Upgrading during the corona times

snowhite · Apr 26, 2020

Ya, I got serious pump envy where wife's 75g is going to have the miss-shipped Varios4 in it. It's at least twice as quiet as the Simplicity 2100 running in the tank sitting behind me. The Simplicity has a nice purrr / whirrr to it, but it's no where near the Varios level. Refugium in the 90g is keeping up with the tanks needs so I haven't been running the skimmer at all. That's making the return pump purrr more noticable. LoL. It's all varying levels of quiet.

jaxteller007 · Apr 29, 2020

Not an full upgrade but have been slowly adding/upgrading some existing equipment on our 180 and trying to get it dialed in. Got a dosing container so I'm not using just the bottles anymore, finally got the apex I was given up and running, ordered some macro algae to add to the fuge, set up some water storage stations and and RO/DI in the garage. Now I just need to get everything dialed in so I stop messing with it haha.

snowhite · Apr 29, 2020

snowhite said:
So... the Varios 2 was delivered on Friday... and it was a Varios 4, which won't fit. However, that's an $70+ more expensive pump that I could use in a sump on my wife's 75 gallon. So ordered another Varios 2 that should be here this Thursday... the saga continues.
Offside of that is I had an excuse to reconfigure the DYI sump dividers in the 20g long that will be going in the wife's 75 gallon that currently has 2 canister filters on it (leftovers from our freshwater days).
I did try the Varios 4 pump in my 90 gallon's sump and it's way WAY quieter than the Simplicity 2100 pump that's in there, but it's also $100 more expensive than the Simplicty pump. I kind of have Pump envy now, or will when I get her 75 Fowler swapped over to a sump with the Varios 4.

Not a hiccup since the Varios 2 was finally delivered and I get it dialed in. The HoB overflows don't have near the capacity of a full height tank overflow so they're more tempermental to any subtle changes in flow. But this seems to be completely ok now.

southerntnreefer · Apr 29, 2020

snowhite said:
Not a hiccup since the Varios 2 was finally delivered and I get it dialed in. The HoB overflows don't have near the capacity of a full height tank overflow so they're more tempermental to any subtle changes in flow. But this seems to be completely ok now.

Great news! Love those varios pumps!

My latest, and likely next to last BRS order for this build out, is due to arrive tomorrow, cant wait!

snowhite · Apr 29, 2020

HoB overflow for wifes 75g arrived today, but probably wont start fiddling with the plumbing on it until this weekend.

southerntnreefer · Apr 29, 2020

snowhite said:
HoB overflow for wifes 75g arrived today, but probably wont start fiddling with the plumbing on it until this weekend.

Which one did you go with?

snowhite · Apr 30, 2020

eshopp PF1200 - I definitely recommend the double pipe option so you can configure it for a herbie style overflow rather than the two tall tubes like they ship it setup for.
The 55g that I was having the Varios2/4 struggle with has a PF-1000 in it and that's still a bit much for the Varios2. I ended up pinching off the downtube itself some by heating it and rounding it in at the top even though it has a gate valve on it. The small eshoppe nano cube has about 1" or so of "happy space" with water level. No matter how I change things up it just always ends up about the same level in the sump. Without going a custom build sump this was about the only sump that would go into our cabinet. We're making due and it's fine now.

I do either no tube at all on one side or a short 1" or so. The foam over the short tube does seem to quiet things down if something ever gets out of whack, but when adjusted right via a gate/ball valve it's not really needed.

DiaTom · Apr 30, 2020

snowhite said:
Still chasing the right return pump for the eshopp nano cube sump we have in the cabinet of our corner 54 gallon tank. The stand is an odd size and the sump only has a 5"x3.5" return space. Tried Sicce Syncra (to loud for livingroom area), then tried an assortment of small Jebao and other off-brand DC pumps that were perfect size-wise, but all varied wattage back and forth enough that it would throw off the Herbie HoB overflow or start pumping to much and start sucking air from the return area. WHich would usually happen at about 3am in the morning.
Finally said to hell with it and bought a Reef Octopus Varios-2 DC that will fit without the guard on it, so plan is to heat it up with heatgun and "shrink" the guard, or cut it and shorten it physically once I'm sure the pumps working fine. The Varios-2 arrives today, so I'll be fussing with it tonight and over weekend.
Other than that I've just been getting more serious about fixing some GHA problems and watching the numbers of my different tanks. We had started out 8 month ago switching Freshwater tanks over to saltwater so had been using canister filters in 3 tanks, but have been slowly migrating to typical sump setups.

I have the same sump and am using a Sicce Syncra 1.5.

southerntnreefer · Apr 30, 2020

snowhite said:
eshopp PF1200 - I definitely recommend the double pipe option so you can configure it for a herbie style overflow rather than the two tall tubes like they ship it setup for.
The 55g that I was having the Varios2/4 struggle with has a PF-1000 in it and that's still a bit much for the Varios2. I ended up pinching off the downtube itself some by heating it and rounding it in at the top even though it has a gate valve on it. The small eshoppe nano cube has about 1" or so of "happy space" with water level. No matter how I change things up it just always ends up about the same level in the sump. Without going a custom build sump this was about the only sump that would go into our cabinet. We're making due and it's fine now.

I do either no tube at all on one side or a short 1" or so. The foam over the short tube does seem to quiet things down if something ever gets out of whack, but when adjusted right via a gate/ball valve it's not really needed.

Shoul dof said something! i have one of those downstairs from my 90. I love that setup . it shall work pretty well for you im sure

snowhite · Apr 30, 2020

DiaTom said:
I have the same sump and am using a Sicce Syncra 1.5.

I had a Sicce Syncra 2 in it, but it was noisier than what I want in our livingroom between my wife and I's chairs. So set out in search of a tiny DC pump that did not have any flow variance. Ended up with Varios-2 which as been great thusfar.