250 Skimmer Pump 3.0 - Now With Pictures!

[pocketreef]

Hello !
The new pump has arrived! At first glance the pump looks very well designed, more anatomic and slimmer.

It’s power consumption is 20W and Qmax 1900 l/h. The old pump as written is rated 55W and 1600 l/h. Auritania, your pic shows different figures, what is written on your new pump?

The new impellor has a ceramic shaft, stronger magnet and the plastic pins are thinner on a plastic base that is not longer circular.

When functioning, what a surprise, the noise level is negligent. At this moment the light fans are on and I can’t hear the skimmer.

Working for few hours and skimmate looks more consistent but for me It’s early to talk about tank temperature and performance.

It seems a killer goal from RedSea team, definitely bringing RSM250 tank to a new standard.

Some pics:











I will update with more impressions later. Happy 2010!

[Reefmack]

Thanks for the post and pictures pocketreef! it looks like the upgrade pumps are not all grey - good to know. Good luck with the "250D" tank! Based on all I've heard the new Sicce pump will make you happy and keep you happy with the improved tank!

[nanoreefing4fun]

+1 Thanks for the post and pictures pocketreef! it looks like the upgrade pumps are not all grey - good to know. Good luck with the "250D" tank! Based on all I've heard the new Sicce pump will make you happy and keep you happy with the improved tank!

Will 2010 bring me a rsm 250, with a stock skimmer that works well, is quite and does not require a chiller and has t5 lights that support more coral & 64 gals - starting to seem like not so much a dream any more, but a real possibility

[tnwillia]

Pocketreef.... thanks for the great side by side pictures. Looks like Red Sea really wants to get it's customers back!

[lethal]

Great post people. I think i'll make some enquiries about getting mine replaced as well. Not sure if they are available in Australia yet but I will contact the importers.

Glenn - You know you want one now

[pocketreef]

Hi!

Tank is running at least with 1 degree celcius less. As the pump is more powerfull I needed to adjust the skimmer neck to the maximum. Tomorrow I will readapt my tank water level to the temp optimum recommended by RedSea, fingers are crossed to reduce temp even more!

This pump is top quality, flood Red Sea with kind requests, then post your results here

[Reefmack]

More good news pocketreef!

[Nowellsy SNR]

Originally Posted by Reefmack

Since the original pumps and impellers were obviously faulty, I would think that would be proper, but I'm thinking that you have to request one through your customer support, and have your tank registered or at least the serial number.

Be worth a try thanks Terry

[Auritania]

Well, my pump has been running for a couple days now. As for the skimming, it's about the same but I think I was above average with the stock pump till it stopped working. I was running an external filter with lots of carbon right up until I put the skimmer in so I'll give it some more time before passing final judgment.

Temperature wise is hard to call. My main heating issue is the lighting and I can't say that I saw an issue with the skimmer pump and heat (the old pump was great when it worked, it just didn't do it often). The house is also at a lower temperature than it was a few weeks ago. The heater is even kicking in at night which it hasn't done over the last 6 months or so.

The last issue is noise. It's more quiet, but it's still magnitudes of order louder than the two circ pumps running. With minimal investigation, it seems that a good part of the noise comes from the entire skimmer "rattling" about in the chamber. Wedging a couple strategic pieces of closed cell foam between the skimmer and the walls has helped an awful lot.

[goma]

I've been wondering if the new skimmer pump was going to fix "all" of the heating issues. The reason I question it is that I have removed my stock RSM skimmer completely and am running a EuroReef in-sump skimmer and I really haven't seen any appreciable temperature drop. My chiller seems to come on and stay on the same amount. Granted, I have no empirical data to support this since I didn't record any in-house temperatures, chiller on/off times, water temps, etc. but in my set-up, removing the skimmer has not changed the temperature drastically. Oh yeah, it is a lot quieter without it!!!

[tnwillia]

Greg, a good part of the heat is the hood. First time I saw a noted change in my chiller run time was when the hood came off. I had to put my heater back in my tank for the first time since new.

[pocketreef]

I'm with Tom.

Here, after several hours without lights the reef reaches the 27C. With the old pump It would be from 27.8C to 28.1C. At the end of the light period the reef now reaches 28.3C. Before It used to reach 29C or more. These additional 1.3C come from the lights/ closed lid. The back fans are always on.

As I want to keep 27C as maximum I got a chiller Should be here soon.

[steveh]

For the vast majority of people the skimmer pump will make no difference to heat, or to effiency. When set properly the skimmer works very well and is over-sized for the aquarium in order to assist in keeping the water quality high. Neither the heat nor the performance are among the reasons we changed to the Sicce pump, as the decision was taken for commercial rather than specific performance issues. For advice on how to keep the M250 within sensible temp parameters check out the following link to our website, and pay particular attention to the water level section.
Red Sea MAX | Downloads

[nanoreefing4fun]

[Reefmack]

Originally Posted by steveh

For the vast majority of people the skimmer pump will make no difference to heat, or to effiency. When set properly the skimmer works very well and is over-sized for the aquarium in order to assist in keeping the water quality high. Neither the heat nor the performance are among the reasons we changed to the Sicce pump, as the decision was taken for commercial rather than specific performance issues. For advice on how to keep the M250 within sensible temp parameters check out the following link to our website, and pay particular attention to the water level section.
Red Sea MAX | Downloads

With the large number of very unhappy 250 owners with heat issues, impellers constantly breaking, and pumps jamming and not restarting, as well as Red Sea's reputation suffering, I have to think it was more performance related, than just a commercial decision.