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Kinetic ELOS 120XL

richiev said:
Eww, that's ugly. You should definitely send me the contact information of that person and the price they offered you so that I can.... ummm ... tell them not to sell it to anyone .... and definitely not give them my credit card and address and have them ship it to me and ....

Are you going to get just the tank or the stand and everything?
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It is pretty ugly! All that styrofoam and ugly particle board.

ELOS bottoms, actually, look so funky with the weird black dots and such haha. Also, it's too late, I've already gave them all my money ;)

I'm getting the Absolute stand in peninsula style. So it's steel with magnetic pvc cabinetry (in white). I will probably leave the short end off (the one against the wall) for some circulation in the stand. We'll see!
 
ELOS 120XL Tank is ordered! They'll be holding it for me for a couple of weeks so I can finish my garage floors (changing it out to epoxy), then I'll store it in the garage. I'll probably just setup the stand temporarily there so I can start planning all the equipment over time.

Also purchased already:
  • Maxspect XF360 gyres (x2) with nemguards -- 20% off sale on BRS, jumped on it! I'll try them out in a tank of just tap water to see how loud they are and how they do. If they're good, I'll stick with it, otherwise I'll probably try Vortech MP40qMD's.
  • Ultra Reef Akula UKS-160 skimmer. I've only heard good things, not a single bad. I'll compare it with my silent NYOS 120 on my current Reefer 170. I keep having to open up my NYOS to readjust the bubble plate (because it'll fall off) or it just overflows sometimes. It's been great otherwise, but I'm excited about the Ultra Reef. I'll first turn it in RO water to test it out (BRS has a good return policy as long as it doesn't touch salt). I got a nice decibel meter so I'll see how loud it is compared to the NYOS while running in the bucket of RO. If it's as silent as people claim, I'll actually run it on the 170 and see.
  • Avast Skimmate Locker (Large) -- this was also on sale on BRS.
  • Avast Swabbie -- going to try this out on the skimmer
 
Got the Ultra Reef Akula UKS-160 today. It's built like a tank. What an incredible piece of equipment. Unfortunately that Sicce pump is crazy loud. It's an explosion of noise and I can hear it in the other room. I'm pretty surprised, as people have said this skimmer is even quieter than a NYOS, yet my NYOS is pretty much completely silent.

I got my decibel meter out to test:

Ambient: 38.1 dB
NYOS 120 on: 45.5 dB (avg) 50.3 dB (max)
Ultra Reef on: 63.7 dB (avg), 66.8 dB (max)

I plugged the airline on both to see if it changed anything, and it didn't change much at all (though took my closer to the average reading. I think the large bubbles were messing it up).

I did this in a bucket of RODI water at 22cm of water level. The NYOS has, however, been running in my tank for years, but I did just dunk it in citric acid for 2 days and cleaned it thoroughly, so it shouldn't have any slime buildup to keep it quiet.

I took the whole skimmer apart, took out the impeller to inspect, and I didn't notice anything glaring. Reassembled it a couple of times, but still crazy loud.

I contacted BRS to see if they have any ideas. Maybe they'll let me return it and send a new one out. Or maybe they'll send me a new pump to see if that's the problem.
 
kinetic said:
Got the Ultra Reef Akula UKS-160 today. It's built like a tank. What an incredible piece of equipment. Unfortunately that Sicce pump is crazy loud. It's an explosion of noise and I can hear it in the other room. I'm pretty surprised, as people have said this skimmer is even quieter than a NYOS, yet my NYOS is pretty much completely silent.

I got my decibel meter out to test:

Ambient: 38.1 dB
NYOS 120 on: 45.5 dB (avg) 50.3 dB (max)
Ultra Reef on: 63.7 dB (avg), 66.8 dB (max)

I plugged the airline on both to see if it changed anything, and it didn't change much at all (though took my closer to the average reading. I think the large bubbles were messing it up).

I did this in a bucket of RODI water at 22cm of water level. The NYOS has, however, been running in my tank for years, but I did just dunk it in citric acid for 2 days and cleaned it thoroughly, so it shouldn't have any slime buildup to keep it quiet.

I took the whole skimmer apart, took out the impeller to inspect, and I didn't notice anything glaring. Reassembled it a couple of times, but still crazy loud.

I contacted BRS to see if they have any ideas. Maybe they'll let me return it and send a new one out. Or maybe they'll send me a new pump to see if that's the problem.
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Ok after 24 hours of running the ultra reef in a bucket of RODI, it's much quieter now, by about 10dB (57.3 dB max). But still not as quiet as the NYOS. I'll give it another couple of days... I really want it to be *the* skimmer for me. It's so nice other than the sound.

I may also take it apart and just run the pump on its own. If that's not loud, then there must be some part of the skimmer that's rattling. And maybe there's an easy remedy there. If it's just the pump, maybe I can ask for a replacement.
 
Well, it's Sunday night, and the Skimmer is still loud. I've heard from so many different people that it's quieter than NYOS and that it's "dead silent," yet the humming is so loud. I'm out this week, but I'll probably disassemble it and just run the pump by itself and if that's dead silent, I'll start putting one piece on at a time until I figure out if it's coming from some rattling part. IF it's just the sicce pump, then I'll probably have BRS send me a replacement and try that.

If it's not the pump, I'll try for the Reef Octopus Elite 150SSS. It's probably going to be oversized, especially with a fleece roller, but that still might be better than a loud skimmer. I would be sad though, because the Ultra Reef looks and feels incredible.

One other option is I could just modify my NYOS 120 to have a drain and send in the lid to Avast to get a swabbie installed. It's just not as reliable as I'd love, but it is quiet.
 
kinetic said:
Well, it's Sunday night, and the Skimmer is still loud. I've heard from so many different people that it's quieter than NYOS and that it's "dead silent," yet the humming is so loud. I'm out this week, but I'll probably disassemble it and just run the pump by itself and if that's dead silent, I'll start putting one piece on at a time until I figure out if it's coming from some rattling part. IF it's just the sicce pump, then I'll probably have BRS send me a replacement and try that.

If it's not the pump, I'll try for the Reef Octopus Elite 150SSS. It's probably going to be oversized, especially with a fleece roller, but that still might be better than a loud skimmer. I would be sad though, because the Ultra Reef looks and feels incredible.

One other option is I could just modify my NYOS 120 to have a drain and send in the lid to Avast to get a swabbie installed. It's just not as reliable as I'd love, but it is quiet.
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You can buy mine!
 

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Coral reefer said:
Silicon pad underneath to limit vibration transfer?
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I can definitely try that. It already has rubber feet, and if I suspend the skimmer with my hands so it's just touching my hands and water, it still makes the same noise.

I talked with Aquarium Specialty and they're going to send me a new pump/impeller to try. They said that specific Sicce pump is known to be really loud when paired with U.S. 110v sometimes, so hopefully the new pump will solve most of the issues.

I'll run just the pump by itself and see if it's loud, if not, I'll start putting one piece on at a time until I find the culprit(s) and try to find some noise deadening solution. I think some silicon pieces here and there should work. Like maybe the bubble plate/box thing is touching something or another etc.

I really really want this to be my skimmer, it's built so well and people have such high praise. I just hope I can solve the noise issue.
 
On another note, just received two Maxspect XF350's and Nemguards. These things are huge compared to my old XF130, and the nemguards makes it look like it's on steriods.

I'll take some photos next week. I'm going to run it in some RODI water again and see how it sounds/works. The Nemguards look like it might add some extra water restriction, but shouldn't be bad. I think the'll be better than the mesh covers (I had those on my XF130, and they were constantly clogged).
 
kinetic said:
Dang that looks to be in top condition. How did you like it? Is it quiet (and if so, do you have any skimmer to compare to?)
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Quiet is subjective and depends on what other equipment you own. :) That said, I always thought it was pretty quiet. Barely can hear it besides the hum of bubbles. It worked great, but my bioload never really gets that heavy so I pretty much have been running skimmerless on all my tanks nowadays and can take care of nutrients with a fuge loaded with chaeto.
 
H2OPlayar said:
Your corals and fish would love you, and your tank will look amazing. Not even kidding.
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I was half kidding, but actually this might be a good idea. I have an Avast Plank feeder, so I can just load it up and have it feed a massive amount throughout the day. I wonder how something like 12 anthias would do in a 126g tank, given the filtration will probably be able to hold up.
 
RandyC said:
Quiet is subjective and depends on what other equipment you own. :) That said, I always thought it was pretty quiet. Barely can hear it besides the hum of bubbles. It worked great, but my bioload never really gets that heavy so I pretty much have been running skimmerless on all my tanks nowadays and can take care of nutrients with a fuge loaded with chaeto.
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I know so true. I use a decibel meter sometimes to measure, but I've also learned that certain sounds are subjectively more "loud" to different people.

If you still have it in a couple of weeks, I may just buy it from you. I'll troubleshoot my Ultra Reef for a bit longer and see.
 
OK here are my latest cabinet/sump designs.

If anyone has suggestions, please let me know!

Big questions:
  1. I'm not sure if there will be a stagnant area where the Accessory pump is, or if I need a baffle to force water to flow to the "right" area. Any thoughts?
  2. Probes in the return chamber work?
  3. Heater placement OK?
  4. Dosing lines will go into the return. I'm hoping Ca/Alk won't dose at the same time, so it should be OK right there. Otherwise should I split the dosing areas? Or I could also throw a powerhead in there somewhere to keep things flowing as well as keeping junk from collecting (like algae from the algae scrubber).
  5. I'm going to keep the avast plank feeder in there. Feeding freeze dried foods will create some neutral buoyancy so most foods will stay suspended, but I intend to throw a powerhead in that chamber to make sure nothing collects as much as possible. Think a AI Nero 3 would suffice? (I have an extra one).

ELOS 120XL Stand.jpg


ELOS 120XL Stand - Directions.jpg


ELOS 120XL Stand - Measurements.jpg
 
RE dosing: I thought it was ideal to have the dosing go in by the drain, so that it maximizes the mixing time before it gets sprayed into the tank. I also assume a trident is going to intentionally stagger dosing times, ala what people would do when manually dosing, to avoid any chance at precipitating.

RE stagnant: is a stagnant area a major concern in a sump? Especially given you're running filter floss with a roller, you should have minimal detritus getting in there. Double especially given all the various pumps you look to have in there, and what the turnover rate would likely be given the tank size. I'd think it'd be similar levels of stagnation as if you just bumped the return pump controller down a slight notch.
 
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