Back at it again

esshoes

esshoes

New member
I recently purchased a cadlights 12 gallon led tank to transfer the contents of my 8 gallon biocube into. My biocube had been going well until a coral died and wiped out the tank about a year ago. Well, I basically neglected the tank for a while after that but a few months ago I decided to revive it. I made sure my parameters were all good and added a clam and some frags back into the system.

But I wanted the fresh start to take place in a new tank, so I ordered the cadlights and it came in very well-packed. I used black aragonite live sand and most of the live rock from my biocube. After a leak test I filled the tank up and turned everything on. All is well so far, although its only been a couple days, and the led light setup seems to give an impressive amount of light. The stock pump is also moving a pretty decent amount of water.

I bought an aquaticlife 115 skimmer which just barely fits in the middle chamber. I also added purigen and chemi-pure elite and will be picking up some activated carbon after work today. I will also move my koralia nano into the 12 gallon once params are stable and I can see if the clam responds well to the lighting in the new tank. I'm hoping the clam can do well with the led lighting, or I will have to either get rid of it or put my mh light on the new tank (which I don't want to do because I love the clean look of the cadlights).

Im very excited to move everything into the new tank and hopefully everything will do well in it. I will keep the thread updated as I remember to, with hopefully all good updates! Ha

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I tried to do a minimalist rock scape to leave room for things I may want to leave on the sandbed

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actinic lighting looks really nice. The only thing I don't like about the lighting is that the channels for white and blue lighting are not independent. I may have to try and wire them independently.

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Starfire ric and blasto wellsi frag ready to go into the new tank once I know params are stable. Thanks Bob for holding them for me while I was away!

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The clam I got for free with the purchase of some frags from mrcoral.com!

Thanks for looking
 
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Very cool. Cant wait to check it out once the transfer is complete and everything is all set. No worries on holding those corals for you. Thanks for jumping in on that small local group buy, it was nice to get enough orders to get the free shipping.
 
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So far, so good with the CadLights tank. After verifying my own water tests with a test by the local fish store, I began moving the livestock from my Biocube. I also got two nano clowns, 5 nasserius snails, and after Christmas, a nice Acan frag of three different colored Acans with a gift card the lady got me for Christmas, and just picked up some Captain America palys from icycoral. The clam seems to be doing quite well under the led lighting, which I'm excited about.

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nice setup. as blown away as i am by huge tanks, its often the small simple ones that i appreciate the most. less cluttered. few nice show pieces that you can appreciate. although maybe its just the add kicking in with the big tanks and i cant focus!
 
I agree. My dream tank is a shallow rimless, about 30 gallons, with a couple islands and an open scape. But this will work for a while ha. I do love big tanks too, but there's just something about a small, simple scape like You said
 
Little update while i wait for this damn game to start...

I had to get rid of the clam because the stock led lighting was not enough light for it. I should have put my old 80w metal halide over it sooner, but I did that this week. Everything seems to be happier.

I have a reef keeper lite on the way, with everything i need for auto top off and light control. I will be building an led from rapidled.com to keep the heat down vs. the metal halide.

Anyhow, here are a couple pics with the metal halide over it.

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Full tank shot.

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Blastos doing well

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New rastas next to captain americas and acans. Don't mind the algae, it was just before I cleaned the sandbed and did a water change.

I will update again after I set up the RKL, and get my new lights set up. I'm excited to automate a lot of the things I've been doing manually. I think it will be worth it when it's all said and done, even though my wallet is a little upset with me.


Oh, and go Patriots.
 
I think you'll love the tank , i've had the same tank running for about 8 months now. I think you'd be better off without the skimmer , just stick to weekly water changes. Just my opinion though. Looks Great!
 
Thanks, Almost game time!

Thanks, I still do weekly water changes to be safe. What do you keep in your tank? I was quite disappointed when the clam was starting to go downhill. Do you find it powerful enough for What you're keeping?
 
esshoes said:
Thanks, Almost game time!

Thanks, I still do weekly water changes to be safe. What do you keep in your tank? I was quite disappointed when the clam was starting to go downhill. Do you find it powerful enough for What you're keeping?
Click to expand...

I keep mostly lps and softies , one birdsnest but it's high in the tank. I run 2 boostled par30 lamps over mine and everything responds very well. For filtration I use filter floss and chempure in chamber 1 and mangroves in chamber 2.
 
Nice, I'm guessing those two par30's are much more powerful than the stock lights.


I have carbon, chemipure elite, and seachem purigen in chamber 1, the skimmer in chamber 2, and the return pump and heater in chamber 3. Could be a bit overkill but it's worked so far.

I ordered my light components today, so hopefully everything will be in for the weekend
 
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Will do. I almost did two par38's. But with the rkl ill be able to time and dim them , got moonlights, etc... we shall see
 
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