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My New 50G! Long Cadlight's Artisan!


tokendog

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Oh fa sho.

 

So I'm having some tank trouble and looking to call up Eddie tomorrow.

What would you say is your overall impression of the tank at this point?

I'll just be looking at a tank only, so I guess you don't have to RE: equip.

Are you happy with the looks, clarity, etc? I'm looking at a custom Artisan 35-40g.

 

I love the tank. It's high quality - though I don't doubt there is higher quality, but this one looks very nice. I would highly recommend it to a friend or a family member in a heart beat. I ordered it from Eddie knowing full well that they were A. not the fastest to respond to e-mails or phone calls and B. it would take a while to get it.

 

I had a good bit of luck talking to Eddie over e-mail but did not have any luck talking to them on the phone. It would just ring and ring.

 

As far as shipping, if I recall, it took about 2-3 weeks for the entire process. Maybe a month. Its at the front of this thread, but yeah, I went in to it knowing it would take a little longer than normal to get it in, but I was surprised that I got it faster than I expected to.

 

I don't think you will be disappointed if you keep the above things in mind. Hope that helps?

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I love the tank. It's high quality - though I don't doubt there is higher quality, but this one looks very nice. I would highly recommend it to a friend or a family member in a heart beat. I ordered it from Eddie knowing full well that they were A. not the fastest to respond to e-mails or phone calls and B. it would take a while to get it.

 

I had a good bit of luck talking to Eddie over e-mail but did not have any luck talking to them on the phone. It would just ring and ring.

 

As far as shipping, if I recall, it took about 2-3 weeks for the entire process. Maybe a month. Its at the front of this thread, but yeah, I went in to it knowing it would take a little longer than normal to get it in, but I was surprised that I got it faster than I expected to.

 

I don't think you will be disappointed if you keep the above things in mind. Hope that helps?

Thanks for the help.

I ended up ordering a custom tank over the weekend.

 

I was wondering if you could comment on whatever was used as the black backing on your tank.

What does it appear to be made of? Has it held up? Does it do a good job of keeping light in?

I ordered it on mine and was just curious why it was an extra $30. I could paint it for $5.

 

Thanks in advance.

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Token, that sump is SWEET!!

 

 

 

Thanks for the help.

I ended up ordering a custom tank over the weekend.

 

I was wondering if you could comment on whatever was used as the black backing on your tank.

What does it appear to be made of? Has it held up? Does it do a good job of keeping light in?

I ordered it on mine and was just curious why it was an extra $30. I could paint it for $5.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

No clue on the material, but it sticks really well and definitely not transparent.

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Token, that sump is SWEET!!

 

 

 

 

 

No clue on the material, but it sticks really well and definitely not transparent.

 

Thank you, I love it. It's far beyond my expectations.

 

As far as the material, Asureef is correct. It's not transparent at all and seems to hold up very well. No issues with at all, nor with Cadlights and the aquarium, for that matter.

 

It's coming along nicely. I am trying to figure out something for my lighting as right now I just have the AI SOL on the leg mounts, and I do not want to drill in to my ceiling to put hanger mounts in for the hanging kit.

 

I'm at a loss and probably will just custom make something out of wood to get the job done. I'm just procrastinating because I want it to look good and that takes time. :)

 

The tank itself is doing very well. Dr Tim's One and Only was a great success and my ammonia / nitrites are at 0.

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Thank you, I love it. It's far beyond my expectations.

 

As far as the material, Asureef is correct. It's not transparent at all and seems to hold up very well. No issues with at all, nor with Cadlights and the aquarium, for that matter.

 

It's coming along nicely. I am trying to figure out something for my lighting as right now I just have the AI SOL on the leg mounts, and I do not want to drill in to my ceiling to put hanger mounts in for the hanging kit.

 

I'm at a loss and probably will just custom make something out of wood to get the job done. I'm just procrastinating because I want it to look good and that takes time. :)

 

The tank itself is doing very well. Dr Tim's One and Only was a great success and my ammonia / nitrites are at 0.

Sweet. Thanks for giving me dual POVs.

Looking forward to joining the CAD Lights club.

Keeping up with both your guys projects.

Very nice.

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Looking good. I finally got mine up and running 2 days ago(50g cube 24x24x20). The supplied plumbing leaked like a siv. I ended up doing my own plumbing, which turned out for the best anyway :0

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I'll get some more pics up on Sunday. I got the sump connected and running. It's working great, but I still have a few adjustments to do to it. It's very quiet. The water has become 10x clearer. I mean it's amazing how clear the glass is on the Cadlights - I've heard that it's still has a tint to it, which it does, but it is very very clear.

 

If it wasn't for the reflection I see on it, I'd think I was looking directly in to the water with no glass at all.

 

The sump, as I said earlier, was one of the best investments I have made for the system. No offense to Cadlights, but there is no comparison to the one I got from Elite Aquatics to the one that came with the system. I'm sure they would both accomplish the same thing, and if $$$ is an issue, the Cadlights one serves its purpose.

 

The TIA 1150 skimmer is still breaking in and hasn't started to pull skimmate yet, but I am going to start tuning it over the next few days and see what I get. It's rated for a medium bio-load on a 150 gallon system so it's more than enough for my current setup.

All of the reviews I've been reading give it VERY good ratings. So far I'm inclined to agree.

 

All in all, this is an awesome system and now that its pretty much up and running, you guys should start to see more pictures. :)

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Looking good. I finally got mine up and running 2 days ago(50g cube 24x24x20). The supplied plumbing leaked like a siv. I ended up doing my own plumbing, which turned out for the best anyway :0

SCH80?

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Love this thread... could you post a pic of your new sump with everything set up please?

 

Thank you, I am sorry for neglecting it.

 

I meant to post pictures Sunday, but I have some corals coming in and decided to post pictures at the same time which should be tomorrow.

 

I will get pics of every thing setup and the new corals. Plus, a mini-review of the merchant that I purchased the corals from which is Blue Zoo Aquatics.

 

I am going to be re-doing my plumbing in the next few days to improve the drain side of the tank and to get it to work better with my sump design.

 

I'm also going to be setting up a 8 gallon quarantine tank (tomorrow hopefully) and a second biocube that I have available will be set up as a Mantis shrimp tank. The Mantis tank may have its own thread, but I might just include photos in this one on occasion.

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For some reason, my new SLR is not allowing me to connect via USB. I plug it in and it turns off. I unplug it and it turns back on. So until I figure that out, I won't be able to upload the pictures that I took...

 

In the mean time, here's an update on my order from Blue Zoo Aquatics:

 

The package was shipped yesterday afternoon and arrived this morning at 10am. It was packaged very well inside of a nice box (no liquid had soaked through). Inside was a large bag with smaller bags inside containing the corals. There was an inch of water inside of the larger bag so I was concerned at first.

 

Aside from my umbrella leather, birds nest, and tri-color acropora, everything looked like it had been to hell and back. It looked REALLY bad. I was pretty sure that everything was dead or that I had lost at least some of the corals.

 

I went through the acclimation process, added their seachem dip that they provide, and then added everything to my tanks.

 

I'm thrilled to say that everything has begun to open up and is showing some beautiful colors. The umbrella leather is the best piece out of the bunch, imo, and looks absolutely beautiful in person. I'm very happy with it. The rest of the items look great - definitely compared to how bad they looked when I put them in to the tank.

 

I think the only thing that was lost is one of my green hairy mushrooms.

 

None of the corals were on plugs. Blue Zoo Aquatics just cuts the rock section that the corals were on and ships them that way. I'm not sure if that's normal as this is my first order online.

 

I will try my best to sort out whats going on with my camera and get pictures uploaded so you guys can see the new additions!

 

Thanks guys!

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Looking good. I finally got mine up and running 2 days ago(50g cube 24x24x20). The supplied plumbing leaked like a siv. I ended up doing my own plumbing, which turned out for the best anyway :0

 

Do you have a thread, any link to your tank...???

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Do you have a thread, any link to your tank...???

 

So thanks to Christmas, I have about 500-600 $ to spend. I'm looking at perhaps a water auto top off, a 2nd AI Sol, and I've even been considering switching to T5HO lighting.

 

Any one have any recommendations that I can spend my money on?

 

So far I have the following:

 

1 AI Sol

1 Vortech MP10

Cadlights Cone Skimmer

Elite Aquatics Skimmer

2 Eheim Heaters

 

That's about it for the moment. Let me know what you think my next purchase should be...

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SouthFlorida_Tron

You'd enjoy the easy, and quality touch to the tunze Osmolator, I've learned in this hobby to not skimp on things, I'm loving every penny I spent on my ATO from tunze.

 

Can't wait to see this with a 2nd ai sol but is it nessaccary? Speaking of which, I need to raise mine to help the spread lol

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You'd enjoy the easy, and quality touch to the tunze Osmolator, I've learned in this hobby to not skimp on things, I'm loving every penny I spent on my ATO from tunze.

 

Can't wait to see this with a 2nd ai sol but is it nessaccary? Speaking of which, I need to raise mine to help the spread lol

 

 

Thanks, I'm reading up on that osmolator as we speak. I need to raise my AI Sol as well. The tank is 36 inches long. If I recall, AI recommends 2 units for a tank this long.

 

I think my main thing right now is that I need to raise the lights off the water line. On a good note, my Umbrella leather has been responding better to the lighting and has shed off from its ordeal of being shipped. My Zaos and Whisker Coral are doing very well and seem to be extremely happy in the tank.

 

My mushrooms aren't so happy so I am trying to sort that out right now. I'm just giving them time to see if it improves before moving them around.

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Do you have a thread, any link to your tank...???

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=289540

 

 

So thanks to Christmas, I have about 500-600 $ to spend. I'm looking at perhaps a water auto top off, a 2nd AI Sol, and I've even been considering switching to T5HO lighting.

 

Any one have any recommendations that I can spend my money on?

 

I would invest in a reef controller. I love the apex. All you need is 2 float switches to run an ATO.

 

Tank is looking great btw!

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http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=289540

 

 

 

 

I would invest in a reef controller. I love the apex. All you need is 2 float switches to run an ATO.

 

Tank is look great btw!

 

Thank you, that's a great idea. I will have to look in to it.

Thanks for the compliment too.

 

I finally got the pictures off of my camera. Please remember I have absolutely no skill with DSLRs and am learning. First are the pictures with less blue light from the AI SOL...This is the first day when the corals were put in to the tank. Also please forgive and feel free to correct me if I get the names of the corals wrong.

 

Whisker Coral...one of my favorites.

6581949983_06afe8826c_b.jpg

 

Zaos.

6581958851_fd41103c7e_b.jpg

 

Umbrella Leather (aka Toadstool, no?) It has since been moved to the center of the tank and is loving the additional lighting / flow.

6581994725_c00e51acb8_b.jpg

 

6581995703_ebd994dc3f_b.jpg

 

Now with BLUE LEDs on:

 

Whisker Coral:

6582041023_9da6ab8a16_b.jpg

 

Green Hairy Mushroom?

6581962035_93446f11e3_b.jpg

 

Sold to me as a Super Color Zao. Yes, that's EXACTLY how it looks in the tank with blue LEDs on. The orange is amazing.

6581960373_32002b9010_b.jpg

 

More blue:

6581957857_2f5c4c2aec_b.jpg

 

Tiger-Tail Cucumber finding a place to hide:

6581952661_87820732d3_b.jpg

 

That's all for now. Once I get the lights raised up further and get the room cleaned up, I'll post some pictures of the tank and the sump.

 

Thanks for looking!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's an update:

 

I've just installed the following:

 

Apex Aqua Controller

A 2nd Vortech MP10

A 2nd AI Sol Super Blue LED

 

Livestock that has been added:

1 Finger Leather frag

1 Xenia frag

2 Ricordeas

1 Pajama Cardinal

1 Spotted Mandarin

 

For the Mandarin, I ordered 2 balls of Chaeto and 2 bags of Tisbe copepods from Reefcleaners.org. I put a bunch of rock rubble in the fuge area of my sump, a couple of empty barnacle clusters, and the two balls of chaeto. I am lighting it with a JBJ LED fuge light. I added the two bags of copepods and turned off all the pumps in the tank for about 1 hour.

 

This was allow the copepods time to crawl in to the crevices of the fuge. It was pretty cool actually as I could see them all over the place after a while in the fuge. I then turned the pumps back on and now about two weeks later, I have copepods all over my main DT glass and in the fuge. I can see them crawling all over the chaeto and their numbers are definitely increasing.

 

I occasionally take out the barnacle clusters in the fuge and put them in the main tank so that any copepods that have crawled inside can get out and in to the tank. At this point though, with the amount I see crawling on the glass, I don't think its necessary any more.

 

The Mandarin is fat and healthy. I am keeping an eye on him and the copepod population though to make sure it doesn't crash or get wiped out.

 

I also picked up some new PVC pipe so I can redo and improve the flow to the sump and main tank.

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Awesome.

I'll take an Apex update/review when available.

 

Will do. I am kind of already in love with it, but I will give it some more time and then post up my impression of it.

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Will do. I am kind of already in love with it, but I will give it some more time and then post up my impression of it.

I've been eyeing one.

I'd just like it minus the display.

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I've been eyeing one.

I'd just like it minus the display.

 

Yeah, the display isn't that bad actually. I like it, it's not as bad quality as the reviews make it out to be. However, the web browser version is just much more convenient and works better.

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