I’ve been a bit busy today from early morning to early afternoon. Mainly because some idiot called ‘Boris’ has decided to close all the golf courses. I can take my clubs into Newstead Abbey (its were Lord Byron lived behind my house) or any other type of park, but no, I can even walk around my golf course even on my own! Anyway I digress......
The X Filter 1.7 arrived a few days ago and it’s time to install one into the Red Sea S650, using the experience gained from plumbing the ‘big house’. I went for the 1.7 so both systems use the same media.
The main reason for installing an X Filter, is low maintenance, but it also removes organic waste before it pollutes the water, and therefore should make a major difference to nutrient control. 25 micron rolls compared to 225 micron filter socks should make a significant impact
A 25 micron roll in the big tank lasted nearly 3 months, so in the S650 is should last much longer, certainly once its run in
The reason I’m doing this, is because the intention is to make minor rearrangements to the rockwork, and get the water quality a bit better, so nitrate to around 5-10 as opposed to around 20, so that I can easily frag some of the better SPS from the big tank into the S650, because I hate throwing them away! lol
Ive also found in the big system, that the rowaphos lasts much longer, 900g last around 2-3 months, and that’s probably a lot to do with the X Filter. At the moment in the S650 I change the rowaphos of around 400g around every 3 weeks. I’m not being ‘cheap’ but do you know how much the stuff costs!! Lol
Anyway this is the system we’re talking about, the Red Sea Max S650....
So for any Max S series owners this is what I did
Firstly for those paying attention, you will recall I removed all 4 rear circulation pumps from the rear chamber a while ago, for 2 MP40’s, so it’s empty, so ive moved all the Seachem matrix into there. I had a marine pure block but it’s a bit old so that went in the bin and I might get some more matrix, you know I like it!
I then brought the python water changer out of retirement (because I now use Apex DOS for water changes). I can tell you the sump water when stirred up was absolutely filthy, like a brown sludge and it just shows how inefficient the filter socks are.
The Max S Series sumps, to be frank, are not the best designed sumps, or plumbing in general, infact once you know what your doing it’s pretty poor to be honest, and I think someone at Red Sea should review it. Why would you put a bespoke Red Sea type of gate valve behind the tank, so that it’s virtually impossible to remove and clean, and it also means tank owners have to leave at least a 6” gap behind the tank in case you need to remove it, when you can just put it in the sump, with you know, easy access..... I’ve always jokingly said, I’ll buy a new tank before attempting this, but now don’t need to.
So being brief, because of the design of the S650 sump, the best place to locate the X filter was were the skimmer is designed to go, so it’s sat on an egg crate shelf lifted up slightly to make it roughly level. The X Filter comes with hanging brackets, but in the S650 sump there‘s nothing to hang it to as the side are all way to high. So it’s just sat down which is fine. The skimmers been moved to the main chamber on the left hand side of the sump
I then designed the pipe work which is pretty basic, and then I sat for a while, quiet a while actually, contemplating cutting the main downpipe, the point of no return. Some will be familiar with the terms ‘pooing ones pants’! Lol
Now I have a proper plastic pipe cutter, from building the big tank, but sometimes, the pipe can just snap rather than cut, if it’s a bit brittle, I ran a test and most cut perfectly, but one shattered..... and that would mean ‘problems’.......
So after saying several hail Marie’s, and putting my big boys pants on, I went for it...... all went well, fortunately.....
Anyway hopefully my experience might help other Max S Series owners contemplating something similar. I’ve still got to change the emergency overflow pipe, which will be fairly easy, but this is enough for one day. Here’s a few pictures and the waters already looking crystal clear