Stussi's 8g CADLights Tank

[Stussi613]

Current FTS - October 21st, 2013

 

I started my journey into salt over the last two weeks by getting my 8g starfire CADLights tank going. Just water and aragonite sand in it to start...trying to stabilize temperature and salinity before adding cured rock. I got a small 50w heater for this tank, but as far as I can tell it hasn't turned on once and the tank temp is hovering near 79.5. I haven't had the AC on the last few days, but I'm thinking I may need to keep the temp in the house closer to 77 to keep the tank in the 78 range.

 

I've also been trying to get the hang of how much salt to add. I'm using reef crystals and nearly overflowed the tank when I started adding salt.

 

I don't think anything can prepare a newbie for how much salt it actually takes to get the salinity to 1.025!!

 

Equipment:

CADLights 8g AIO Tank

Stock Lights

Hydor 50w Heater

ReefKeeper Light

Salinity: 1.025

 

Added water and crushed coral aragonite a week ago:

 

Made some more progress on the tank today. A member of my local aquarium community offered to get me started with some live rock and a bit of live sand to help get things going. After spending some time chatting and drooling over his tank I headed home to get the rock in my tank. I'm going to need to pick up one carefully selected piece of base rock to add some height on the left side, but I'm so happy with the coraline on the pieces I put in and I think they fill in the bottom pretty well. I'm going to add some food in every few days to hopefully keep all the live stuff alive.

 

Here's the rock as soon as I added it:

 

You may have noticed a hitchhiker in the first picture, I noticed him when I was putting the rock in and he tried to pinch my finger. I wasn't going to add any cuc until I saw zero ammonia and some nitrates, but he came with the rock from a sump on a very healthy system so I'll leave him be.

 

I also noticed some brittle stars and a very small star of another kind! So cool.

 

Not sure if I should worry about this??

 

So Coraline-ey!

 

Some little things already opening up:

 

I can see why people get hooked so hard and fast on saltwater. Apparently I have a cichlid tank in my house too, but I've been glued in front of this one for hours

[spartan1391]

very cool, whats your plans on stocking it?

[Stussi613]

very cool, whats your plans on stocking it?

 

I'm going to go mostly with Zoe's, hammers, mushrooms and torches and maybe a single monti higher up for corals and I'm really on the fence about fish. The total water volume in the tank is not much more than 6g. Everybody says a single clown would be okay in this tank, but I'm not convinced. I'll probably put a yasha goby/shrimp pair in it and maybe think of another small fish.

[spartan1391]

Yeah I'm also debating about the clown. I want to wait at least till I'm set on moving stuff for awhile. It's hard to keep my hands out of the tank lol

[justin carnecchia]

You probably know, and were just doing it to fill the tank, but don't mix the water in the tank.

Looking good so far, not a bad idea getting the scape set before you stock it. A goby would be a good choice for an 8g.

[Stussi613]

You probably know, and were just doing it to fill the tank, but don't mix the water in the tank.

Looking good so far, not a bad idea getting the scape set before you stock it. A goby would be a good choice for an 8g.

 

Hey Justin, you're correct, I only mixed the salt in the tank because I was setting it up. I picked up a 5g bucket, small heater and power head a few days ago to set up a mixing station.

 

My biggest issue right now is top off. I see why everyone gets an ATO for these tanks now, I'm adding a bit of water every other day to keep from getting micro bubbles. I'm not sure if I need to turn the flow on the return pump down, the water level in the back is very low and the display area is nearly overflowing when I top off enough to stop the pump from sucking air. I'm pretty sure the pump had an adjustment on it, I'll have to take it out and check it tomorrow.

[defender.TX]

Hey Justin, you're correct, I only mixed the salt in the tank because I was setting it up. I picked up a 5g bucket, small heater and power head a few days ago to set up a mixing station. My biggest issue right now is top off. I see why everyone gets an ATO for these tanks now, I'm adding a bit of water every other day to keep from getting micro bubbles. I'm not sure if I need to turn the flow on the return pump down, the water level in the back is very low and the display area is nearly overflowing when I top off enough to stop the pump from sucking air. I'm pretty sure the pump had an adjustment on it, I'll have to take it out and check it tomorrow.

 

This is by design. The idea is that the water level in the display tank should remain constant while the return pump is on. Unfortunately, it also means that as the water level of the total system drops the sump will see the most dramatic drop in water level. That's why people put their ATO floats in the sump - my sump level drops an inch and a half for every liter of water evaporated. I assume this means that the float switch will be triggered with even 1/4 liter evaporation so it keeps the salinity extremely stable.

 

Don't turn your return pump down - you need the flow. You just need to get an auto top off. I'm with you, I have to top off a liter every single day on my 24 gallon system. Can't wait to get my RKL!

[spartan1391]

Also if you have a drop from one chamber to the next you could be getting air bubbles this way ( it will look like a waterfall). That's what was napping to me and once I got my ato they stopped. Also my salinity is in check now too.

[justin carnecchia]

The micro bubbles as you describe it sound more like the return pump is sucking air, I would add more water. It shouldn't effect the level in the display.

Open tanks definitely lose water, I check my 29g 2-4 times a day to keep it stable, and add as much as a half gallon. If you have the money definitely get an ato, it is high on my list of purchases...right after the purple tipped acro at my lfs.

Has the tank cycled yet? Lets see some fish in there! It's a beautiful tank I'm curious to see what the stock lighting can do.

[Stussi613]

The micro bubbles as you describe it sound more like the return pump is sucking air, I would add more water. It shouldn't effect the level in the display.

Definitely the return sucking air. If I put too much water in the back chamber with the pump running it will overflow the front chamber...learned that the hard way. The water level goes down to the base of the pump and stays there. That's why I was thinking I needed to reduce the flow.

 

I wish there were more CADLights 8g owners with the same style tank on here...

 

Open tanks definitely lose water, I check my 29g 2-4 times a day to keep it stable, and add as much as a half gallon. If you have the money definitely get an ato, it is high on my list of purchases...right after the purple tipped acro at my lfs.

I've got the glass tops on my tank because I've got two Bengal cats who get in the shower with you if you don't close the bathroom door...very little area is open. I imagine I'd have to add water a few times a day if it was open. I'm going to go get a Tunze ATO tomorrow.

 

Has the tank cycled yet? Lets see some fish in there! It's a beautiful tank I'm curious to see what the stock lighting can do.

Showing a bit of Nitrate on the Salifert test, but definitely less than 2ppm. Not even close to ready for fish yet

[defender.TX]

Definitely the return sucking air. If I put too much water in the back chamber with the pump running it will overflow the front chamber...learned that the hard way. The water level goes down to the base of the pump and stays there. That's why I was thinking I needed to reduce the flow.

 

Can you take a picture? The chamber with the pump is always going to be the lowest chamber but it shouldn't be THAT much lower. It might overflow the display because of how you have the flow angled - if you have the flow angled right at the glass and the display is on the high side it will flow up and over the tank.

[Stussi613]

Here's a pic of the back chambers, using an iPad so it's kinda hard to see. The water level in the middle chamber is right at the height of the baffle from the first chamber, the water in the third chamber is right at the bottom of the pump.

 

 

I'm using the Hydor Flo on the return pump. I couldn't get it to connect directly on the return pump, so I used an adapter to connect it. Sticks out pretty far, I'm thinking about taking it off, but then it will just hit the front glass and I already have issues with the aragonite being pushed back from the corner. Any other suggestions?

 

[Stussi613]

Nitrates were at 5ppm tonight and I saw some bristle worms (the good kind) moving around the tank so I'm going to add a cuc tomorrow.

 

Planning to add the following to the existing hermit crab and nassarius snail that came in the LR I got.

 

1 - Cleaner Shrimp

1 or 2 - Nerite Snail

1 or 2 - Cerith Snail

 

I'm also going to switch the hermit out for a couple of Emerald crabs later, but I'll hold off on them until the tank has been running a little longer.

 

Thoughts?

[Stussi613]

Well I ended up with 5 nerite snails and 1 cerith since the store I went to was running low on CUC. Didn't have any cleaner shrimp so I'll have to wait until later in the week.

 

In a pleasant turn of events my wife actually told me to buy a $90 dollar rock covered in a few different kinds of zoos...first time she's ever encouraged me to spend money in the fish store! I still think its too early for corals so I held off on it. Complete roll reversal, which I have to say is a nice change.

[defender.TX]

Those snails should be great. Believe it or not my favorite snail is a Mexican Turbo because he even cleans my powerhead and return nozzles!

[Stussi613]

Those snails should be great. Believe it or not my favorite snail is a Mexican Turbo because he even cleans my powerhead and return nozzles!

 

Oh I wanted one of them some kinda bad, but they get a bit big for 8g tanks and can be bulldozers that start coral wars in small tanks from what I have read.

[Stussi613]

Went and picked up a cleaner shrimp today and got a nice little surprise. I took my 14 year old daughter with me and we were looking at all the fish in all the tanks when I spotted something yellow tucked near the bottom of a rock out of the corner of my eye. When the guy finished catching and bagging the shrimp he came over and I asked him if it was a zoa because I hadn't seen one that color in person before. He confirmed it and said it was a variant they hadn't had in for a few months. Even though I was trying to resist the temptation to go slow and only add the shrimp I asked how much it was and he reached in and grabbed it. Realizing it wasn't attached to anything he shrugged and said "it's on special today, buy a cleaner shrimp and get a loose zoa for free".

 

Since it was free and I wasn't sure if I'd see it again I took it and brought it home.

 

Score!!

 

I'm going to grab a rock tomorrow and use some tule (stuff they make wedding veils from) to try to attach it to the center, then get some other Zoa's to try to get a garden rock going. It opened within 10 minutes of being put into the tank after acclimating it and the cleaner shrimp.

 

Here's a quick pic of it from my iPad.

 

 

One other thing I'm happy about is confirmation that colors pop under the stock CADLights fixture. I was going to add an EcoPico 453nm strip to the fixture, but looks like I don't need to, unless I want to do a two stage ramp on my lights down the road...which is still a strong possibility.

[Nano sapiens]

Oh I wanted one of them some kinda bad, but they get a bit big for 8g tanks and can be bulldozers that start coral wars in small tanks from what I have read.

 

Yeah, way too big for a 8g (or even my 12g). Stomatellas are a great size, cool if you can find some and keep them from sliding into the back chambers.

[defender.TX]

I love Zoas! As soon as my quarantine is setup I'm going to be ordering a few different Vice Zoas from Aquascapers to get my Zoa garden started. It's tough to tell because the white balance on iPhones and iPads is terrible, but could those be Blue Hornets?

[Stussi613]

Yellow outer "leaves" with green inside and a yellow mouth, no clue what type it is by name though!

[Stussi613]

Here are a few pics I took yesterday with a macro lens, better picture of the Zoa, which I totally love. I moved it onto a small bit of rubble in that corner this morning and it's "righted" itself so all the polyps are on top instead of being a cube like it is in the attached pic...I wouldn't be surprised if it's hooked on by tomorrow.

 

Cleaner close up:

 

Zoa:

[/url]

[spartan1391]

Great photos!

 

Keep em coming!

[defender.TX]

Man those Zoas look awesome.

[Stussi613]

Went to see a friend who sells frags last night and he hooked me up with some great pieces that I couldn't be happier with. Tank is super stable, but I need to figure out a media basket system so I can switch to filter floss instead of the stock sponge...that way I can change it out every couple of days and keep the water polished.

 

Here's some pics of the new corals. As usual, the Zoos are my favourite, even though the pic isn't as clear as I'd like

 

 

 

 

 

 

[defender.TX]

Is the second to the last photo of Trumpets? I've been thinking about picking up a frag of those myself.