Rizakaniza's Cadlights 39g Pro Build Thread

[mkregs]

Here are some pics for those of you who care...

I'm happy to see you finally have something in that bad boy...

 

Also..."for those of you who care"?? Don't feel so bad...you get more views/responses than many tank threads do.

 

Now let's get that rock in.

[rizakaniza]

Also..."for those of you who care"?? Don't feel so bad...you get more views/responses than many tank threads do.

Sorry, didn't really mean it the way it came off. I meant more for those who cared to see a tank full of milky white water... I guess it's good to show people it's fairly normal for that to happen. In regards to that, the water has cleared up quite a bit.

 

The thing that I am currently surprised by is that it seems the water line in my sump went down significantly since I added the sand. It seems to be just high enough so that the water line is just above the dividers.

[rizakaniza]

!!! i keep on forgetting to post this to you: where you have your fuge light mounted in your sump, if that sump gets anywhere near capacity, your ballast is going to get wet! E.g., say you have a power outage, you're going to get some siphoning back into the sump from the tank (which you are hopefully planning for by keeping your loclines close to parallel with the water surface) -- if that siphoning rises to the level of the ballast, BOOM, problems. i recommend positioning that ballast outside of the sump's reservoir.

 

Tim,

I took your advice last night and repositioned the fuge light. You are right. If the water level in the sump rose too high it would submerge the electrical for the fuge light. I mounted it on the front of the sump with the on/off switch facing outwards.

[timdanger]

Also, fyi. For those of you that put a piece of airline tubing in your durso to quiet down the gurgle. You only need a few inches. Any more than that and it could cause a sea saw effect of water level going up and down in your rear water chamber.

 

i have experimented with some varying sized of airline tubing. i finally settled on a piece that was about 5" long in total. i was thinking that it may make a difference whether the tubing "curls" up at all. mine definitely has a curl to it. are you using a straight tube?

[rizakaniza]

i have experimented with some varying sized of airline tubing. i finally settled on a piece that was about 5" long in total. i was thinking that it may make a difference whether the tubing "curls" up at all. mine definitely has a curl to it. are you using a straight tube?

Yes, mine is fortunately straight. I situated it so that the hose comes out behind the lockline and not in front towards the waterfall. If anything obstructs the hose (like water from the waterfall) it causes an immediate drop in the rear chamber water level.

 

\How is your water level in your sump vs. the display? After I added the Live Sand I noticed the sump water line is pretty low, while the water line in the display seems to be at just the right level. Any ideas on this?

 

Edit: See my pictures above with the cloudy water. Notice how higth the water line is in the display? In the sump it's a little less than half way.

[rizakaniza]

Okay, after looking through the posts in the Cadlights forum I found some information on water level in the Sump. I'm just going to cut and paste the parts I found useful.

 

2) when the skimmer runs consistent, the water level in the sump will stay balanced. ideally the sump should run at about 50%-70% and make sure that the Loc-lines are not both UNDERWATER. leving one up to suck air if the pump stops is a way to have the system "siphon-break". ~Jason

 

the sump should run at 1/2 full or a slight less. if the water is too high, then the water will overflow out when the pump shuts off. also there will be too much back pressure for the skimmer to skim properly.

 

Thanks

Jason Tong

 

Edit: I added more water to the tank and it increased the water line in the sump without affecting the water line in the Display tank.

[rizakaniza]

Today's Parameters:

 

PH: 8.2

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

Salinity: 1.025

 

I was kinda expecting something a little different since I just added the LS.

 

Also, I added about 2 more gallons of SW today and it did raise the water level in the sump without affecting the display water level.

[rizakaniza]

Here are some pictures after the cloudiness went away. I tried to get some closer shots to give you an idea of what the Sand looks like. This is Carib Sea Ocean Direct Original Grade LS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks kinda creamy right now since all that dust settled.

[timdanger]

Edit: I added more water to the tank and it increased the water line in the sump without affecting the water line in the Display tank.

 

ya, you're right here -- just add your water to the sump -- display water level will remain the same. i marked off a line (thanks to mkreg for the suggestion!) in marker at 7.5" from the base of the sump, which is half of the 13" total height. this way, i know how much to fill when i'm topping off at night, and it tells me if something isn't working right (e.g. higher water level would mean something like the pump isn't pumping right, or the drain is working faster than the pump -- lower water level would mean the pump is pumping faster than the drain is draining, which could mean either the drain is clogged or the pump is malfunctioning).

[rizakaniza]

ya, you're right here -- just add your water to the sump -- display water level will remain the same. i marked off a line (thanks to mkreg for the suggestion!) in marker at 7.5" from the base of the sump, which is half of the 13" total height. this way, i know how much to fill when i'm topping off at night, and it tells me if something isn't working right (e.g. higher water level would mean something like the pump isn't pumping right, or the drain is working faster than the pump -- lower water level would mean the pump is pumping faster than the drain is draining, which could mean either the drain is clogged or the pump is malfunctioning).

That's an awesome idea!

[rizakaniza]

Last night my wife and I decided to get some base rock and live rock rubble. I put the rubble in the sump and we tried to get a base aquascape going. We ended up getting way too much base rock. Anyway, I thought I'd show some pics to see if I could get some pointers. I'm trying to make a cove scape with a tiny interesting island in the middle. Also, an hour after adding the live rock rubble to the sump we noticed what I think are bristle worms who somehow made their way into the display. Here are some pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you spot the worm...

 

 

He's almost dead center...

 

 

...Also, I just put in my order for 30lbs of premium rock from Sea Life, Inc. for this week...

[MGDMIRAGE]

Rock work looks good, it reminds me of a tie fighter.

[rizakaniza]

Today's Params:

 

PH: 8.2

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: didn't feel like testing...

 

Update: My order for 30lbs of LR from Sea Life Inc is to be delivered on wednesday, September 13th.

[awbowden]

Update: My order for 30lbs of LR from Sea Life Inc is to be delivered on wednesday, September 13th.

 

Looks sweet. How are you finding the condensation inside the stand? Gets pretty darn wet inside mine. Good luck with the rock setup. Don't know if you're already planning on doing this, but what I read and did, was to tape off the dimensions of the tank on cardboard and play around with the rocks on this until you have it stable and set up as you like.

[rizakaniza]

Looks sweet. How are you finding the condensation inside the stand? Gets pretty darn wet inside mine. Good luck with the rock setup. Don't know if you're already planning on doing this, but what I read and did, was to tape off the dimensions of the tank on cardboard and play around with the rocks on this until you have it stable and set up as you like.

Thanks! No condensation at all so far. Not even a drop that I have seen. I like your idea about the cardboard. I'll give that a shot.

[timdanger]

lucky for you on the condensation -- my in-stand condensation is crazy. it's like a sauna in there. also crazy is that my tank temperature was higher this morning than it was last night with just the actinic T-5s on (81.5 versus 81.0). could the 13w PC fuge light really be generating more heat than the T-5s?

 

in any event, i like how your base rock is looking -- but is that really going to be useful as a "base" for stacking other rocks? seems like you could have trouble stacking other rocks on top of it? i guess you won't know til you try. i agree with the concept of the cardboard cutout. when i laid my rocks out at the LFS, I was just using the dimensions of the tank, and i underestimated the size of the overflow. so, my rock structure ended up a bit more crowded than i expected.

[Deleted User 6]

...Also, I just put in my order for 30lbs of premium rock from Sea Life, Inc. for this week...

 

rizzo, you won't be disappointed. you'll have crazy hitchers with that rock and you'll get some amazing macro algaes as well. you can check my thread for some recent pics of my sea life rock.

 

BE SURE TO SOFT CYCLE - there's a thread on it in the water chemistry forum. You'll want to save as much of that life as you can.

 

Also, get ready to ban some crabs to the fuge, lol. I ended up with 3 Xanthids out of 11 lbs. of rock. But it's fun seeing what all comes out of the rock. I also got a pencil urchin that is one of my favorite inhabitants.

[rizakaniza]

rizzo, you won't be disappointed. you'll have crazy hitchers with that rock and you'll get some amazing macro algaes as well. you can check my thread for some recent pics of my sea life rock.

 

BE SURE TO SOFT CYCLE - there's a thread on it in the water chemistry forum. You'll want to save as much of that life as you can.

 

Also, get ready to ban some crabs to the fuge, lol. I ended up with 3 Xanthids out of 11 lbs. of rock. But it's fun seeing what all comes out of the rock. I also got a pencil urchin that is one of my favorite inhabitants.

Thanks! Actually it was probably your thread that convinced me to go with Sea Life. I was planning on rinsing each rock in some high salinity water to assist in ridding myself of the nuisance hitchers (i.e. mantis shrimp, crabs). I guess initially I will just ban most of them to the fuge...

 

 

Tim,

You may be right in regards to the base rock. I have realized aquascaping is a lot harder than it first seemed.

[rizakaniza]

Two days ago I connected my cooling fan to the RKL. The temps stayed around 83-84 without cooling. The fan seemed to be working great until I came home today and found the fan running and the temps at almost 84 (the fan was programmed to come on at 82).

 

I moved the cooling fan to the overflow box for now. The temp has been coming down fairly quickly with it in that location. I know that CAD recommends that location for the cooling fan. The problem is it sits right under one of the actinics. I will try it out for a little while and see how that works out. I imagine I will have very little sump condensation issues with the fan outside of the cabinet. I may have to just buy a chiller before next summer.

 

Tomorrow afternoon the Live Rock from Sea Life Inc will be arriving. I'm very excited to see hopefully all the critters. Any advice on how to treat the rock before it goes into my tank? I was planning on doing a high salinity dip and exiling all the nasties to the sump until I can figure out what to do with them. Maybe get store credit for them at my LFS...

 

I'm a little nervous though in terms of identifying nasties...BTW, I WILL be wearing gloves to handle the LR...

[rizakaniza]

Today is the big day! I have prepared some high salinity water (1.036) to dip the LR in and get them nasty critters out. I'll take lots of pics for those of you considering buying LR from Sea Life.

[Weetabix7]

The high salinity dip plus gloves sounds like an excellent plan.

Sealife has really nice rock, just be prepared for a possible algae explosing either during the cycle or in the one month after the cycle.

Wouldn't hurt to not have the lights on a whole lot during the cycle at least, might help to combat this.

You're gonna be absolutely amazed at all the life you see on that rock though.

[timdanger]

Today is the big day! I have prepared some high salinity water (1.036) to dip the LR in and get them nasty critters out. I'll take lots of pics for those of you considering buying LR from Sea Life.

 

looking forward to seeing the pics!

[rizakaniza]

I hope you'll pardon the fact that my camera doesn't take very good closeup shots. It really doesn't do justice to the colors on these rocks.

 

First, here's what it came in

 

 

Here's a close up shot of one of the rocks

 

 

And here's a few FTS

 

 

 

 

Last week I bought some LR from the LFS and put it in my sump. Then, I have been dosing 5ml of Seachem Stability for the last two days. Today I put some carbon in the sump. Then I dosed 20ml of Seachem Stability. I will continue to dose 10ml a day until it runs out. I will be watching the params very closely over the next week to see if the Seachem is doing it's job. If I see a large spike in ammonia I am gonna throw in some Seachem Prime. Keep in mind, I am not trying to cheat the cycle, I am just trying to keep the critters alive.

 

I'm not exactly sure, but I think I have a live pistol shrimp. The closeup pics don't come out well. I also have 3 live snails and a tiny crab. I'll try to borrow a nicer camera so I can get some closeups.

[rizakaniza]

On a side note, when I came home today I found my cooling fan on. The tank was running at about 80.3 degrees. The mysterious thing is that the RKL was set so that the cooling fan would go off below 82. I double checked the settings and I saw that it was in fact set to go off below 82. I changed the settings so it would go off at 81 and the fan turned off. Kinda funny...

 

Also, I'm not sure how visible it is, but there is what appears to be a live sponge on one of the rocks on the top left.

 

 

Will it survive in a reef tank or should I remove it?

 

Here's a better pic

 

[rizakaniza]

Here's a question, should I run my lights during the cycle or not? I want to help everything live.

 

Here's a second question, I chased my pistol shrimp into my return pump chamber and can't get him out...any ideas?