Red Sea reefmat issue

[DocMcC]

Hi,

Wondering if others have this problem, Tank setup last summer (400 litre main with sump of about 150). got a Reefmat 500. worked fine for about 6 months but was churning through fleece - a roll was lasting less than 3 weeks - then it went totally crazy and I would have to continually reverse it as the fleece was unused.

Then it stopped altogether. Red Sea to give them their due after some analysis sent me a new unit and sensor. I decided that a new roll every 3 weeks was going to be very epensive so I got a 1200 and sold the 500.

All good for about 3-4 weeks, 1200 was using about 30cm a day (which I could live with) but then suddenly it started going crazy again - churning through the fleece even though there is no water near the sensor.

I have tried everything, but no luck, I power the unit up and it immediately starts moving the fleece (again, no water near the sensor). I have tried cleaning the sensor, slowing the flow, but all to no avail. My current option is to set up the scheduled advance to happen daily for 30cm but this really defeats the purpose of the auto advance unit.

Anyone else had this issue and did they solve it (will be contacting Red Sea again but find this all a real pain). is the design of the sensors faulty (why not use optical sensors like D-D?) or am I just unlucky?

Thoughts?

W.

 

[blaxsun]

I don't recall the thread offhand, but there have been a few other reports of ReefMats "gone wild" with respect to sudden increased fleece usage.

 

[DocMcC]

Have contacted red sea, but not too hopeful. anyway looking at a workaround using 2 float sensors, and a circuit board I found on amazon with a relay that will "automatically" push the manual button when water gets to a certain level. The titanium sensors I believe are flawed, do like the D-D optical sensors but expensive to implement as a work around!

 

[dpfriedman]

Hi,

Wondering if others have this problem, Tank setup last summer (400 litre main with sump of about 150). got a Reefmat 500. worked fine for about 6 months but was churning through fleece - a roll was lasting less than 3 weeks - then it went totally crazy and I would have to continually reverse it as the fleece was unused.

Then it stopped altogether. Red Sea to give them their due after some analysis sent me a new unit and sensor. I decided that a new roll every 3 weeks was going to be very epensive so I got a 1200 and sold the 500.

All good for about 3-4 weeks, 1200 was using about 30cm a day (which I could live with) but then suddenly it started going crazy again - churning through the fleece even though there is no water near the sensor.

I have tried everything, but no luck, I power the unit up and it immediately starts moving the fleece (again, no water near the sensor). I have tried cleaning the sensor, slowing the flow, but all to no avail. My current option is to set up the scheduled advance to happen daily for 30cm but this really defeats the purpose of the auto advance unit.

Anyone else had this issue and did they solve it (will be contacting Red Sea again but find this all a real pain). is the design of the sensors faulty (why not use optical sensors like D-D?) or am I just unlucky?

Thoughts?

W.

I have the 1200 up and running for a year now. I go through a roll of fleece about every 4-5 months. No issues whatsoever