reef octopus i had before, but to be fair you need to understand the reef octopus i had before was rated for 3000L and the skimz i have is rated for 750L.
I can honestly say don't go for old technology, Yes they work but new ones are far more efficient, for example my new skimz only draws 13w of power where as the equivalent octopus draws 38w. There is a little in air consumption but if you put into the equation the octopus uses a 3000L/hr pump and the skimz uses a 2000L/hr pump.

My big ones to stay away from are jebo, red sea prism and any other one you can buy from somewhere rated for 200L for 20 bux.

Ps When i was talking about power heads i didn't mean centrifugal pumps, i was talking about propeller power heads, Sorry for the confusion.

[nickflood69]

Thanks for the heads up neakit. So ive noticed that these skimmer pumps are turning over in the thousands of litres category. If im lookin at doin a3x18x18 with sump say ~ 250Litres combined what sort of pump flow would the skimmer want to be? And would something like one of those eheim universal pumps be a good return pump?

[Neakit]

ok Skimmer flow is different, what you want is a skimmer that is appropriately sized for your aquarium, With the cheap to medium skimmers i would say double your tank volume and get a skimmer rated for that size, eg 200L - i would get one thats rated for 400L.

I have a 3x18x18 setup ive just had to turn it off cause of a move of location and loss of job. It has a skimz sk181 protien skimmer, a eheim 1260 return pump, a jager 3616 heater, i have 2 6101 tunze and a 6055 for in tank circulation with a multi controller, For lighting im currently using a t5 250w mh combo light unit but i have been eyeing off doing a diy led unit for the tank. The sump is another 3x18x18 with a refugium in the center.

As you can see i have gone for the high end of most things, but that was cause i want to have a sps dominated tank.

[nickflood69]

The skimz looks pretty impressive neakit where did you buy from? Im am thinking that even though i am a beginer in the salt side of things, i would rather get it right the first time even if it means doing it even slower buying equipment 1 bit at a time lol
I cant stand more than anything equipment malfunction so perhaps il bite the bullit so to speak and get the better items even if it takes me longer. At the end of the day once the equipments covered theres a lot riding on how reiable it is. Ive been checkin out the equipment in your 3x18x18 and im pretty impressesed. This whole wave idea though? I get why you need it and a constant jet could be a problem but how is it controlled from sloshing over the sides lol. thanks for being patient too everyone lol

[Neakit]

Vebas sell skimz, i can recommend the kone series.
True controllable wave makers are called as such is cause they can make a wave, not that you need to. While i could infact make a wave in my 3x18x18 i didn't, what i did was have each of the 6101's pulse on for 3-4 seconds then turn off for 3-4 seconds the pumps would ramp from 10% to 100% in the time frame and the pumps were alternating.
The 6055 was in there to get behind rock work and keep detritus suspended (it was also connected to the multi controller for a bit more wank). So what this did is not really cause a wave effect on the top but in the tank i had all my corals moving randomly with the occasional lul in water movement.

Oh one last thing is i have a tunze osmolator for fresh water top up.

[nickflood69]

Ok so my journey begins... Picked up my skimmer today. Baught a skimz sm 121 to kickoff the series of events. Decided after junglefish's encouragement to use my two tier 3ft for my setup so still learning but am at least on my way lol cheers everyone for the help and advice. I might try doing one of those journals once i got a bit more to report

[Riggers]

Nice one Nick, Junglefish told me you had that setup ready to roll.......... Too good mate, sounds like its going to be a great little setup.. Top job on going for an excellent skimmer choice, its tough to part with the $$ but in the long run it will save you the hassles of cheaply made gear... Ill pop in and check out your setup

[nickflood69]

Yeah man anytime. Early stages but on the path now

[tywonreef]

Im the one for advice.Not these cowboys out there.lol