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My New 50G! Long Cadlight's Artisan!


tokendog

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Awesome thread I am looking at Cadlights new Artisan 2 series, waiting on the 50 long to become available.

 

Thank you. :) Yeah, I am waiting to check them out too. I want to see what changes were made. I wish Cadlights would get its customer service more consistent so that they would become more popular. I love my tank, and I had a very good experience, but it's hit or miss from what I've seen on other threads. I guess it is knowing what to expect going in to it.

 

Awesome wrasse tokendog, I may have to get one.

FYI AI sent me another housing, check my thread!

 

Twan, I'm so sorry I forgot to send you those invoices for them. I just remembered when I read your comment. I will do my best to e-mail them to you tonight. I'm happy to hear that they are taking care of it for you. I respect your attention to detail. :)

 

As for the Wrasse, he's great. He eats the little bugs that you don't want hanging out in your tank. :) Downside is you have to keep him fed or he will go after your snails like a wolf. I've seen him tossing snails around the tank when I've neglected my scheduled feedings. :) Worth it? Absolutely. Just make sure you keep them fed if you do decide to get one.

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I am currently looking for a new skimmer. The Cadlights skimmer pump has started to become louder and louder and is extremely difficult for me to get a consistent skim from. I have a Tunze ATO and the water remains the same, and no matter how much I adjust the skimmer, I can not get a good dark skimmate.

 

I am currently considering the SRO-1000INT and the Warner Marine MF-161. As soon as I finish my research on which would fit my setup best, I'll order it and provide pictures plus my thoughts on the new skimmer.

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I am currently looking for a new skimmer. The Cadlights skimmer pump has started to become louder and louder and is extremely difficult for me to get a consistent skim from. I have a Tunze ATO and the water remains the same, and no matter how much I adjust the skimmer, I can not get a good dark skimmate.

 

I am currently considering the SRO-1000INT and the Warner Marine MF-161. As soon as I finish my research on which would fit my setup best, I'll order it and provide pictures plus my thoughts on the new skimmer.

 

 

It's good that you mentioned the skimmer problem, as I've emailed Eddie a few times about purchasing the Tia-1150. My bubble magus is producing a lot of turbulence in the bubble chamber and I believe it's affecting the quality of skimmate. I've been looking at the reef octopus 1000sss for the replacement, which means I will need a new sump design and possibly remove the shelve, as the 1000sss is 20" high and needs a water level of 5-6".

 

I will advise you to remove the skimmer and check the pump, if you haven't done so yet. The last time my skimmer was annoying loud was when the spacers for the impeller broke.

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I've added another lens to my collection. It's far better at AFing on moving objects such as fish, which the macro lens is weak at.

 

I'm also playing around with Lightroom 3 a little bit. I try to keep the pictures as close to the original as possible and use the tank as a comparison to make sure I do not edit them excessively. I mainly adjust exposure and white balance.

 

My Umbrella Leather has decided to finally start to get along with the parameters in my tank and the new Ecotech light:

 

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Sorry about glare on this one:

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Group photo! I can't imagine how many more pieces of my tank that Urchin will be able to put on himself... He has a piece of coralline rock on him and a small polpy from one of my cloves. The clove actually opens and closes while it rides around on the Urchin.

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My Maxi Mini garden...

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Eating as always...

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It's good that you mentioned the skimmer problem, as I've emailed Eddie a few times about purchasing the Tia-1150. My bubble magus is producing a lot of turbulence in the bubble chamber and I believe it's affecting the quality of skimmate. I've been looking at the reef octopus 1000sss for the replacement, which means I will need a new sump design and possibly remove the shelve, as the 1000sss is 20" high and needs a water level of 5-6".

 

I will advise you to remove the skimmer and check the pump, if you haven't done so yet. The last time my skimmer was annoying loud was when the spacers for the impeller broke.

 

Sorry, I somehow missed this post last time I checked the thread. On the TIA skimmers, they are very nice. They are built well and do work - and it was extremely quiet when I first got it. It was pretty hard for me to dial in, even after I got the ATO. I have had it work GREAT for about one week where it was pulling very dark skimmate and a lot of gunk out of the water. The rest of the time it has been pulling light colored tea.

 

That's my main issue with it...it's not consistent at all. At least not for me and I've adjusted it multiple times with a resting period between adjustments to see the result...and no luck. Now it is being loud but that may be my fault. I will take it out, give it a thorough cleaning, and report back on the difference.

 

Thanks for the input on the spacers.

 

 

Beautiful pictures! I sorta regret not buying a full blown DSLR system now.

 

Thank you! They can be expensive, especially when you get in to the lenses, which really helps to improve the quality of the pictures. Though most of it is learning the various settings and lighting conditions required to get that "perfect" photo. I will honestly go through a few dozen pictures to find one that looks the best. I prefer not to have to heavily post process them so I am pretty picky on the original photo. For example, out of the 12 that I posted yesterday, I took around 200 photos. 12 made it, the rest did not.

 

That's the beauty of SLRs though. You can snap thousands of photos and not have to pay for all of that film and processing. :) If you think of it like that, then DSLRs are extremely inexpensive in comparison to the old film systems.

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It's good that you mentioned the skimmer problem, as I've emailed Eddie a few times about purchasing the Tia-1150. My bubble magus is producing a lot of turbulence in the bubble chamber and I believe it's affecting the quality of skimmate. I've been looking at the reef octopus 1000sss for the replacement, which means I will need a new sump design and possibly remove the shelve, as the 1000sss is 20" high and needs a water level of 5-6".

 

I will advise you to remove the skimmer and check the pump, if you haven't done so yet. The last time my skimmer was annoying loud was when the spacers for the impeller broke.

 

Ahh crap and here I have my TIA-1150 sitting for the last month and will probably be another month before I can boot it up.

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Thank you! They can be expensive, especially when you get in to the lenses, which really helps to improve the quality of the pictures. Though most of it is learning the various settings and lighting conditions required to get that "perfect" photo. I will honestly go through a few dozen pictures to find one that looks the best. I prefer not to have to heavily post process them so I am pretty picky on the original photo. For example, out of the 12 that I posted yesterday, I took around 200 photos. 12 made it, the rest did not.

 

That's the beauty of SLRs though. You can snap thousands of photos and not have to pay for all of that film and processing. :) If you think of it like that, then DSLRs are extremely inexpensive in comparison to the old film systems.

 

Well I have little hands, and don't like carrying bulky things so I bought a Olympus Micro 4/3 system. The pictures don't seem quite as sharp or colorful as the pics from a Canon or Nikon with a macro lens though.

 

Do you shoot in RAW? Does that help?

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Ahh crap and here I have my TIA-1150 sitting for the last month and will probably be another month before I can boot it up.

 

From the reviews and feedback that I have read, they seem to be working great. It does not seem to be a known problem and it could just be mine. Plus, mine probably needs a thorough cleaning before I can accurately say that it is defective.

 

I wouldn't worry too much at this point.

 

Well I have little hands, and don't like carrying bulky things so I bought a Olympus Micro 4/3 system. The pictures don't seem quite as sharp or colorful as the pics from a Canon or Nikon with a macro lens though.

 

Do you shoot in RAW? Does that help?

 

This is from a Sony A55 with a 100mm Sony prime lens and a 50mm Sony prime lens. The pictures can get a lot better, but that will come with my experience increasing. As I learn the various settings for the multitude of situations such as lighting, distance, and speed of the subject. There are so many adjustments that can be made that I can now understand why it takes years upon years to become a great photographer.

 

I do shoot in RAW and yes, it helps a lot. It allows me to easily make adjustments to the photos that are over / under exposed. I usually only have to adjust for exposure and otherwise I leave the photo alone. I am not a huge fan of tweaking the photo to something that it is not in real life. I am fortunate that I have the tank sitting next to me in my computer room so as I make adjustments, I can glance over and see the actual subject of the photo, and make sure that I do not deviate too far from how it actually looks.

 

After editing the photo in Lightroom, I export it to jpg using max quality and size it to 750x500 for filesize / uploading to the forums.

 

Aside from that, I leave the photos alone. If I see that I need to make a lot of adjustments, I simply will not use that photo at all.

 

Awesome pictures! so sharp. :)

 

Thank you very much! Happy you like the photos. :) Now I just need to add more corals so I can change it up a bit.

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Sorry, I somehow missed this post last time I checked the thread. On the TIA skimmers, they are very nice. They are built well and do work - and it was extremely quiet when I first got it. It was pretty hard for me to dial in, even after I got the ATO. I have had it work GREAT for about one week where it was pulling very dark skim-mate and a lot of gunk out of the water. The rest of the time it has been pulling light colored tea.

 

That's my main issue with it...it's not consistent at all. At least not for me and I've adjusted it multiple times with a resting period between adjustments to see the result...and no luck. Now it is being loud but that may be my fault. I will take it out, give it a thorough cleaning, and report back on the difference.

 

Tokendog, sorry if its been said and I missed it, I wanted to ask you about your sump(s). Looking at your Original cad lights sump, it looks like the baffle that holds water in the sump/intake compartment was the old 5.5" height like the old 18g sump was on the 50g cube artisan. I cant really see where the skimmer compartment is on the custom skimmer, but, anyways, I ask because I modified mine to hold water at 9.5" in the skimmer compartment (something that the newest cadlights realized they needed to do, and the last two sumps (q4 2011, and most current design) have done. Most all cone skimmers want 8-10" for optimal consistency. Again, I only ask because running my original NAC skimmer, I got good dark skimate like you, then tea, then darker, then more tea, and then even more wet skim-mate. I got aggravated enough that I searched it out and found another user (who is active in your thread here) did the modification and since then, at 8.5" (I played with spacers under the unit) I had the consistency return. Might be a dollar short, and a day late, but what is your situation? How high does water hold in your skimmer chamber?

 

 

Same question for you Asureef?

 

Just trying to find the common factor, I JUST went to a tia-1150, my comments above were based on my nac-3 and then a SC Aquariums sc-65 after cracking my BM. I ran the sc-65 at 8.5" - 9" with good results as well, and now that I got my tia-1150. I have it sitting on the same plastic spacer with the water level at 8.5 and before completely breaking in, that depth looks good. Anyways, love to hear where you all are at?

 

Thanks, returning the thread to you. ;)

 

-John

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Tokendog, sorry if its been said and I missed it, I wanted to ask you about your sump(s). Looking at your Original cad lights sump, it looks like the baffle that holds water in the sump/intake compartment was the old 5.5" height like the old 18g sump was on the 50g cube artisan. I cant really see where the skimmer compartment is on the custom skimmer, but, anyways, I ask because I modified mine to hold water at 9.5" in the skimmer compartment (something that the newest cadlights realized they needed to do, and the last two sumps (q4 2011, and most current design) have done. Most all cone skimmers want 8-10" for optimal consistency. Again, I only ask because running my original NAC skimmer, I got good dark skimate like you, then tea, then darker, then more tea, and then even more wet skim-mate. I got aggravated enough that I searched it out and found another user (who is active in your thread here) did the modification and since then, at 8.5" (I played with spacers under the unit) I had the consistency return. Might be a dollar short, and a day late, but what is your situation? How high does water hold in your skimmer chamber?

 

 

Same question for you Asureef?

 

Just trying to find the common factor, I JUST went to a tia-1150, my comments above were based on my nac-3 and then a SC Aquariums sc-65 after cracking my BM. I ran the sc-65 at 8.5" - 9" with good results as well, and now that I got my tia-1150. I have it sitting on the same plastic spacer with the water level at 8.5 and before completely breaking in, that depth looks good. Anyways, love to hear where you all are at?

 

Thanks, returning the thread to you. ;)

 

-John

 

Thanks for the input. The skimmer section on my current sump holds roughly 8 inches of water. I have the Cadlights skimmer at around 7 inches. I believe that I read that somewhere as the ideal height for the TIA skimmer. It has given me dark skimmate at this height, but it was with very subtle adjustments on the dial, but if you ever change that adjustment, it's really difficult to find that sweet spot again.

 

I've only got really dark gunky skimmate once and ever seen it's been back and forth between wet skimmate and tea.

 

I am going to clean out the skimmer and try starting over with it. I liked it a lot when it worked, so we will see how it performs after the cleaning.

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Thanks for the input. The skimmer section on my current sump holds roughly 8 inches of water. I have the Cadlights skimmer at around 7 inches. I believe that I read that somewhere as the ideal height for the TIA skimmer. It has given me dark skimmate at this height, but it was with very subtle adjustments on the dial, but if you ever change that adjustment, it's really difficult to find that sweet spot again.

 

I've only got really dark gunky skimmate once and ever seen it's been back and forth between wet skimmate and tea.

 

I am going to clean out the skimmer and try starting over with it. I liked it a lot when it worked, so we will see how it performs after the cleaning.

 

 

I guess we can compare after you are done, I'm running at 8.5 and will keep responding, as you do of course.

 

:)

thanks

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  • 1 month later...

AWESOME tank!

 

I have bought an aquatic life hanger kit for my AI SOL as well and just wondering what type of cable or hanger you used to mount the light to the hanger? Did you attach it directly to the 2 screws on the AI SOL?

 

Thanks

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Still using your lights with your settings, about to add my 1st corals.

Can you tell me why you choose your AI settings the way you did?

I need a rationale to keep those settings or change it based on my needs.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Can you tell me what you didn't like about the cadlights sump? Thinking of getting the new artisan II 50G long. Although I think the new 50g Long comes with a slightly different sump, 18 gallons.

 

Also, how is your mandarin doing? I would really love to own a pair of mandarins and was thinking I would order pods from reefcleaners every now and then to make sure there are enough pods. Are you adding pods at all?

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Can you tell me what you didn't like about the cadlights sump? Thinking of getting the new artisan II 50G long. Although I think the new 50g Long comes with a slightly different sump, 18 gallons.

 

Also, how is your mandarin doing? I would really love to own a pair of mandarins and was thinking I would order pods from reefcleaners every now and then to make sure there are enough pods. Are you adding pods at all?

 

 

I believe they have redesigned all the sumps in their arsenal. After designing the TIA- skimmers and the new Bio-pellet reactors, the sumps have been modded to give them the best layout for using those add-ons. At least every sump at the Orange County Marine Aquarium Expo displayed by them was this way, everyone of them had a new conic bio-reactor in it.

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Still using your lights with your settings, about to add my 1st corals.

Can you tell me why you choose your AI settings the way you did?

I need a rationale to keep those settings or change it based on my needs.

 

Help, here is what you had them set to.

 

1) Type of unit - AI Sol Blue

2) Tank dimensions: 50g 36x18x18

3) Number of units: 2

4) Optics in unit: standard

5) Height of units above water: 13"

6) Detailed settings

 

Time: 08:20 am | W:00% BL:49% RY:36% | Ramp Duration: 59 mins | Lunary Cycle: Off

Time: 09:30 am | W:31% BL:100% RY:0% | Ramp Duration: 30 mins | Lunary Cycle: Off

Time: 10:00 am | W:20% BL:73% RY:60% | Ramp Duration: 30 mins | Lunary Cycle: Off

Time: 10:30 am | W:50% BL:70% RY:60% | Ramp Duration: 30 mins | Lunary Cycle: Off

Time: 1:00 pm | W:55% BL:55% RY:60% | Ramp Duration: 60 mins | Lunary Cycle: Off

Time: 4:30 pm | W:30% BL:25% RY:50% | Ramp Duration: 120 mins | Lunary Cycle: Off

Time: 7:00 pm | W:15% BL:5% RY:25% | Ramp Duration: 30 mins | Lunary Cycle: Off

Time: 8:00 pm | W:02% BL:02% RY:02% | Ramp Duration: 30 mins | Lunary Cycle: Off

Time: 8:30 pm | W:00% BL:02% RY:01% | Ramp Duration: 60 mins | Lunary Cycle: Off

Time: 12:00 am | W:00% BL:02% RY:01% | Ramp Duration: 60 mins | Lunary Cycle: On

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great looking tank!

 

I was also wondering the same on the Radion. Also how does the MP10 work on this glass? I think that glass is thicker than what it is rated for, I did ask EcoTech and I think they said it should still work if the magents can grab it enough plus the clip should help.

 

I was thinking of building my own/ordering the following from cadlights:

 

50g long Artisan II Tank only

50g White Stand

Lamptree Pair

 

The adding some of my own choice equipment from other brands:

 

36'' ATI dimmable sunpower

MP10

Eshopps R-100

Reef Octopus 6'' pinwheel skimmer

sicce 2.0 return

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