Uhuru's 5g CADlights pico reef

[Uhuru]

I received my 5g CADlights tank yesterday. I was prepared for the worst after reading of the packaging and shipping damage issues others experienced. However, my tank came double boxed, with layers of styrofoam board in between. As you can see from the pics, this thing is tiny! Very cool. The quality of the tank itself is excellent. The lighting is also very nicely designed. All in all for $120 this deal cannot be beat. Unless you have the time and tools I don't think you could ask for a better combination of quality and value. BTW in case you thought CADlights made these tanks in their own shop or something, they are actually made in China like all in one tanks. My tank has been getting water tested in the bathtub all night and has shown no water leakage.

 

Those are the positives. Here are some minor negatives:

1) The overflow box, as others have noted, has more of a homemade appearance. If you look at some of the closeups of the box you can see this. Also, even thought the tank is not showing any leakage, it looks like a small section where the overflow is glued to the glass could use more silicone reinforcement. It may not be a problem at all but I figure it's better to do the reinforcement now than find out after my tank is established that it has developed a small leak there.

2) The actinics and daylights share a common plug, so you can't use a timer to have the actinics stay on longer. However, I've decided to do an R2 LED mod which will go on after these lights go off, so no big deal.

3) I ordered a blue background but got a clear one. I called them and they are sending me two blue backgrounds immediately, should be here by Monday. That's what I call customer service.

4) The overflow is really only good for mechanical and carbon filtration. It comes with bio balls which I will not use. Besides that the space is just too small to really be an effective fuge. I mean you could add some LR rubble but I'm saving this space for intermittent carbon filtration. Besides, I have a CPR aquafuge on the way.

 

That's all for now. I won't be adding live rock and sand until next week because I'm busy with finals.

 

 

[Uhuru]

I guess my initial post wasn't too exciting, 100 views and no responses. Over spring break I finally got a chance to get this tank up and running full speed. Here's what I've done so far:

 

Modifications:

1) Added a CPR Aquafuge. Painted the Aquafuge blue to match tank. Re-plumbed the intake to pull water from the built in overflow. Drilled an anti-siphon hole in the intake as a 5 gal. tank cannot handle the back siphon from the aquafuge. Had to modify an MJ 900 to fit it into the overflow sump. Also added a Jalli 13w light to the fuge.

2) Added an MJ 600 which provides intermittent surface "turbulence."

3) Replaced the 24w T5 lighting fixture with a 70w Astralux 14k MH using a Brinks floodlight fixture.

4) Added a Neptune Systems Aquacontroller Jr. which controls temp (heater and fan), all lighting (fuge and moonlights are on reverse cycle), float switch/ATO, MJ 600, and monitors pH.

5) The MJ 900 (main pump) is connected to an APC 1000 battery backup. This one is designed for servers and will keep the fuge going for the entire day if the power were to fail.

 

Currently stocked with:

1) 10 lbs of live rock in display

2) small zoa colony with purple centers (sorry don't know name)

3) small crocea clam

4) Reef Crystals salt

5) Bottled RO/DI + Machine RO water from grocery store

6) cheap poly filter pad, chemi-pure, phosguard all in overflow sump

7) 5 lbs of live rock + chaeto in fuge

8) NO DSB or SB anywhere

9) Oh and 2 hermits, 1 blue legged in the fuge and 1 tri-color in the display

 

Oh and sorry my camera sucks, I have to get a real one someday...

 

 

[quy_nquyen]

looking good! can you get some close up shots of the tank?

[Uhuru]

thanks, and yeah my batteries were on their last breath, I'll get some closeups tomorrow...

[donreefer]

that is one SUPERLY hooked up 5G! pardon my bad grammar but that is one helluva set-up dude. great work.

[FUGU!!!]

damn man you pimped that tank out.

 

 

what are you doing with the old T5 fixture? *nudge* *nudge* ;)

[Uhuru]

damn man you pimped that tank out.

what are you doing with the old T5 fixture? *nudge* *nudge* ;)

 

Ha ha, the CADlights fixture is sweet and it was a hard decision to replace it, but I knew with what I wanted to keep I would have better luck with the MH. However, I'm gonna hold onto the fixture for now because you can't really buy it separately and if I set up a quarantine tank I may use it for that.

 

Here's an FTS with my crappy point and shoot camera. If anyone can recommend a GOOD camera that has manual focus capability and macro capability please give suggestions. Not looking to spend $1000 or anything but if there's something in the $300 range I would be interested.

 

 

[Uhuru]

Current water parameters:

ammonia = <.25 (as low as the salifert shows)

nitrite = 0

nitrate = 2.5 (I also got some macroalgae for the fuge, hopefully this will help in time)

calcium = 445

alk = 11.5

sg = 1.024

pH = 7.95 - 8.1

 

And... I got some new stuff over the weekend:

 

 

 

[coral_addict]

Current water parameters:

ammonia = <.25 (as low as the salifert shows)

nitrite = 0

nitrate = 2.5 (I also got some macroalgae for the fuge, hopefully this will help in time)

calcium = 445

alk = 11.5

sg = 1.024

pH = 7.95 - 8.1

 

And... I got some new stuff over the weekend:

 

Nice stocking on such a small tank. I like how you make it look bigger than what it really is. Well done.

[Uhuru]

Thanks! I'm actually setting up a 6.5 gal right next to this one (connected) so I will probably end up moving some of the rock over to allow for growth in this one.

[Uhuru]

I keep saying I'm going to get a decent camera and tripod, but something always comes up. Like this time I went and got a Tunze Nano Doc Skimmer.

 

A nice RPE frag (along with some sps and soft coral frags but I didn't get decent pics of them):

 

They sit at the bottom next to my original inhabitants, a colony of zoas that have now taken over the whole rock:

 

The obligatory moonlights only shot:

 

and the obligatory fts (edit - more like full setup shot, looks like the work of a mad scientist):

[Uhuru]

more pics!

 

 

 

 

 

FTS:

[Asin]

NICE!

[alexmurovec]

i'm diggin that overflow deal with the 5.5. keep us updated.

[Diskusting]

What site do you buy those hang on back chambers at?

[warr40]

NICE TANK!

-how is the aquacontroller working for ya?

-how does it control ATO?

-how does it control Ph?

-is it worth the money?

-i mite get one for my 55g reef!

[donreefer]

man i can never get tired of looking at your Cadlights 5G, it is one of the nicest set-ups i have ever seen. i wish i can fill up my 34G cadlights the way you did your 5G.

 

are u thinking of getting a bigger one?

[Uhuru]

What site do you buy those hang on back chambers at?

 

You mean the HOB refugium? It's a CPR Aquafuge, I bought it used from someone on this site.

 

NICE TANK!

-how is the aquacontroller working for ya?

-how does it control ATO?

-how does it control Ph?

-is it worth the money?

-i mite get one for my 55g reef!

 

Thanks!

The ACJr is awesome, I highly recommend it. I'm about to order another one on the group buy for my 70g tank. If you get it with a serial port, you can connect a float switch to it, thus you have a built in ATO with your ACJr. You can also get a pH probe, so it monitors your pH and if you mix kalk with your ATO, it's a safe way to do it because you can program it to only dose up to a certain pH. There's other ways to use the pH control feature but that's just the convenient, cheap way for me.

 

man i can never get tired of looking at your Cadlights 5G, it is one of the nicest set-ups i have ever seen. i wish i can fill up my 34G cadlights the way you did your 5G.

 

are u thinking of getting a bigger one?

 

I have a 70g custom cube that I'm getting set up right now. The cadlights tanks are great though.

 

Here's a new FTS, I'll add more later but I have to get to class right now. Excuse the digitata on the left that RTN'ed. It's actually on the road to a nice recovery.

 

[Kombucha]

Nice looking FTS!

[Oceanic 30g]

SWEET!

You have a lot of nice stuff in a lottle 5 gallon tank.

[warr40]

WOW thats great!...one thing if the PH is too high with the kalk in the ATO the probe will not allow for top-off so do u have to do it by hand?

-also do u need one of those x-10 thing for everything u want to hook up to it(i.e lights, 2 pumps, etc.)

-do u have pics of how urs is set up i'm a little lost on how this works

[Uhuru]

Thanks for the compliments gusy! Warr40, with the amount of kalk I dose, it never goes above 8.3, so I haven't had it shut off yet. It's more of a safety feature, in case the pump starts going crazy or something and dumping a bunch of kalk into the tank. I don't use x-10 modules, I don't think they are reliable enough. I use the DC8 power strip, so everything just plugs into there and the ACJr controls the power strip directly. I'll post pics of my setup this weekend if I have time.

 

In the meantime, here are some more pics of my inhabitants!

 

 

 

[cannonball68]

I love the way your tank looks. awesome SPS, i cant believe you can fit all that in a Cad 5G.

 

you should enter the Cadlights photo contest. I WILL DEFINIETELY VOTE FOR YOU.

[Uhuru]

I love the way your tank looks. awesome SPS, i cant believe you can fit all that in a Cad 5G.

 

you should enter the Cadlights photo contest. I WILL DEFINIETELY VOTE FOR YOU.

 

Thanks! I will probably post some photos over there just for fun. I don't think my tank is mature enough to win. Here's some equipment photos!

 

skimmate production went down to almost nothing after a week with no fish, but after I added a damsel yesterday, it started up again.

 

ghetto-halide

 

plankton on tap

[Uhuru]

my sea cucumber divided itself over the weekend: