tdannhauser30 Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 I have been looking at this tank and really like it, but feel like I dont know much about it. I emailed cadlights but they havent responded yet. The dimmable LED light it comes with, do we like it? I havent found too much about how well things will grow under it, and also ive heard some people dont like how much room is behind the false wall. Does anyone have opinions on this tank to sway me one way or another. Its kinda between this or a little dymax IQ3 2 gal. on the hardware classifieds section here. Please let me know what you think! Link to comment
cindyp Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 i have the cadlights 8g and i really really love it. it's 8 months old next week. my light wasn't a dimmable one. it was just a china led and you had to plug in. very no nonsense, not even an on or off switch. having said that, the color wasn't bad at all and my mushrooms grew well with it. Link to comment
jestep Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Their tanks are decent, but I'm not a fan of their lighting. You might be able to get away with some very low light demanding coral. As far as rear chamber space, any <5 gallon AIO tank is going to have very limited room for filtration unless you want to dedicate 25%+ of your total space to it. Link to comment
tdannhauser30 Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 i have the cadlights 8g and i really really love it. it's 8 months old next week. my light wasn't a dimmable one. it was just a china led and you had to plug in. very no nonsense, not even an on or off switch. having said that, the color wasn't bad at all and my mushrooms grew well with it. Yeah they look really nice, and good to hear the mushrooms did well. Did you have anything else in the tank? Their tanks are decent, but I'm not a fan of their lighting. You might be able to get away with some very low light demanding coral. As far as rear chamber space, any <5 gallon AIO tank is going to have very limited room for filtration unless you want to dedicate 25%+ of your total space to it. so you have no faith in these new dimmable ones to be able to support LPS? Link to comment
Bill Nye Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 If you call cadlights and order over the phone you can ask to not have the lights included and they will give you a price break...at least they used to when I ordered my 8 gallon a while ago. Link to comment
tdannhauser30 Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 If you call cadlights and order over the phone you can ask to not have the lights included and they will give you a price break...at least they used to when I ordered my 8 gallon a while ago. was it a substantial one? Link to comment
cindyp Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 no, i was a noob. so i had al the easy stuff. lps and softies, etc. still really what i've got, plus rock flower nems. Link to comment
tdannhauser30 Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 no, i was a noob. so i had al the easy stuff. lps and softies, etc. still really what i've got, plus rock flower nems. haha yeah thats a gorgeous nem in your signature picture. All I really have is LPS and softies so maybe it would work. I was just worried it wouldnt be enough for LPS. Link to comment
cindyp Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 they'd be fine, and likely flourish. sticks, no. Link to comment
Bill Nye Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 was it a substantial one? It was a while ago but it was definitely worth it. If you are just going to put the light in the closet and buy a new one might as well get something off the tank. Link to comment
NinjaReefer Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 I had the 4 gallon version and was not very happy with it. The tank itself looks nice, but the back filter chamber is poorly designed. The whole back chamber wall is made to slide out for cleaning. The problem is the back chamber is NOT water tight. The back wall fits in very losely. Water seeps in from all sides and under the back wall. This renders any filtration you have in the back useless because the water flow can bypass the filtration. The back chambers just dont make any sense. I cant figure out why they would lay them out like that. Anyways. I ripped out the back chamber and used a canister filter. I had the old led setup that came with them and they where only good for the lowest light corals and the return pump was noisy and rough. The only thing useable from the setub was the glass aquarium itself. Would not recommend. Link to comment
cindyp Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 I had the 4 gallon version and was not very happy with it. The tank itself looks nice, but the back filter chamber is poorly designed. The whole back chamber wall is made to slide out for cleaning. The problem is the back chamber is NOT water tight. The back wall fits in very losely. Water seeps in from all sides and under the back wall. This renders any filtration you have in the back useless because the water flow can bypass the filtration. The back chambers just dont make any sense. I cant figure out why they would lay them out like that. Anyways. I ripped out the back chamber and used a canister filter. I had the old led setup that came with them and they where only good for the lowest light corals and the return pump was noisy and rough. The only thing useable from the setub was the glass aquarium itself. Would not recommend. I had the 4 gallon version and was not very happy with it. The tank itself looks nice, but the back filter chamber is poorly designed. The whole back chamber wall is made to slide out for cleaning. The problem is the back chamber is NOT water tight. The back wall fits in very losely. Water seeps in from all sides and under the back wall. This renders any filtration you have in the back useless because the water flow can bypass the filtration. The back chambers just dont make any sense. I cant figure out why they would lay them out like that. Anyways. I ripped out the back chamber and used a canister filter. I had the old led setup that came with them and they where only good for the lowest light corals and the return pump was noisy and rough. The only thing useable from the setub was the glass aquarium itself. Would not recommend. they might have changed that? mine does not slide out. it is sealed. Link to comment
Bill Nye Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 I had the 4 gallon version and was not very happy with it. The tank itself looks nice, but the back filter chamber is poorly designed. The whole back chamber wall is made to slide out for cleaning. The problem is the back chamber is NOT water tight. The back wall fits in very losely. Water seeps in from all sides and under the back wall. This renders any filtration you have in the back useless because the water flow can bypass the filtration. The back chambers just dont make any sense. I cant figure out why they would lay them out like that. Anyways. I ripped out the back chamber and used a canister filter. I had the old led setup that came with them and they where only good for the lowest light corals and the return pump was noisy and rough. The only thing useable from the setub was the glass aquarium itself. Would not recommend. This is what my 8 gallon is like and that is the older model. I agree that was a terrible design and the idea that they saw how awful it was still let it leave the workshop makes me question their sanity. Link to comment
NinjaReefer Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 This is what my 8 gallon is like and that is the older model. I agree that was a terrible design and the idea that they saw how awful it was still let it leave the workshop makes me question their sanity. Good to know they fixed it. I still feel pretty ripped off by my purchase. You think they would test their tanks or something before selling them. Dont think I will be buying any cadlights products any time soon. Link to comment
tdannhauser30 Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 So do the new ones have the crappy false wall still? Link to comment
tdannhauser30 Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 ?? anyone know? Link to comment
NinjaReefer Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 they might have changed that? mine does not slide out. it is sealed. I dont have any first hand experience, but it sounds like they fixed it. Good luck with your build. Link to comment
Partially Submerged Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 I have a 4g with a fixed rear wall. I bought it maybe half a year ago, so it must be a more recent model. I really like the tank. The glass is good, and the filtration works well. There is also plenty of space to hide the filter. The light (I have the retro-looking non-dimmable one) was not great. Probably good enough for most softies. I immediately replaced it with a Par30, so I don't really know. Link to comment
truepercs Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I have the cad lights 8.. the chambers are not removable. I drilled a large hole and the back wall held together. I was on the site the other day, and you can order it without the light. I think it is 99 and another 60 if you want the light. The cad 4 was cheaper. oh… and they may have changes to lights also since thou can not dim nor is there a switch. just starting to set up myself. Link to comment
tdannhauser30 Posted May 1, 2015 Author Share Posted May 1, 2015 I have the cad lights 8.. the chambers are not removable. I drilled a large hole and the back wall held together. I was on the site the other day, and you can order it without the light. I think it is 99 and another 60 if you want the light. The cad 4 was cheaper. oh… and they may have changes to lights also since thou can not dim nor is there a switch. just starting to set up myself. looks like a great start! I love the way those tanks look, and sounds like they are pretty sound functionally as well! Best of luck to your build! Link to comment
printerdown01 Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 I own a cad lights 8. Great construction on the tank itself. I would skip out on the lights though. I also scrapped the pump immediately. The flow was way too low even for what I was building (medium flow tank). I put a buildmyled 20000k XB on the tank and love it. Definitely dimable and Apex ready. You cannot control color channels, but as I noted recently in a review I almost switched over to a Radion for independent channel control but then realized that I would just be trying to match the exact spectrum I currently have. Great price point as well. The low iron glass really looks amazing!! Over all construction was great. Link to comment
Livewreck Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 I emailed cadlights but they havent responded yet. Get used to that if you deal with CadLights. I have their 4 g and their 8 g mini 2. I converted them both into quarantine takes after removing the plastic back wall of the display area. The 4 g does make a nice small pico, but both the 4 and the 8 g suffer from the placement of the return pump inflow into the display area. It's definitely too low. I spoke to CadLights about that and got some sort of gibberish reply that made no sense to me at all. Long and short of it is that I now have an IM Nano Fusion 10g and I love it. Link to comment
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