Jump to content
Top Shelf Aquatics

Yet another CadLights Mini 4G


Livewreck

Recommended Posts

FTS at 6 weeks:

dec17_1copy.jpg

_______________

 

Greetings All,

 

I decided to re-join the hobby after having left it several years ago... only I didn't want the hassles of the 90 gallon and 37 gallon aquaria I once had. After lurking in this forum for a while, I ordered a Cad Lights 4 gal pico and started setting it up about 2 weeks ago. My first mod was to replace the stock 80 gal/hr Boyu pump with an 80 gal/hr Eheim 300 compact. I read that the Boyu pump has a history of early failures, so I elected to replace it from the start.

 

Both pumps have nearly the same physical dimensions, but the stock pump has a screw on device that fits the outlet tube and holds the pump in place. The Eheim is not similarly equipped. To hold it in place, I stuffed a small piece of stiff plastic foam between the back wall of the filter chamber and the back of the Eheim pump. Works like a charm.

 

After adding LR and LS to the pico, it became evident that the straight forward direction of the pump outflow didn’t work well with my particular aquascape, so I had to divert the flow stream. I took the flow diverter from a Cobalt MJ-400 (that I use to mix my salt water), cut down on the length of the connecting tube, and glued the flow director to the front wall of the built-in filter compartment, just below the Eheim in-flow tube. (see photos below.) Problem solved.

 

front-2.jpg

 

Leftside.jpg

 

To increase the circulation, I added a Jebao Wave Maker. When set to its lowest auto setting, the intermittent bursts of water jets provide excellent water movement throughout the tank. There are no dead zones – not even in the back of the LR or in any of the caves.

 

_Larry

Link to comment

Unlike earlier models of the Cad Lights 4 G Mini, the filter box is not removable and is quite nicely made. I removed the black sponge that comes in the first compartment of the three section filter box and filled most that section with LR rubble. I use a thin sheet of fine-grade filter material on top of the rubble to aid in polishing the water.

 

A 25-watt Cobalt Neo-Therm heater fits nicely in the middle compartment of the built-in filter box. (I keep it set at 80 degrees F.) I also added a small amount of LR rubble to the middle compartment, making sure none of the rock is in contact with the heater.

 

The third compartment of the filter box houses the Eheim pump. There is enough room left in the third chamber for the float switch of my JBL- ATO.

 

I have a Nano Box Mini Tide with Storm controller on order and that will soon replace the stock light.

 

In the meantime, the cycling is off to a good start and Nitrates are starting to fall. (Now at 5, down from 50.) The only livestock in the pico is a hundred or so amphipods (added yesterday) to clean out the detritus inside the multitude of holes in the live rock. I won’t be adding anything else to the aquarium for at least another 4 – 8 weeks. I want to wait until the initial blooms of diatoms and nuisance algae come and go. Once I see coralline algae starting to grow on the rocks, I’ll start a slow process of adding corals: initially just a couple of Zoas and Mushrooms.

 

_Larry

Link to comment

Looking good so far! :welcome: to the CAD Lights 4G club! I just recently switched to this tank too. There's a CAD Lights 4G owner's thread that you can list your tank on, and where you can find other owners threads to compare notes.

 

I've been thinking about flow diverters too. The location of the pump return is just a little too low and it really blows in the one corner. I like your mod but unfortunately, I don't have room to do something like you did - too many other rocks in the way.

 

One thing you might think about while you still have the opportunity - I see you have used a fine sand and it's fairly deep. In the long run, it's important to keep the sand vacuumed out, and a lot of people have gone with shallow sand beds (< 1") or even bare bottom, and are using a coarser sand mix to avoid having it blow around so much. I just changed my Oolite sand out for Seaflor Special Blend and it stays in place much better even with the flow from the return pump.

Link to comment

Thanks Seanoli.

 

Hi teenyreef. Thank you for the info and suggestions. Much appreciated.

 

The depth of the sand vaies from 3/4" to 1". It doesn't blow around at all since I added the flow deflector and set the wave maker properly for my setup. But I agree that vacuuming such fine sand could be a problem. I specifically chose a fine sand because I wanted to maximize the surface area for nitrogen fixing bacteria. I didn't weigh the LR but I doubt I have enough for efficient biological filtration.

 

In my larger tanks I had 4" sand beds, hoping to mimick the biological processes found in nature. What a mistake. Toxic "stuff" accumulates in deep sand beds and that became a problem. But a 1" sand bed isn't deep enough to support anaerobic pockets, so I'm not sure that vacuuming the bed is necessary. The Amphipods and a burrowing snail or two should take care of the sand bed or so I'm hoping. But I could be wrong.

Link to comment

Yep, I hear you on the sand bed, both in depth and fine sand. It matches what I learned too, and that's why I started my 4g tank exactly the same way. I found that my snails couldn't keep a 1" deep sand bed turned over enough to keep it clean. Nothing anaerobic, just lots of spots with accumulated snail poop and other detritus. And in this teeny tiny tank, since I couldn't get at the sand under the live rocks with a vacuum it just kept getting worse. I was able to adjust the flow to keep the fine sand in place, but every time I blew off the rocks with a baster near the sand, the sand got caught up in the process and landed all over everything.

 

Hopefully you'll have better luck than I did - I agree with the theory. Like I said, it's just something to consider. looking forward to seeing updates!

Link to comment

teeny, after thinking about your suggestion, I actually removed 1/2" of sand. I also added a rock I had left over from my original order.

 

Nitrates remain elevated (10ppm), but I'm only in the 10th day of the cycle. All other parameters are excellent. To ramp up the growth of bacteria I added just 2 drops of Vodka to the tank (carbon dosing). I didn't do a full dose because I m not using a skimmer - nor do I plan to do so in the future.

 

The Amphipods keep churning up the sand at night. I hope they enjoy good Vodka.

 

small2a-2copy.jpg

Link to comment

Looking good. Any sign of diatoms or cyano yet?

 

Yes... both. No hair algae or other green algae yet.

 

I'm still waiting for my Nano Box Mini Tide so I'm using the stock light that came with the Cad Lights 4G. Up until today I had the three white light strips taped off and used only the semi-actinic lights because I wanted keep algae grow at a minimum. But now that my NH4 is 0 and N02 is only about 0.5, I can add a few snails, so I increased the lighting.

 

I know it's really early, but I am already starting to see new growth of coralline algae on the rocks. I wonder if that's because I've been using only blue lights up to now. I ran them on a 12 hr on, 12 hr off cycle.

 

The original coralline on the LR has all bleached out or otherwise died off - except for a few tiny pockets in dimly lit crevaces in the rock. I'm sorry so much of the original coralline has died off because most of it was a beautiful bright pink color under the blue lights. What I now see starting to grow on the rocks is the more common purple variety of coralline algae.

Link to comment

Question: I notice that a white material is being deposited on the LR. I'm almost sure it's calcium based. Is that normal? Some of that material is starting to cover the new growth of coralline algae in a thin, veil-like manner. It does not blow off the rock under a forceful stream from a turkey baster. I haven't tried to brush it off.

 

The water parameters are: pH 8.0; Salinity 35; Calcium 460; dKH 8.9

 

TIA

-Larry

Link to comment

You managed to cram a what WP10 in there ? That's crazy lol.

 

:D Yes. It wasn't easy... but I did it.

 

It really stirs up the water. I put the WP10 in the tank to help during the cycling phase. It's coming out when I buy my first lot of Zoas and Mushrooms. This is going to be a peaceful, low maintenance, easy to care for pico. No plans for SPS. (Although, one never knows what the future has in store.)

 

BTW, I like what you're doing with your 7 G aquarium.

Link to comment

:D Yes. It wasn't easy... but I did it.

 

It really stirs up the water. I put the WP10 in the tank to help during the cycling phase. It's coming out when I buy my first lot of Zoas and Mushrooms. This is going to be a peaceful, low maintenance, easy to care for pico. No plans for SPS. (Although, one never knows what the future has in store.)

 

BTW, I like what you're doing with your 7 G aquarium.

 

Wait til you go to your LFS and see some in the $10 frag rack. ;)

Link to comment

Put it on wave mode and see what happens lmaooo

 

It actually works great on wave mode... lowest setting, slowest interval. The problem with it is that there is too much flow for shrooms, paiys, and zoas. If I was talented enough to try sps, the WP10 on wave mode would be perfect in a 4 gallon pico.

Link to comment

That's crazy. Any way you can post (or email/text) a video of it in action ? I wonder how these would fair in my 7 gallon that's 16"x10"x10".

Link to comment

Wait til you go to your LFS and see some in the $10 frag rack. ;)

 

You guys are a BAD INFLUENCE! I was going to wait another few weeks before adding corals, but the "Black Friday" sales this weekend at my LFS were too good to pass up: buy two at 20% off and get one free. So I bought a few. :D

 

Pics will follow in a day or two.

 

-Larry

Link to comment

That's crazy. Any way you can post (or email/text) a video of it in action ? I wonder how these would fair in my 7 gallon that's 16"x10"x10".

 

Sorry. I removed the WP10. It's now my salt water mixer. :)

 

It will do a great job in your 7 gallon. You'll have a lot of control over how strong you want to set the flow, and also control over the frequency of the waves. I set mine as follows: Mode - W1; Speed - S3 (the lowest); and I turned the control dial all the way to the right. It definitely did not splash water out of my 4 Gallon Cad Lights, which has a display area of about 10" wide, 7" deep, and 10" high.

Link to comment

You guys are a BAD INFLUENCE! I was going to wait another few weeks before adding corals, but the "Black Friday" sales this weekend at my LFS were too good to pass up: buy two at 20% off and get one free. So I bought a few. :D

 

Pics will follow in a day or two.

 

-Larry

 

Just helping fuel the addiction, that's all. B)

Link to comment

Looking forward to the pics!! And don't worry, your coralline will come back eventually :) You just have to have patience, something I'm not very good at :angry:

Link to comment

UPDATE 12-1-2014

 

The lighting is poor. It will be another week before I get my Nano Box Mini Tide. But for now, here is a FTS.

 

DSC00295.jpg

 

The only colors that are close to being true are those of the mushrooms in the center, bottom. There are 3 shrooms that are a deeply iridescent red/dark blue mix, and three that are a striking light blue. The combo is quite stunning in person.

 

The Yuma in the back, on the left, has beautiful soft green and pale-purple stripes on a cream colored body.

 

The the yellow Ric, next to the green one, is actually a bright orange.

 

The green plays actually have a bright blue center under really good lighting, whereas th green Zoas are actually green.

 

The caulastrea (candy cane) looks purple in the photo and looks brown in my pico; but under good lighting, it is a bright, dark blue with green centers.

 

The GSPs are attached to a rock that is not glued in place. When they start to reach the edge of the rock, I'll pull it out and give the GSPs a "hair cut."

 

I cut off a few single polyps from Zoas and a Palys and glued the single polyps here and there on LR. That was two days ago, and all polyps are open and looking good.

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...