Reef507 Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 I decided to keep a journal of my new tank here to help track its progress as it evolves. My plans for this tank are to keep a mixed reef with an emphasis on hardy SPS. Equipment 3 Koralia 1 150w heater Poly filter Chemi pure Filter floss 25lbs aragonite sand 25lbs live sand 35 lbs LR 2-3lbs LRR cheato I figure along with the stock pump the tank volume is turning over about 39x. I am planning on adding some chaeto to the fuge along with a detritvore kit from Inland aquatics. I want to get as much diversity as I can in the DSB. This build may go a little slow as I intend to take my time with this and let things grow and mature before I start adding corals and fish. Hopefully the cycle will move along fairly quickly as I bought well cured rock. Here are some shots of the tank today after I added the LS and rock. The tank was still a little cloudy, but I think the photos came out okay. I tired to minimize the contact between the rocks and the sand as best as I could. Any and all comments or suggestions are welcome Link to comment
Jay-sun Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 Off to a good start. Looking forward to your progress on this. Really looking forward to seeing how the DSB and no skimmer go. Ive been tempted to go skimmerless but havent done it yet. I may give it a shot on the softie tank Im working on. I really need to start a build thread or journal on at least one of my tanks. Im terrible at taking photos though. Jason Link to comment
Jay-sun Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 By the way light looks good hung. I think you will be happy having gone this route. Jason Link to comment
Reef507 Posted April 23, 2008 Author Share Posted April 23, 2008 By the way light looks good hung. I think you will be happy having gone this route. Jason Thanks Jason. I agree with you about the light. I just need to get all my cords zip tied and out of the way so things look a bit neater around the tank. I am excited to see how this tank will develope. I tested the water last night just to see where my ph, alkalinity, and calcium were at. I was happy to see ph-8.2, alkalinity-9-, calcium-420ppm. I will see where the amonia, nitite, and nitrates are tonight. Are you using an ATO on your tank? If so could you describe to me how you have it set up? Link to comment
corvettecris Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 ph-8.2, alkalinity-9-, calcium-420ppm. Those are really nice readings considering just setting up. What salt mix are you using? Link to comment
Reef507 Posted April 23, 2008 Author Share Posted April 23, 2008 Those are really nice readings considering just setting up. What salt mix are you using? I ended up going with Oceanic as it is readily available for a good price. After reading all of the threads about salt brands it seemed to me that they all work. I will keep a close eye on my calcium and alkalinity and see how it goes. Link to comment
Jay-sun Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 JBJ Ato's on all 3 CAD tanks. The custom 34 has a 10 gallon freshwater sump. The 2 sig tanks I have 5 gallon tanks in the stands. The 34 has the valve in the false overflow box. The overflow is what actually supplies the canister filter and refugium. On the sig tanks the valve is in the pump return chamber. Both these tanks also have canister filters that are fed from this chamber. HTH's. Jason Link to comment
Reef507 Posted April 23, 2008 Author Share Posted April 23, 2008 Thanks for info on the ATO system Jason. I tested the water tonight and I have .50ppm Amonia, 1.0ppm nitrite, 0-nitrates. Ph went down a little to 7.8. So the cycle has begun. I am having a little problem with cloudy water do to the silt content of the live sand. I went to change out the filter floss and a bunch of the trapped dust leaked back into the tank I will have to remeber to shut down the pumps when I am changing the floss. I probaly should have drained that off the sand before putting it into the tank, but I didn't want to loose any of the life. Link to comment
Reef507 Posted April 26, 2008 Author Share Posted April 26, 2008 I tested the water tonight and my results were... Amonia-.50 Nitrite- 2.0 Nitrates-5-10 Ph- 8.0 Kh-9 Calc-440 temp-79 SG-1.024 I can't wait to get the refractometer I ordered because measuring SG is a pain. I get a different reading every time I test it. I had forgotten how much fun it was to sit in front of the tank with a flashlight looking for the creatures on the rock. I really like the rock in my tank. It doesn't have much color yet, but it sure does have some cool caves. It is really covered with holes and should rovide plenty of places to attach corals. I attached a few photos of the rock. The pictures don't do it justice though. Link to comment
Reef507 Posted May 3, 2008 Author Share Posted May 3, 2008 I tested my water tonight and it appears my cycle is finished. Amonia-0 Nitrite-0 Nitrates 0-5 Ph- 8.2 I got my refractometer today and I love it. My salinty is right at 35. I am going to wait another week and then add my cuc. I am still undecided as to whether I want to add hermits or just go with snails. I have heard arguments for and against them. I have kept the lights off for the most part and plan to start easing into a full photoperiod starting tomorrow. So far diatoms haven't really showed up probably because there hasn't been much light. I will post some pictures later tonight of some of the little creatures of the night that I have captured. Link to comment
Reef507 Posted May 13, 2008 Author Share Posted May 13, 2008 I have had my clean up crew for about 10 days now and added a pair of occellaris clowns tonight. I also added a small fungi coral. The brown diatoms have finally showed up, but that was to be expected. Amonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all still at 0. Alk-9, calcium-420.I have been taking alot of photos of the cuc and other interesting creatures in my tank. So far everything is doing very well. I need some practice getting the true colors of the fungi in my photos. It is really a bright green color, but just looks brown in the photos. Anyone have any tips on capturing the colors better? I will post several photos for everyone to see in a few posts. First the snail macros. Link to comment
Reef507 Posted May 13, 2008 Author Share Posted May 13, 2008 A few more photos of some interesting creatures in the tank. I know the small white guys are pods. Link to comment
Reef507 Posted May 13, 2008 Author Share Posted May 13, 2008 Last but not least, a few shots of my clowns and the fungi coral. Link to comment
stratosphere Posted May 30, 2008 Share Posted May 30, 2008 Yes, great pics - love those macro shots! How are things going? How are you liking the tank? How many mods have you had to do--I'm thinking about upgrading eventually, and this tank is the most beautiful of the AIOs to me, but I only hesitate because I really want something that works awesome basically out of the box. Mods just stress me out! I've seen a few threads with these new CAD 39G tanks and almost everyone seems to mod the heck out of them, but perhaps that's just because most reefers are "tinkerers" by nature, and not because of a lack in the CAD system, necessarily... Keep up the updates! Link to comment
anthon007 Posted June 5, 2008 Share Posted June 5, 2008 I decided to keep a journal of my new tank here to help track its progress as it evolves. My plans for this tank are to keep a mixed reef with an emphasis on hardy SPS. Equipment 3 Koralia 1 150w heater Poly filter Chemi pure Filter floss 25lbs aragonite sand 25lbs live sand 35 lbs LR 2-3lbs LRR cheato I figure along with the stock pump the tank volume is turning over about 39x. I am planning on adding some chaeto to the fuge along with a detritvore kit from Inland aquatics. I want to get as much diversity as I can in the DSB. This build may go a little slow as I intend to take my time with this and let things grow and mature before I start adding corals and fish. Hopefully the cycle will move along fairly quickly as I bought well cured rock. Here are some shots of the tank today after I added the LS and rock. The tank was still a little cloudy, but I think the photos came out okay. I tired to minimize the contact between the rocks and the sand as best as I could. Any and all comments or suggestions are welcome I decided to keep a journal of my new tank here to help track its progress as it evolves. My plans for this tank are to keep a mixed reef with an emphasis on hardy SPS. Equipment 3 Koralia 1 150w heater Poly filter Chemi pure Filter floss 25lbs aragonite sand 25lbs live sand 35 lbs LR 2-3lbs LRR cheato I figure along with the stock pump the tank volume is turning over about 39x. I am planning on adding some chaeto to the fuge along with a detritvore kit from Inland aquatics. I want to get as much diversity as I can in the DSB. This build may go a little slow as I intend to take my time with this and let things grow and mature before I start adding corals and fish. Hopefully the cycle will move along fairly quickly as I bought well cured rock. Here are some shots of the tank today after I added the LS and rock. The tank was still a little cloudy, but I think the photos came out okay. I tired to minimize the contact between the rocks and the sand as best as I could. Any and all comments or suggestions are welcome Link to comment
anthon007 Posted June 5, 2008 Share Posted June 5, 2008 how much evaparation do you get a day on your cad 39 sig i am planning to buy this week some said that their pro39 has about half a gallon a day that is to much work for me so please help i am hoping you said very little on your cad39sig thanks alot anthony Link to comment
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