ScubaPooch's CADLights 18g Build

[ScubaPooch]

Equipment:

Tank

·         CAD Lights 18-gallon Mini (AIO cube, 16” x 16” x 17”)

·         Stock glass top with acrylic lid clips modded with airline tubing

Control

·         Reef Keeper Lite – Temperature Probe

·         Tunze Osmolator 3155 ATO

·         Eheim Jager 50W Heater

Filtration

·         Filter Floss

·         Seachem Matrix Carbon

·         Rowa Phos

·         Tunze 9001 Skimmer

Lighting

·         Maxspect R420R Razor Nano (I have an AI Prime, not sure which is better)

Flow

·         Stock 28J Pump

·         Hydor Koralia Nano 425 Powerhead

Landscaping

·         Dry rock

·         Live rock

·         PVC pipe

·         Super Glue

·         Reef epoxy putty

·         Carib Sea Argonite

Water Chemistry

·         Salt: H2Ocean Pro Formula

·         Calcium: Tropic Marine Bio-Calcium

·         Salinity: 1.025

·         Nitrate: less than 10ppm

·         Calcium: 420

·         Alkalinity: 7.7

Livestock:

Fish

·         2 Helmeted Gladiator Clown Fish

·         1 Yellow Watchman Goby

Invertebrates

·         1 Blood Red Fire Shrimp

·         1 Randall Pistol Shrimp

·         1 Tuxedo Urchin

·         6 Blue Legged Hermit Crabs

·         1 Red legged hermit crab

·         2 Turbo Snails

·         1 Vermetid Snail (just realized these can be harmful)

Coral

LPS

·         Elegance

·         Cady Cane

·         Frogspawn

·         Hammer

·         Acan Lord

·         Acan Enchinata

Softies

·         Pulsing Xenia

·         Red Mushroom

·         Green/blue Mushroom

·         Ricordia Yuma

·         Ricodea Florida

·         Zoanthids – Watermellow, eagle eye, _____, radioactive

·         Green star polyp

·         Clove polyp

·         Button Polyps / Palys

·         Green Finger Leather

Non-Photosynthetic

·         Sun Coral

 

 

 

[ScubaPooch]

 

History:

The tank was started as a need to combine an 18 CADlights (girlfriend's) reef with an 8 gal CADlights ree (mine).

 

Picture of 8g CAD reef that I already owned

[ScubaPooch]

The Move:

The tank was started as a need to combine an 18 CADlights reef with an 8 gal CADlights reef. My girlfriend had graciously given me her reef. I planned what I needed in order to move her her tank:

• buckets
• heaters
• air pump and stone
• saltwater premixed
• case of beer
• 12 hours

First I used an old stand that I had for a 55 gallon fluval aquarium. I cut a hole on one side to allow for cable routing and access. I prepped the stand and location for the tanks arrival.

 

I put my ATO reservoir on the left shelf where I drilled the hole. My reservoir is a RODI jug that has a tap on it. This allows me to easily fill up a glass of RODI for various purposes or to use RODI water to clean salt creep.

 

 

 

I then mixed 4 jugs of RODI and H2Ocean salt because I knew I'd need a lot of extra salt water during the move. I planned on reusing a fair amount of the existing tank water though.

 

 

 

Then I disassembled her tank, putting her 2 clown fish, urchin, invertebrates and coral into 1 bucket with a heater and air stone. And all the live rock in another. The drive was long and precarious and being forced to slam the brakes at one point was not enjoyable for us or the fish!

 

 

I set the fish and coral up in their bucket with a heater and air stone with a bit of live rock and a thermometer. That way I was in no rush to set up the tank. 

 

 

My girlfriends rockscape was not very thrilling (I created it, so she won't be offended). So I spent a fair amount of time creating a rockscape I envisioned. It ended up looking fantastic in my opinion. I really needed the height in such a tall tank. I used PVC legs to hold the rock off the glass. I ended up replacing these with taller legs later, which was a nightmare. I also planned on going bare bottom, which changed later on.

 

 

 

Filling the tank

 

 

Added the fish... Bertha and Marvin!

 

 

At the end of the first day in the tank's new home.

 

I will post some progress shots...

 

[ScubaPooch]

 

This is when I bought my elegance coral and decided to put in a sand bed.

 

 

Soon will be a full update on where the tank currently is. Approximately 8 months after this pic was taken...

[dpoltsdsu]

That's awesome! How are you liking the skimmer?

[vlangel]

I guess we can expect some big changes?  Looking forward to updated pics!

[ScubaPooch]

On 23/03/2017 at 1:47 AM, dpoltsdsu said:

That's awesome! How are you liking the skimmer?

Lovin the 9001, only had it running for about 2 weeks now, but it was pulling good skimate (for a nano skimmer) within a day. My gripe is that i had to mount the skimmer sideways with both magnets submerged. This allowed the skimmer to slide down half an inch every day. I had to put another sets of tunze magnets below the skimmer for it to rest on.

 

I figure it was designed to have one magnet out of the water for more friction. I did clean and scrub the back chamber glass and that didn't work.

 

The skimmate is dark and disgusting though which is great!

 

Also I wish I could mount it higher. Maybe someone has a similar build and can suggest a better mounting option?

 

[ScubaPooch]

On 23/03/2017 at 4:33 PM, vlangel said:

I guess we can expect some big changes?  Looking forward to updated pics!

Some big changes , both good and bad. The usual trials and tribulations that make reef keeping so challenging but worthwhile. I'll be posting soon!

 

 

[ScubaPooch]

Post was delayed after a few problems. My return pump died during a water change. It’s the stock pump and I’m not sure if it died because water has to backflow through it to balance out the water level in the display and the back, or because it is clogged, or just dead. Luckily I have another identical pump, but it was still PITA to replace due to my rock work and other equipment. I also did not leave a lot of room behind my tank so getting cords in the back can be brutally tough. I also had a massive hair alae problem develop. I did a 60% WC and used a toothbrush and manual removal to get rid of as much as possible.

 

And then my rockscape collapsed after I gave it a good wack by accident. Man do I hate gluing and epoxying. Took way to long and had to be careful not to damage any corals or hurt any inhabitants.

 

Other than that the tank has been running well, had a few hiccups with algae blooms during a few vacations. I lost a big white watchman goby that found its way out a small opening on the front of the CADlights glass top. I now make sure I cover it with the lid clips I have.

 

The CADlights lid clips are pretty fragile and broke so I replaced them with thick acrylic clips I bought off amazon. They sit pretty deep so I put a piece of airline tubing in the groove so they sit higher on the rim of the tank. This keeps my glass top out of the water!

 

 

I also lost my pistol shrimp mysteriously. I’ve since added a yellow watchman goby and a Randall shrimp.

 

I run a reefkeeper lite to basicly act as a heater failsafe. I also use it to turn off pumps for feeding or water changes. Problem is there are only 4 outlets and 2 and 3 stay on for almost all of my equipment. My powerhead, tunze 9001 skimmer, and return pump all stay on when the plug is off. And my ATO plug is large so it can only fit in outlet 4. Therefore, I really can accomplish what I want with the controller. Maybe I could plug multiples into outlets 1 and 4?

 

Here is my ATO and controller mounted:

 

 

My water changes involve H2Ocean salt premixed in a 5-gallon bucket for at least a day. I do not match parameters except for salinity. The circulation pump usually brings the mix to within 2 degrees of variance of my tank temp (which is 78.8 to 79.6).  I use a turkey baster to blow off my rocks, I use a plastic card to scrape my glass, and I pull any bubble or hair algae I see out. I then use a small gravel vacuum to siphon out the floating bits, and I gravel vac my shallow sand bed (my sand is close to ½ an inch in depth). I then basically just dump in my new 3 to 5 gallons of water (I don’t always use the whole bucket). I change my filter floss and every few w/cs I change my carbon and rowaphos.

 

I’m now experimenting with a 5-gallon bucket under the stand to hold the saltwater with a permanent pump rigged up with hose leading to the back of the tank. It’s working decently with a maxijet 600 and some random fluval rigid hosing but I think I need a much longer hose to be more practical.

 

Other maintenance includes using a 2 littlefishies nano mag glass cleaner to clean the glass, it gets in the curvy corners well. Although I’m thinking of switching to another mag cleaner. And changing filter floss daily. Currently I need to get better at testing my water parameters more regularly. I also dose a pinch of bio calcium daily. I have a fair amount of LPS and a very large elegance so I believe I should be putting more calc and alk in the tank then I currently am.

 

Feeding is daily, I rotate between frozen mysis (target fed), frozen brine (target fed), Reef Roids (broadcast), Hikari marine pellets, NLS growth pellets, NLS Thera A, NLS marine. My male clownfish has trouble finding food and eating, it’s a constant battle to get him as well fed as the female. He also has swim bladder issues that can be affected by just eating a single pellet. He’s always floating or sinking every other day but he seems happy and healthy otherwise, although he’s a bit on the skinny side.

 

My corals right now are a mix of soft and LPS. I’ve placed all the corals that have the potential to take over my tank at the top. My zoas colonies have grown dramatically, my pulsing xenia are doing well up there, and my red mushrooms look gorgeous. I also have some green/blue shrooms up there and a small green leather finger frag at the back of the rock formation that isn’t visible front the front viex.

On the base rock I have a green/purple rics and an orange ric. I have a red acan that’s a bit shaded, I struggle to keep the hair algea away from this coral (always seems to get all over it). I have a frogspawn and hammer coral on the left that are touching but seems to be doing well. My first coral, a green candy cane, that had gone from a few heads to like 11 suddenly came down with brown jelly, I tried to save it as is, but resorted to fragging it, I currently have 5 heads left, between 3 frags, making a rebound (fingers crossed. I have an orange/green enchinada at the front of the rock that’s doing alright. It hasn’t had the best placement to start its life so I’m hoping that having it here with lots of light will help it get more growth. I have some gsp that grows on a large shell in the front right that I keep isolated. I was originally going to have it grow along the bottom and keep my tank bare bottom but then I wanted a goby. I have some random palys and cloves on a rock that changes places a lot.

 

I recently acquired a sun coral, a large piece, about the size of my hand. I stuck it on the rock in a shaded spot… and it was way to difficult to feed, and my blood shrimp (Beans) constantly harassed it. I can’t do the bottle trick either because of my aquascape and trouble fitting it. So I decided to leave it on the sand bed or prop it on the back wall. I’ve been taking it out and feeding it in a Tupperware container every 3 nights. I feed it brine/mysis/oyster-eggs mixed with reef roids. Seems to be working, and I’ll be planning on doing this during water changes. It’s great that I can totally blast it with food and not worry about fouling my water.

 

 

My favourite coral is my elegance coral. It has a beautiful red and green polyp with purple tips. It is definitely a little oversized for the tank but it’s beautiful. The elegance has recently had a small section of it’s polyps not extending, I’m not sure why, but in the past it has done some strange behavior and then returned to normal. I think it is less of a fan of the tank flow now, as it opens more when I turn the powerhead off (koralia 425). Have not found a better placement yet though, and with it off I get some cyano. Also Marvin the male clownfish has been starting to host it, wrapping himself in it like a blanket.

 

Although problems with these nano reefs can arise quickly, my favourite thing is how easy it is to correct them. Hair algae and bubble algae are easy to remove. Parameters are easy to changes and big water changes are easy to accomplish. Of course you don’t want to do anything to drastic to shock the system, but it’s nice being able to solve problems with easy solutions. The other thing I love is how easy it is to fill the aquarium. There’s nothing better than a beautiful, overgrown, filled up reef aquarium and I’m just planning on letting my corals just grow and take over.

 

I’ve been a long time lurker on this website, and I’ve ran 2 previously successful (but not that beautiful) reef tanks because of info I’ve found here. I love reading through builds threads and I hope this long post out of nowhere provided those who read it with a big serving of reef keeping satisfaction. Also, I rarely see CADlight 18 gallon builds, so I’m happy to add something that was lacking.

 

Sum up current questions and situations to remedy:

Replace maxspect razer with AI prime? I have an AI prime (fan died as the warranty ended , I love the light but was disappointed with the fan issues). I’d have to order a new fan and fix it. Also height of the light.

 

Dosing? Currently dose TM bio cal. Obviously I need to check my params. I guess adding kalk to my ATO reservoir is an option?

 

Coral Placement? If you notice something that looks problematic or something that could look cool, I’d love for you to point it out.

 

I’d love any suggestion you all might have on coral placement, maintenance habits, light placement and selection, dosing for alk and calc, and how I could remedy my low flow situation. Thanks for reading if you managed to conquer this long post!

 

Cheers!

[ScubaPooch]

 

 

 

[ScubaPooch]

The effect of having black on black:

 

[ScubaPooch]

I created a diagram of the rear chamber of the CAD 18g. This would be the view if you stood behind the tank. I'd like to either add some chaeto or maybe add an algae scrubber somewhere... maybe make a small one where the grate overflow is. The problem I always have is the lighting for the algae. Also you can see how the Tunze skimmer needed extra magnets to hold it up.

 

[ScubaPooch]

I've cut out my overflow grate using a dremel. Surface skimming is on point.

 

I lowered the water level then used a plastic container and filter floss to catch the bits as I cut it out.

 

I was concerned a fish would go over and land on my filter floss so I've put some gutter guard in. 

 

Because of this my water level has dropped and doesn't rise when a snaill or piece of debris hits the overflow, causeing my ATO and skimmer to go out of wack. I've also taken the nozzle off my return pump which has allowed it to have increased GPH without potentially overflowing the tank.

 

 

 

[ScubaPooch]