Waboss
Valuable Member
Ok, so I said I'd write up a review of the RAIN 2 when I got it. Well, I got it and just finished up getting it installed. I'm not great at writing reviews and such, but I'll detail this out as best I can and rely heavily on pictures to add context.
To start, I made 2 different "pole stands" for it. The first I made was for a larger pump (Rio 1100) but that pump just moved too much water for the scrubber to handle, so I scrapped that idea. The second one I made (shown in the pictures below) will accommodate larger or smaller pumps AND instead of gluing everything together, it's just "fit" together (for the most part) and seems to be tight/secure enough. So I'll let this ride for a while and see how it works out. Not gluing everything makes it much easier for cleaning and/or making changes to it without starting all over each time.
Since I couldn't find a flange that would work for me (small sump and base plate for stand) I just used a flat cap and glued that to a 1/4" sheet of PVC.
Then I slipped 2" coupler on to the cap
Then I slipped the main part of the 2" PVC into the other end of the coupler. Now I can take it apart easily if/when I need or want to change the height or anything.
Currently it's set to run off of a Cobalt MJ1200 power head. I "stole" the one I had on my GAC reactor to get this going (have another one coming in later today, but didn't want to wait to see if it would work........you can see the feed line for my reactor just hanging there pump-less in the video below). It's all tied in to the Tee on the stand via MTP reducers and a push fit connector (which fits perfectly on the MJ1200). I am a little concerned about how close to the water surface the input for the PH is, but it's kept at a constant level, so it should be ok. If I get too worried about it, I can always extend it down pretty easily.
Here's a quick video of it running right after initial set up
And here's after I added an extension on to the output to quiet it down a little:
And finally, here's on with the dome installed and 1 of the LED's on (for break in purposes only 1 is on for now). Also, the stand light is turned off so you can see how much light bleed there can be (not much at all).
So, at least for today, that's all I have. I'll either update this post or create a new one showing progress on getting algae growing on the screen.
**UPDATE
Added a valve to the output line from the pump so I could cut it back a little. Seems to have evened out the flow a bit and "calmed" things down a bit. We'll have to see how it is after a few days.
To start, I made 2 different "pole stands" for it. The first I made was for a larger pump (Rio 1100) but that pump just moved too much water for the scrubber to handle, so I scrapped that idea. The second one I made (shown in the pictures below) will accommodate larger or smaller pumps AND instead of gluing everything together, it's just "fit" together (for the most part) and seems to be tight/secure enough. So I'll let this ride for a while and see how it works out. Not gluing everything makes it much easier for cleaning and/or making changes to it without starting all over each time.
Since I couldn't find a flange that would work for me (small sump and base plate for stand) I just used a flat cap and glued that to a 1/4" sheet of PVC.
Then I slipped 2" coupler on to the cap
Then I slipped the main part of the 2" PVC into the other end of the coupler. Now I can take it apart easily if/when I need or want to change the height or anything.
Currently it's set to run off of a Cobalt MJ1200 power head. I "stole" the one I had on my GAC reactor to get this going (have another one coming in later today, but didn't want to wait to see if it would work........you can see the feed line for my reactor just hanging there pump-less in the video below). It's all tied in to the Tee on the stand via MTP reducers and a push fit connector (which fits perfectly on the MJ1200). I am a little concerned about how close to the water surface the input for the PH is, but it's kept at a constant level, so it should be ok. If I get too worried about it, I can always extend it down pretty easily.
Here's a quick video of it running right after initial set up
And here's after I added an extension on to the output to quiet it down a little:
And finally, here's on with the dome installed and 1 of the LED's on (for break in purposes only 1 is on for now). Also, the stand light is turned off so you can see how much light bleed there can be (not much at all).
So, at least for today, that's all I have. I'll either update this post or create a new one showing progress on getting algae growing on the screen.
**UPDATE
Added a valve to the output line from the pump so I could cut it back a little. Seems to have evened out the flow a bit and "calmed" things down a bit. We'll have to see how it is after a few days.
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