Swap is completed! New cadlight8 build.

[pippa]

So I decided I was done with seeing all my equipment and switched to the Cadlight8 AIO. Finished the swap tonight!

 

From this:

 

 

To this!:

 

 

I took a big hit in real estate but the glass is amazing!!! I never knew glass could make such a difference! I'm a little disappointed in the stock pump. I had to block most of it because of the corner divit, and then in turn ended up adding my hydor koralia back in to make up for it. The stock pump has a bit of a rattle to it as well, maybe because it's new? I also purchsed the PLS-50 skimmer for the reduced price. I've actually never ran a skimmer on any of my nano's so this will be a new experience. I'm going away for a few weeks this summer, and I'm hoping it will be a bit of a back up/saftey for my tank keeper.

 

I'm thinking I may pull some of the argonite out over time. It's only an inch throughout but I think it looks a little deep to me. The main rock is ginormous but has a lot of cool crevices. It probabaly was enough to be in there on it's own but I didn't want to toss my gulf live rock. I think I made it work, I know once it's covered it will be cool, plus there's plenty of "shelves" for new additions. All in all I think there is about 16 lbs of rock in there. I ended up taking a hammer to two of the live rock pieces, holy life!! One rock had live mussels right in the middle of it. Pretty amazing to see but kind of glad they are out of my nano.

 

I transfered most of the water from the old tank as well as the rock and a handful of the crushed coral. I'm hoping to get away without another cycle, wish me luck!

[pippa]

Decided to make a slight change to the rockscape and a dog head appeared!

 

I really want a lot of color in this tank, so I'm thinking a variety of zoas and rics. Maybe a chalice or two? I'm still open to ideas.

 

Here's some pictures of my last tank.I don't think I'm going to go with gsp's again as cool as they were, haha.

 

 

 

[pippa]

Another update: turns out there was something misalligned in the pump that was causing the noise. After I took it off and then put it back it was quiet!

[podBoy]

I bet that gsp looked pretty cool in motion! Love how lush that tank looks.

 

Trying to decide if I'm going to want gsp or not myself. Part of me wants cheap easy corals that spread, but the other part doesn't want to deal with them when they spread too much. x)

 

Which par bulb / mount do you have on there?

[robbie_boy]

Tank looks good. I have the 8 gal cadlights as well. I have the skimmer as well but I haven't set it up yet. The skimmer is very touchy to set up.

You can get a lot of colour from zoas,palys and ricordias. And if you like nems rock flowers are full of colour as well.

Good luck

Rob

[Reef Hollister]

I too am curious about your par bulb and mount? Mostly want to know about the mount. I may be in the market for one soon.

[pippa]

Thanks! I haven't set up the skimmer yet either. It's my first time working with one so it'll be interesting. The GSP was such a pain once is spread to the rock, it would grow right over the coral. I loved the look on the back wall and if I got it again this is where I would attempt to isolate it to.

 

Par 38 bulb was ordered from RapidLED - it's the mixed color. I believe I ordered the 80 degree.

 

Mount is from OCReef.com. It wasn't the cheapest option out there but I wanted something clean and classy. As it was the bulb didn't work with the mount when I first got it and they had to send me a different casing to screw on, but it's great now. Coral compulsion offers the fixture as well in white.

[gsechen]

I got a rapidled par38 over my 8g too!