CADlight's 45g Shallow

[ReefGoat]

TANK: 45g Shallow

LIGHTING: 24" Reef Breeders V2+ w/2 Sunblaster T5's (ATI blue+ and ATI coral+)

CONTROLLER: Apex Classic

ATO: Tunze Osmolator 

FRESHWATER CONTAINER: Stock Cadlights 3 gallon

POWERHEAD: Vortech MP-10QD

RETURN PUMP: Reef Octopus VarioS-2

HEATER: (2) Ehiem 100w

SKIMMER: Reef Octopus Classic 110s

SUMP: Stock Cadlights 25 gallons (maybe) 

PLUMBING: Custom by yours truly. Added ball valves, check valve and break out unions. Bulk Reef Supply red pipe with grey and white fittings. 

 

I used 40lb of Billy's Reef Connection dry rock. For the cleaning method I used 1 week in RO/DI and bleach (10 gallons of water to 1 gallon of bleach). After that was 1 week in RO/DI and I added Seachem Prime twice. Then they dried out for 3 days in the sun before adding to tank. The rocks are said to have been "lab tested" and showed just trace amounts of phosphorus in the results so I trusted him and chose to not do muratic acid cure or the 2-3 months in Saltwater with GFO and water changes. Time will tell if I made a mistake or not. The sand bed is 30lbs of dry sand. I used Caribsea flamingo reef which was rinsed for about 1.5 hours until the water ran clear. So as of today the cycling process has been going on for 1 week. It's the usual......Lights off, skimmer off and 2 ppm of Dr. Tim's ammonia once and Dosing of Microbacter7 every day for the first 2 weeks and then wait. You know the drill............ i'll also be ditching the peg legs holding up my light right now. I just haven't bought the galvanized piping to build my own little arms to hang it from. 

 

FUTURE UPGRADES: 

 

Lighting for chaeto in the sump

Salinity Probe and proper Apex module to run it

More flow

 

 

 

 

 

FTS: 11/14/18

 

FTS: 12/22/18

 

[ReefGoat]

[ReefGoat]

Oh yeah and anyone that is looking into buying a Cad lights  tank and thinking of plumbing it themselves and getting rid of the stock stuff. Just beware that the bulk heads are not traditional standard US sizing. It's some weird metric UPVC stuff. No one around here knew what I was talking about. You'd think it came from Mars. I ended up calling BRS and they had these little reducing fittings. Just a heads up to anyone who might encounter it. 

[SeaFurn]

9 minutes ago, ReefGoat said:

Oh yeah and anyone that is looking into buying a Cad lights  tank and thinking of plumbing it themselves and getting rid of the stock stuff. Just beware that the bulk heads are not traditional standard US sizing. It's some weird metric UPVC stuff. No one around here knew what I was talking about. You'd think it came from Mars. I ended up calling BRS and they had these little reducing fittings. Just a heads up to anyone who might encounter it. 

China Mars for sure! I have the same tank and was quite baffled myself. I’m using the stock plumbing for now but thanks for the tip about the fittings. I may change it out at some point. 

 

Tank looks great! Will follow along! 

[ReefGoat]

Yeah it was actually a pain in that *** to figure it out. It took me about a week. I contacted Cad lights first and they tried to sell me a damn compression fitting kit that was like 60 bucks to convert it over. I was like yeah ......... no. Plus the dimensions of the thing were HUGE. So after scouring the internet and making a couple calls around town. I ended up calling BRS and they knew exactly what I needed. 

[ReefGoat]

I wonder how mad Julia is going to be whenever I tell her that the picture behind the reef has to GO. 

[SeaFurn]

Oh...good luck with that. 

[ReefGoat]

On 10/4/2018 at 7:12 PM, SeaFurn said:

Oh...good luck with that. 

We compromised and just raised it about 2 feet higher than it was. 

[ReefGoat]

So it's been close to 2 weeks and I went ahead and did a phosphate check with the Hanna to make sure the dry rocks aren't adding phosphate in large amounts leeching is the term I think. I got a reading of 0.07 it's a little more than I'd like to see but it's still early and I'm hoping it stays or goes down. I can live with .07 I think if that's the worst it'll get.

[ReefGoat]

Today I have finally hit the two week mark. I tested the ammonia before I came to work today and it was at 0. Today was the final day to add the MB7 per the instructions. My plan is to just wait another two weeks and then do a 100% water change. Then monitor it for about a week before adding the first fish. I'm thinking i'll add a pair of clowns first. I'm not sure if i'm just going to go with a standard pair or a designer pair.

[ReefGoat]

Now that the MB7 daily dosing is over per the instructions. I have chosen to go ahead and start my lighting schedule and boot up the protein skimmer. My decision to do this was to just to get my programming down and start dialing things in for the home stretch and also start the break in period of the skimmer. I am glad to report that micro bubbles are not a problem for this skimmer in my tank and it seems to be working flawlessly so far. I also noticed that my PH didn't have as drastic of a nightly drop while now that I've started running the skimmer. I also made a few changes regarding flow and it seems to be much better. I adjusted the position of the MP-10 and am currently running it full blast on reef crest. I also adjusted my return nozzle. I was getting a spot in the tank where there must have been a vortex because everyday I would come home to find a bare spot with no sand. It appears to be fixed now though. I should only have a couple of weeks left in the cycle before I add my pair of clowns. Still reading 0 ammonia. I haven't tested nitrite or nitrate because I don't have a nitrite test. I do have a nitrate test but i'm just going to leave it be for another 2 weeks.

[SeaFurn]

Good update. Yeah, not a big deal to not test nitrite or nitrate right now. 

At what point will you add the T5's?    

I like my regular old pair of clowns....not that some of the designer ones are pretty awesome - just a little too expensive for me. 

 

[ReefGoat]

I'll probably be ordering them sometime around Christmas. That's likely when I'll be getting my first corals. I'll probably start on my Monti collection first as I'm waiting till around months 8-12 to start adding tougher acros. 

 

ADDITION: I think I have pretty much figured out the one source I'll be using for corals. After bouncing back and fourth on a couple of vendors and the pros and cons of each. I am like 95% sure I'll be using Adam from Battle Corals to stock this tank. I've looked around at some people who've bought frags from him and you can see their sizes and his prices are on the website. I think he has the nicest and best sized corals at those prices and it appears that he's pretty trusted by a lot of people in the hobby. The frag packs with free shipping that he calls battle boxes are likely how i'll stock the acros. I'll piece out the montis from him though. I'm really looking forward to the point were the tank is stable and mature enough for that. 

[ReefGoat]

Tested the phosphate again today and its exactly the same 0.07. I'm pretty happy that its not creeping up. Makes me pretty confident that it won't be leeching from these rocks. I guess Billy's Reef Connection wasn't lying. 

[ReefGoat]

[ReefGoat]

So it's week 3 officially in the cycle. The lights and skimmer have been running since the end of week 2. The skimmer seems to be already breaking in. Yesterday I ordered a bottle of Dr. Tim's one and only and I went ahead and ordered the 2 T5 fixtures. I'm going to run ATI purple plus in the front and ATI coral plus in the rear. I bought the Dr. Tims because I figured it wouldn't hurt anything to have two different types of beneficial bacteria (microbacter7 and Dr. Tim's). The plan is to dump the Tim's in this weekend and let it sit until Wednesday of next week. Which will be officially 1 month. At that point I'll do a 30 gallon water change and consider the cycle done. First chance I get to go to Baton Rouge ill go pick up a pair of clowns for the first livestock.

[ReefGoat]

Additionally I will be starting my maintenence schedule of 10 percent weekly water changes and the regular routine maintenance after the one month mark and the 30 gallon water change. I'm starting to get excited

[ReefGoat]

Freshly cleaned and wiped glass! 

[ReefGoat]

So obviously the one MP10 isn't going to be enough flow for the 45 and I'm currently juggling two options right now. Buy another MP10 and just put it on the other side of the tank and run the left side on Pulsing and the right side on Reef Crest (power setting to be determined). Or buy 2 IceCap 1k gyre pumps and put one on each side and put the MP10 on the back wall middle right. The 2 gyres or the 1 MP10 are going to be about the same cost wise. So for me it's just a matter of what will give me best flow pattern in the tank. What do y'all think? 

[ReefGoat]

So I got the T5 supplemental lighting added. Found these sweet brackets at a local hardware store. I think it came out pretty legit. I'm not too sure on how long these fixtures will last but they were pretty affordable so it's worth giving them a try. I'll decide whether or not to move to a more expensive unit if I see positive results once I start stocking coral. I won't even be booting these up for another 6 months probably. 

[FISHnChix]

On 10/18/2018 at 1:46 PM, ReefGoat said:

So obviously the one MP10 isn't going to be enough flow for the 45 and I'm currently juggling two options right now. Buy another MP10 and just put it on the other side of the tank and run the left side on Pulsing and the right side on Reef Crest (power setting to be determined). Or buy 2 IceCap 1k gyre pumps and put one on each side and put the MP10 on the back wall middle right. The 2 gyres or the 1 MP10 are going to be about the same cost wise. So for me it's just a matter of what will give me best flow pattern in the tank. What do y'all think? 

Tank is looking nice!!! You know i am a huge fan of the mp10s but on my new build and got a jeabo 150 . Its a gyre style. Man it moves so much water and controls are super easy and cheap..  loving it

[ReefGoat]

Thanks! I may have to check that out! I'm pretty excited about this build. I learned alot from my failures on the Nuvo10 lol

[SeaFurn]

On 10/18/2018 at 4:46 PM, ReefGoat said:

So obviously the one MP10 isn't going to be enough flow for the 45 and I'm currently juggling two options right now. Buy another MP10 and just put it on the other side of the tank and run the left side on Pulsing and the right side on Reef Crest (power setting to be determined). Or buy 2 IceCap 1k gyre pumps and put one on each side and put the MP10 on the back wall middle right. The 2 gyres or the 1 MP10 are going to be about the same cost wise. So for me it's just a matter of what will give me best flow pattern in the tank. What do y'all think? 

I like your 2 gyres / MP10 (on the back wall) plan. Offset facing gyres would really get the water moving across that 3 foot tank. 

[ReefGoat]

16 hours ago, Weikel said:

Tank is looking nice!!! You know i am a huge fan of the mp10s but on my new build and got a jeabo 150 . Its a gyre style. Man it moves so much water and controls are super easy and cheap..  loving it

 

15 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

I like your 2 gyres / MP10 (on the back wall) plan. Offset facing gyres would really get the water moving across that 3 foot tank. 

It's settled. I think I'm going to go with the two gyres. After watching a bunch of videos on the power of these things. I've decided to go with two Jecod CP-25 crossflows. It looks like they are going to give me all the flow i'll need along with having the MP-10 on reef crest 100% on the back wall. Plus they're only 68 bucks. That made me very happy lol. 

[Kellie in CA]

If my living situation was different, I'd be all over this tank.  The dimensions are awesome! Cadlights is actually located just a few miles from me.

 

I can't wait to see what you do with it!