cindyp Posted August 8, 2014 Share Posted August 8, 2014 EDITED to include FTS:DAY 1: August 28, 2014DAY 10: September 11, 20144 WEEKS: September 26, 14:8 WEEKS: October 23, 201413 WEEKS: November 29, 201418 WEEKS FTS: 24 WEEKS: 25 WEEKS [2/15/15]: (unplanned rescaping due to large rock purchase with duster worm zoas included on it) 28 weeks [3/4/15] 36 weeks [5/7/15] 10 months FTS [7/18/15] hello! noobie and accidental hobbyist here.after emergency starting my 3g nano tank (whichis six months old) i've decided it's time to upgrade!after help from forum members (thanks, all! espcollegekid!) and research, i decided to go with the cadlights 8g. but i wasn't getting their skimmer.the tank arrived and the back plexi panel was scratchedwith hairline cracks originating from where the pumpheadwould go through.jason at cadlights was *super* helpful and sent areplacement immediately. knowing that their olderversion of the 8g had more tank space with smallerfilter area in the back, i asked if that was available. it was! so in the end, i've got an extra inch of depthfor actual tank space. WIN!dimensions for glass tank are: 8.5dx11.5hx11.5wdimensions for filter area in back: 3.25dx11.5hx11.5wi didn't clean the glass yet, but the tank is nicely built.the glass is beautiful. the pump screws in on the leftmidline of tank. there are three chambers in the back,one has a sponge filter that was included.TOP VIEW:SIDE VIEW:FULL FRONTAL =) :i'll be cycling cured live rock at the end ofaugust and updating then. SUPER EXCITED. =) Link to comment
Revenant Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Building a new scape or transferring everything? Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 what kind of light are you planning? Link to comment
cindyp Posted August 10, 2014 Author Share Posted August 10, 2014 Building a new scape or transferring everything? i hope to transfer everything. but i need more live rock, due to bigger tank space. my largest live rock also has a red hair algae issue that i don't know if i want to deal with. what kind of light are you planning? after research, it seems that the included light will be sufficient for what i want to do for the tank. from the cadlight website, here is light info: "Modern Slim Profile LED lighting system 6.2W. Quad panels design with light output of 180PAR." i'll upgrade if necessary. but i plan on sticking with easy soft corals, since i'm such a noob. =) also been thinking about bare bottome tank versus sand. haven't researched it yet though? Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 how many rows of blues does the light have? i ordered their "new" 4g recently and corals look horrible under the stock light. i mean HOOORRRIBLE. corals that looked awesome and colorful under my NanoBox looks colorless under theirs. turned out their "new" light comes with more whites than blues so they can claim a higher PAR, but the color is crappy. Link to comment
cindyp Posted August 10, 2014 Author Share Posted August 10, 2014 how many rows of blues does the light have? i ordered their "new" 4g recently and corals look horrible under the stock light. i mean HOOORRRIBLE. corals that looked awesome and colorful under my NanoBox looks colorless under theirs. turned out their "new" light comes with more whites than blues so they can claim a higher PAR, but the color is crappy. i just plugged it in to check. 6 rows of blue and 3 rows of white. is that terrible? if it looks awful, i'll have to look into investing in another light. is that what you did? if so, what did you get? i hadn't seen any mention of ugly lighting for cadlights threads--but i think they got their tanks a year or longer ago? leaning towards maybe crushed coral now? not sure. i used black sand with my nano tank. happy with look, but have been dealing with some algae issues. nothing terrible. but annoying. Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 i think u got the old light so that's better. mine was 6 rows of whites and 3 rows of blues. Link to comment
cindyp Posted August 10, 2014 Author Share Posted August 10, 2014 i think u got the old light so that's better. mine was 6 rows of whites and 3 rows of blues. well that sucks. did you keep it? or upgraded? i'm leaning toward bare bottom now. the tank is going on my kitchen counter which has a sand colored pebbled tile. haha! hmm. Link to comment
cindyp Posted August 29, 2014 Author Share Posted August 29, 2014 i was gone for two weeks and because i had a 3 gallon pico, decided to leave it (against my better instinct) with my LFS. i picked it up yesterday and half my coral have died and what is left alive is not doing well. =( so yes, i'm wanting to transfer to a bigger 8g, but most of my stock is dead. very sad. i picked out some live rock and just stuck them in the tank, will arrange later. they didn't have a great selection and i actually don't want the tank to feel overcrowded. i'm thinking of stocking with more mushrooms and green star polyps (like new corals) along with my sickly ones and hope they recover. no media right now in the back except the giant sponge they've provided. i read that the pump they had blasted sand around, so i went ahead and bought a hydor pump head for it. it seems to work great, but it does stick out half way into the tank. DAY 1 Link to comment
hey Posted August 29, 2014 Share Posted August 29, 2014 Great start, is the back of the tank (inside the display not the back back) glass or an acrylic thing? I don't mind black backgrounds at all if I can scrape coralline off of them. Link to comment
cindyp Posted August 29, 2014 Author Share Posted August 29, 2014 Great start, is the back of the tank (inside the display not the back back) glass or an acrylic thing? I don't mind black backgrounds at all if I can scrape coralline off of them. it's an acrylic partition between the back of the tank and the three chambered filter. i've never made it so far as to get coralline in the back--here's to hoping. and thanks! i'm still very much a noob. Link to comment
Dryland Posted August 29, 2014 Share Posted August 29, 2014 I'm interested to watch your tank develop. Have you considered adding some Ricordea Florida? Following. Link to comment
cindyp Posted August 29, 2014 Author Share Posted August 29, 2014 I'm interested to watch your tank develop. Have you considered adding some Ricordea Florida? Following. thank you! i have not. i've not researched extensively. as of now, i'm trying to include the easiest coral i can. ha! but i will look into Ricordea Florida. my goals are definitely a couple of fish (need to research) and also a rock flower anemone. Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted August 29, 2014 Share Posted August 29, 2014 ricordea are very easy and colorful =). Link to comment
cindyp Posted August 30, 2014 Author Share Posted August 30, 2014 ricordea are very easy and colorful =). then i'm totally in!! eta: i just looked them up and they are gorgeous! wow! today's my birthday! i celebrated by buying some more live rock. i'm not sure if i'm sold on the configuration, but it's not bad? i got a nice long piece for the base, which i like. DAY 2 Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 go check out all the past TOTM for inspirations. what you have looks pretty good. Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 This'll be a fun little tank. Very easy to overdo the live rock, especially when the pieces are larger. It's also a good idea to allow water to flow all the way around the outside of the central structure when one has a cube, so try to limit obstructions where possible. Ricordias are great, either Floridas or Yumas (aquacultured Yumas, preferably). Link to comment
CollegeNanoKid Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Tank is looking really good! I can't believe it took me this long to find your thread! I will be following along for sure! I like the black sand a lot. The stock light has been great for me. You can see the growth of my Hammer and Duncan. I haven't tried any SPS. If you have any questions about the stock light just let me know. Best of luck! Happy reefing! Link to comment
cindyp Posted September 1, 2014 Author Share Posted September 1, 2014 Tank is looking really good! I can't believe it took me this long to find your thread! I will be following along for sure! I like the black sand a lot. The stock light has been great for me. You can see the growth of my Hammer and Duncan. I haven't tried any SPS. If you have any questions about the stock light just let me know. Best of luck! Happy reefing! thank you so much! i'm super excited! think i might have too many rocks, but will play with it. the only one moving over will be a samller sized one that my GSP have grown onto. do you just keep your chemipure in its pouch in the back? and yes, i saw how much your coral have grown! so cool. Link to comment
Dryland Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 You can keep it in the pouch in the back chamber -probably the first overflow would be ideal. I've never used chemipure myself but you may want to give it a rinse first (preferably with DI or distilled water) because activated carbon generally has a fair amount of soot in it. Link to comment
CollegeNanoKid Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 I do exactly what Dryland recommended. I rinse it with distilled water until it runs mostly clear. I then place the whole pouch in chamber one with filter floss on each side of it. (I cut that black sponge that comes with the tank in half and place it on the bottom of chamber one). I have a really small bioload (one fish) so I use "one half unit" 6.5 ounces and I change it out every 3 months. Hope this helps. Happy reefing! Link to comment
antsypants Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 Good luck with your build! Can't wait to see the coral Link to comment
rfman81 Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Great to see someone else with this tank. Only issue with putting chemi pure bag in the first chamber is it slows down the flow. I did this and it started over flowing the display. I stuck it in the 2nd chamber right after the baffle. I do have the newer version that isn't the removeable back so I am not sure how it will work on yours. Link to comment
cindyp Posted September 11, 2014 Author Share Posted September 11, 2014 hi everyone! after about 12 days of cycling, in which i had added new cured live rock, one live rock from my old tank, and some soft corals one week in, i finally moved my sexy shrimps over today, and everything else. my 3g picoreef was suffering from serious green and red hair algae + bubble algae and the parameters were good for this 8g. my old tank has the media ceramic rings, etc, which i didn't know could be a cause for not great saltwater conditions. here is a foto of my sexy shrimp with my new frog spawn. there's not good place for it, and it's stuck in the sand for now, but i think i'll put him on a frag soon. as much as i've womanhandled the frogspawn, it hasn't been too angry about anything. ha! and here's the other sexy on my bleached mushrooms. poor things. they became translucent after suffering 85+ temps at the LFS while they were being babysat. at least they are alive. my blue clove polys melted entirely. Link to comment
cindyp Posted September 11, 2014 Author Share Posted September 11, 2014 ordered from legendary corals for the first time this past weekend. i paid for the cheaper $20 2 day shipping option, and although the corals didn't have that far to travel, from nothern CA to southern CA, i was still worried. it's been super hot here in SD. darwin was very helpful at legendary coral. my "confusion" mushroom and super saiyan zoas arrived yesterday safe. the zoas have yet to fully open, and the mushroom is supposed to be nickel size when happiest. it's maybe a little bigger than my pinky nail right now, but she's open. funny thing is, on website, mushroom was deep blue and purple. in my tank, she is a deep pink rimmed in neon green. i hope she's happy and that she grows, and that the super saiyans open up! they were a total splurge. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.