Initital Setup Part 1

After almost 50 years in the marine hobby, which included a wide diversity of aquarium systems, my decision to purchase this product was based on several reasons. The first was that I've had several Red Sea aquarium systems over the past many years, all consisting of quality material and having excellent system engineering. Second, the time had come to move my much older Red Sea system toward one with updated technology. And third, now being late 2024, Red Sea had moved into what I like to call the 'AI' stage of aquarium keeping by offering what is called 'Smart' equipment! And even though there are other forms of smart equipment on the market, theirs can all be integrated into 'their' app called ReefBeat.

As to this 'Product Review,' it's solely about the effort put forth to get the unit: cabinet, aquarium and its equipment to the fill stage, yet no further. Therefore, this is Part 1 of a two-part review. Part 2 will detail its actual filling and setup/operation of its ReefWave pumps, ReefCan, DC return and protein skimmer pumps, ATO unit, ReefMat, LED lights, and possibly, ReefBeat itself. Stay tuned!

To launch Part 1, when the system arrived, watched the truck driver remove the black plastic covering the wooden pallet holding three large packages and the ReefCan, then carry all into my office. Next, I opened two of the boxes containing system equipment and removed its various items to see just what system components they were holding.

Since it was now late in the day, the following day I removed the surrounding cardboard from the sides and top of the aquarium box to be sure there was no damage. Yet, the way its protected is so well thought out that any damage would be an extremely rare happening! With the aquarium glass now checked out, I removed the sump and the various piping items that are placed inside the aquarium, which are also very well protected with various shaped foam pieces, and placed them elsewhere in my office.

Now, with all system items received, it was time to open the box containing the cabinet sections. Note, the cabinet top shelf section is not located in this box with all the other cabinet sections and is actually located under the aquarium in its shipping container. This necessitates the now empty aquarium be lifted and placed elsewhere. It was then placed on two, 2x4s to support it so as not to damage its lower protruding piping connections under its overflow section.

With that accomplished, and for first time Red Sea cabinet builders, when removing cabinet sections from its box, there are wooden boards on each side and bottom of its box that have no hardware holes. That's because these are solely for protection of the cabinet sections within its box, and these can be discarded. Just another well thought-out way of protecting the contents of everything coming your way!

Now, having all cabinet pieces removed, I reviewed its assembly instructions which first time assemblers might find somewhat daunting. If so, recommend carefully looking at the supplied cabinet sections, as their holes must match 'exactly' their connecting sections as shown in the drawings. It's worth taking your time to be exactly sure which section connects to another section, as having to disassemble a wrongly connected section may somewhat weaken that final connection. Then suggest labeling each section with its lettering code as I do by writing it on a piece of masking tape and placing it on that item. Just saves a little time looking for the next part to assemble in my opinion. And to possibly save some further time, after completing drawing 7, I installed all hardware labelled N and M (alignment pegs and screw-in hardware) into their corresponding sections.

And possibly, again for the benefit of some first timers, the 'Aquarium & Cabinet Assembly Manual' has some drawings that 'might' look a little odd as to what its actually showing. In steps 17 - 20, these drawings show what appears as something hanging over the edge of a 'front' panel. Actually, just that portion of the drawing is really depicting the opening in the rear panel!

To get this far and because my available time for actually assembling this project was very limited, several weeks had now passed. Overall, for just cabinet assembly, would say it took about 8 to 10 hours to assemble. But for first timers, no doubt might take somewhat longer. Simply don't rush it - be absolutely sure the right parts are connected the first time!

With the cabinet now erected, except for its doors, it was now time to level it before going further. As this unit has 10 levelers located along its bottom edges, placed a level on its upper surface and found both directions, length and width needing some adjusting. I found it simpler to slightly raise the front two, back two and center two levelers somewhat off the floor, and concentrate on those on either side panel first. After those four had this unit level in both directions, then adjusted the remaining levelers so all made firm contact with the floor. Now, with cabinet level, the aquarium was carefully placed on the cabinet, aligning it so its rear bottom overflow area rested over the opening on the cabinet top shelf rear opening. Should mention the cabinet top section already had a cushioned mat applied to its surface. Nice touch!

Once the aquarium was on top of the cabinet, recheck it levelness and found it perfect. Then snugged up the adjustable nut on each leveler to the bottom of the various stand sections.

With that completed, inserted the cabinet bottom shelf and secured it.

Before going any further, decided to install the 'Slide Out Control Panel' before going further, (not installing sump yet), as I wanted enough working space to comfortably measure and drill its required screw holes. And for those that will have this item, I found the back side/edge of the template (cut from the back of its box) should align with the back edge of the cabinet when its 8 holes for its 4 brackets are drilled. If any surface space remains between back edge of cabinet and template back edge, its slider will protrude into the front space for the cabinet right door, preventing it from fully closing!

When this all had completed, system plumbing was the next task, and its three piping assemblies located inside the overflow area were installed along with its upper return outflow assembly. Since only one of the three remaining lower, inside cabinet piping assemblies can be installed before the sump is placed there, the circulation pump piping connection to the overflow compartment was installed. This is because the other two sections of piping have their endings located inside the sump near its bottom.

As a point of information on what I do when connecting such items having an O-ring, I have always placed one or two drops of water (depending upon size of O-ring) on my index finger, then spread it evenly onto the visible surface of the O-ring. That's because I prefer to have a very slightly dampened surface making contact with its connecting dry surface, therefore allowing it to be 'slightly' more secured. Never did like tightening a dry O-ring surface to another dry surface! Has always worked well for me and never experienced a leak on such connected fittings!

With this now complete, assembly instructions said to place doors on before installing the sump. So installed the right door, then the left and began adjusting the fit as needed. Unfortunately, one of the hinges had a defect and would not allow for the door to move forward or backward for adjusting its fit as needed. Contacted Customer service and they 'quickly' sent a replacement hinge.

Once door adjustments were completed, inserted the sump and was 'Shocked!' It rocked back and forth! When this entire unit was received, it was necessary to remove the sump from inside the aquarium so as to get to the cabinets top shelf as previously explained. When this was lifted out, I noticed the sump's bottom applied mat appeared to be only cemented to the outside area of the sump bottom panel! Didn't give it much thought at that time, as just thought they missed cementing that portion of its bottom padding. But no, with it now placed on the aquarium's bottom shelf, found that large bottom central area to be an air bubble about 9 inches across!

That was enough trapped air to act like a central roller, as the sump actually would rise and fall about ³/₈ inch when its top front edge was pressed down, then released! The fix was simple! I placed the unit on its back side and when doing so, also found another, but smaller air bubble. Then using a razor blade, made a couple of cuts though each bubble area. That released all the trapped air, and the sump was then totally flat on the bottom shelf. Just something that slipped by quality control, but not a major problem. Moving on...

Next, with the sump now on bottom shelf, if its placement is to be as close as possible to the cabinet's left wall, it would come up against the lower left door hinge! If remaining in that position, should the bottom hinge ever become defective, it would be impossible to replace it as there would be no space to get your finger to its back release button and pop it off. So...with the sump now about 2 inches from the left wall, installed the remaining two downflow pipes, which end inside near the bottom left side of the sump. Then carefully slid the sump to the left just enough to allow my index finger to touch the rear of the lower hinge and still have safe entry of these two remaining pipes. FYI - the space from inside the cabinet wall to the left side of sump is now 1 ³/₈ inch - just enough (with my fingers) if ever needing to replace the hinge!

When that completed, did not like that empty space on the sumps left side as it would be difficult to remove anything that might fall into that narrow gap. So, I purchased a length of swimming pool foam noddle tubing. Then trimmed sections of that tubing to fit that gap (shaped as in photo), giving the sump installation what I think a more 'finished' appearance.

Now with the sump placed, 'tried' to insert the ReefCan 10-gallon/40L unit next (which was stored in the corner of my office behind many of the aquarium equipment boxes) so I could judge its tubing connection lengths soon to come about. To my surprise, it was too high to fit into the cabinet! I should note here that before ordering this size ReefCan, I went online to check its price and size. What I saw at three different companies selling the product, was:

"Red Sea recommends the ReefCan 18L to fit inside their Reefer G2+ 170 and 200 models and the ReefCan 40L to fit inside the cabinet of any of their larger models."

Therefore, when the time came to purchase this system, I selected the larger ReefCan. After a little head scratching, I decided to place this larger unit behind the cabinet, as the evaporation rate for this size aquarium would have me filling the smaller unit too often. Lesson learned - go directly to Red Sea for their product descriptions!

With this now completed, installed the circulation pump with its adjustable water intake shield facing in the correct position to prevent sucking air should its chamber water level fall a little too low - nice touch! Then connected the supplied flex tubing to the pump and other end to the above return piping and secured its end connections with SS hose clamps.

Then time came to place the ReefMat and Protein skimmer in the sump. This first resulted in the skimmer being partially disassembled to insert its pump so as to face the preferred direction in this Reefer 250 setup. As with all new pumps, I like to completely open them to see its inside workings/accessibility for maintenance when needed. Will say to open the skimmer pump, there is one little screw to be removed, then the face plate it holds 'must' be rotated counter-clockwise to remove. Only found that direction on the WEB, but thought I would mention it here for those reading this review since it was quite difficult to initially move. As to the ReefMat, its manual made the installation of its fleece roll quite simple.

Once all the equipment was in place, it was time to address its wiring. Will say all equipment had about ten-foot-long electrical cords making connections to various electrical sources/outlets, quite easy. Nevertheless, having nine electrical plugs (including a heater), DC return pump and DC skimmer additional wiring for its Dual Controller, and overall, 6 ballasts which should be outside the cabinet due to their warmness while operating, did present an emplacement challenge!

Now, with the cabinet, aquarium and all its equipment and wiring in place, I decided aquascaping would be my next chore before adding water (and writing Part 2), as this would closely show how many gallons the entire system would hold when filling came about.

Since this would be a bare-bottom/no sandbed, very low nutrient environment with various species of Montipora requiring somewhat swift water flows, my choice of 'rock' would remain as to what was used in my previous marine aquarium, which was CaribSea LifeRock. This would provide a 'wide' array of shaped 'Coraline-coated looking' rock sizes and an overall configuration allowing for excellent water flow through various portions of its overall structure.

Finally, have reached the end of Part 1, with the forthcoming Part 2 - the filling and system tuning of its various equipment: ATO, DC operated return and skimmer pumps, ReefMat, ReefWave pumps, ReefCan, LED lights and thoughts on ReefBeat, will come about as time allows.